Final 541 Blog Entry

Part One-Reflection

This course has taught me a lot that I did not know. For example, I always wanted to explore Google Sheets, but I have yet to find the time to do it.  This course gave me the opportunity to explore Sheets and create an assignment for my classroom that I will actually use.  Often times I find myself jumping through hoops to create an assignment that will get me a good grade.  In this course, I have made a lot of relevant activities that I plan to use this school year or next.  Also, I really enjoyed researching all of the different assistive technologies available.  I know that I did not research every type available, but I have a pretty solid idea of what is available.  This type of activity, along  with many others, helped me grow professionally throughout the semester. I feel much more competent in my ability to integrate technology in my current curriculum.  I also feel better about helping other teachers integrate technology into their classrooms.

Additionally, I have had a lot to time to reflect upon my own teaching.  I have created numerous activities that I hope to incorporate in my classroom as we continue our 1-1 program.  I have been a bit hesitant with incorporating technology in the classroom because I fear I will lose too much class time.  I am prepared to admit that I was wrong about that.  Integrating meaningful technology in the classroom is more than worth it.  This class has solidified my change in methodology in the future.  I feel as this is evident in the products I created for class.  I began with trying to force what I already do into some random technology lesson.  As the course progressed, I evolved in my theories.  I realized it is important to allow the students to learn the content and not just take notes on what I am saying.  As the course continued, I began to create products that put students at the center of their learning.  This is the realization about which I am most excited.  I am energized for next school year to incorporate these activities and assignments in my curriculum.

Throughout the semester, I have reflected on each assignment on my blog.  Each entry is aligned to AECT standards.  This alignment shows master of the AECT standards.

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Part Two-Self Grading

I always struggle with assessing my work because, like many others in education, I am my toughest critic.  Looking at the rubric, however, I feel that I did a nice job on my blog entries.  My blog posts are researched based, and I know that I spent time thoroughly researching each topic.  Researching and blogging led to me thinking about the content in a way I had yet to do.  I really enjoyed creating the video for integrating movies in the classroom curriculum.  It allowed me to talk with people in different content areas to hear how they integrate video clips in the classroom.  With respect to the content, I give myself 70/70.

All of my posts are researched based; however, I did not always incorporate the course text.  I really enjoyed reading the text, but it did not always give me the perfect support for my blog entries.  For that reason, I sometimes used different sources.  With respect to research and resources, I give myself 18/20.

The third category is timeliness.  All of my blog entries were posted to the course moodle by Sunday.  While I posted them before the deadline, there were a few posts that I should have uploaded earlier in order to allow my classmates more time to respond.  For that reason, I give myself 18/20.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the different posts made by my classmates.  My posts were thoughtful, but I often posted on their content and asked questions about it.  I did not offer new research to support a counter-argument.  For that reason, I give myself 24/30.

Based on the reasons above, I give myself 130/140.