week8 Reflection

•In what ways has this course helped you to develop your own technology skills?

This course forced me out of my comfort zone. There was not a whole lot of direct instruction. I was forced to look at the various technologies and figure them out. There were many trials and tribulations. From all this I learned that with a little patients, a few extra minutes, it is not that hard to figure out new technologies. I am much more confident in my abilities. Next time I want to figure out a technology, I am just going to dive in and try it.

•In what ways can you continue to expand your knowledge of technology integration with the aim of increasing student achievement?

My RSS feeds will allow me to easily stay current on readings about new technology practices in the classroom. This Walden course has given me a solid platform. I have already developed one lesson plan that can be implemented anytime. Further, many of our Walden assignments can easily be adapted for immediate use in the classroom. Technology tends to snow ball. The more you use it, the easier it becomes.

•Set two long-tem goals (within two years) for transforming your classroom environment into a place where technology is integrated seamlessly to meet instructional goals and increase student achievement. How do you plan to accomplish these goals?

First goal is to implement a classroom blog for my geometry class and algebra readiness class that includes helpful links, homework, and practice problems. I will create the blog this summer while I am administering summer school. I have lots of down time, and this would be a perfect moment to get it started.

Second goal is to use my lesson I designed for a student created wikki page. The wikki site will be an ongoing assignment where groups of students are in charge of updating the site per chapter. The details of this are laid out in application six. To make this happen, also during summer school I will get the site built and running. Further I will layout the entire curriculum and where new groups will exchange responsibility.