While reflecting upon my last seven weeks, I realize that my basic knowledge of 21st century students and how to incorporate technology into my classroom has grown to a new level. I felt coming into this class that I did a relatively good job with the technology that I am fortunate to have in my classroom. Now I do not have those same thoughts. I became aware that I am one of many that falls into the category of old wine in a new bottle. Even though I use technology, I do not use it in a manner that allows today student to be more proactive with their own learning.
I know that my biggest flaw is having my class structured in a very teacher centered way. Giving up the reigns in my room to allow a more learner centered classroom is going to be struggle but I know that it has to be done. Unfortunately, I fear this move due to state testing and the emphasize that is put into them. To help overcome this fear, I am going to start trying to plan my lessons with 21st century skills in mind. I believe this will help with critical thinking and problem solving that are so crucial for our students.
My other goal is to use more technology in new and more 21st century ways. This class has helped me tremendously with coming up with new ideas. I believe that the use of blogs, wikis, and podcasts are tools that I could incorporate immediately into my teaching. I am actually working on a blog site similar to the one that we use at Walden University. I believe that this could give students another resource when needed. I already use some websites such as Study Island to help reinforce topics that have been taught. I am also working with our tech person at school to try and get more ideas that I could possibly use for next year.
I still believe that there is a place for good old fashion teaching and making students pay attention and holding them accountable. I also believe that group work and to much technology can be harmful and limiting to our students. However, we are in a new world of teaching and that world uses technology. My job is to figure out how my students learn best and I believe that to do this we must merge the old with the new.
The checklist from week 1 has not changed much. I feel that I still need to work harder on adding more technology into my plans. I also feel that I am still unsure about how to do this on a daily basis. This class has given me some great ideas, however, and more confidence in trying to go above and beyond outside the box.
I hope that by using more technology in my classroom that my students will begin to take that next step in their learning. Maybe by allowing them to take more part in how they are to learn a standard they will take more pride and responsibility in their work.
