ET 449 Reflection Blog 4

Teaching Future Teachers

Okay, woah. Now this is crazy. I just got home from presenting my LAST final-presentation for my STEP courses in my college educational career! Hooray! After 4 years of higher education, it's those little moments that really take the cake for me. This presentation includes a lot of reflection on how one has grown as a teacher over the course of the semester alongside using visuals or artifacts to showcase that progress. For my presentation, I used the lesson plans from the days I actually taught class at my host school. Both lesson plans that I shared INCLUDED TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION! Not only that, but there were multiple hands raised at the end of my presentation asking how I created a Google Trek, how I managed the students during the activities, and ways in which they could steal or modify my activities for their own classrooms! I was not expecting that in the least! Normally we are all bored stiff during STEP final presentations, but having that many engaged future educators willing to ask such exciting and progressive questions? Wow! Just wow! My heart was as light as a feather I was so proud to have introduced so many future teachers to such amazing methods of integrating technology in ways that are truly beneficial for the students. 

My overall educational technology experience has been very eye opening. I began the course very skeptical and closed off. I was scared! I am still not very confident with my use of technology; it takes me a bit longer to figure things out online as most of my peers, and my students can always beat me to the punch when it comes to finding the best "app for that." After spending the time and staying motivated to succeed in the course alongside the dedication to applying the technology to my actual classroom, I have seen the light of technology integration! It not only provides a doorway into preparing students with the 21st century skills they need to succeed in the real world, but they also receive the content in a new, creative, and engaging way. If it isn't coming straight from the book, the students are into it - even as early as 7th grade. Discouraging, yes, but it provides an open doorway for teachers to create new and amazing activities and products for the students to learn and enjoy the content in interactive and exciting new ways! Teaching on your feet? No, I prefer learning on my feet! 

ET 449 Reflection Blog 3

Let's Talk Confidence

After such a successful lesson with integrating new technology into an actual classroom and seeing the tangible results of technology-based-learning activities, I have definitely become more open minded to using technology in the classroom. Seeing the Google Trek succeed so tremendously gave me the confidence to continue applying all of my Educational Technology assignments to the Anne Frank unit in the hope that I could use technology with my students. Unfortunately, the only other Ed Tech integration I've been able to drag in was a quick glance at my Anne Frank modern-day-interpretation of a cartoon. It included a young girl looking at a computer screen screaming about how no one would want to read the ramblings of a 13-year-old's on a blog. 

Hey, my students thought it was hilarious! 

From this point on, I've still been working hard to stretch the Educational Technology assignments to fit the unit in which my current students are studying, and some of the assignments just were not beneficial to integrate into the classroom. It is still beneficial for me to see how I can manipulate the technology aspect of lessons to fit the different units and contents in which I might be teaching. The practice is priceless. Not to mention the practice leading to this heightened confidence for integrating the technology into my student teaching experience! What an exciting concept! 

ET 449 Reflection Blog 2

Successful Integration of Technology

Wow! I cannot believe the successful engagement and heightened motivation of my 7th grade Literature and Composition students have when I mention using technology during lessons! It changes the entire environment of the room! For my Educational Technology course, we were required to create a Google Trek. I have done my best to turn around every assignment in this particular class to apply to the classroom I am placed in to teach this semester. During the time this assignment came up, my students were beginning their Anne Frank unit. I decided that creating a Google Trek to follow Anne Frank's journey would be a fantastic idea. Not only did the Trek follow the location of Anne and her family from where she was born to where they went into hiding, but I also had the Trek follow her and her family members to where they ended up - whether it be labor camps, extermination camps, or who survived and where they went next. 

Once the students saw the laptop carts in the room, the environment changed. I had hands raised asking if/when they could use the laptops and what we were using them for. It was so motivating for me to see students getting motivated just for using the technology. After introducing and going through the directions for the activity surrounding the Google Trek, the students began exploring and interacting with the resources I had them linked within the Trek. Let me tell you, it is the most invigorating feeling hearing a student say "this is so cool!" when interacting with something you worked so hard creating for them. Not only did the students love working with the technology, they learned and achieved the objectives I had set for them to achieve with the activity! Talk about an all around success! 

I have seen the light with using technology within classrooms to promote a healthy and beneficial learning environment. I have always been skeptical, and I still am of the classrooms that base their direction on technology, but I can definitely see the benefits of integrating technology in specific places in units and lessons. It's a tough road to follow, but gosh is it an amazing ride seeing students interacting with it in such a beneficial and learning-centered way within your specific content!