Reflection of the Quarter

End of Quarter Reflection
After going back and reading my original post about integrating technology in to the classroom, my philosophy of technology in education hasn’t really changed. I still believe that it would be a great resource for the teachers to use and for their students to use. I still believe that it should not be used for the sake of saying that it’s being used or to just kill time. I feel more strongly that students and teachers both need to be able to have easy access to technology at the same time. If only the teachers have access to the technology, it wouldn’t be meaningful integration. It wouldn’t really be integration at all. Students in this generation, and all the future generations, have a very great exposure and knowledge of technology. A very good way to reach them is to incorporate something that they enjoy a lot, which is technology.
I think that the most important thing I’ve learned in this class is how to incorporate technology into my classroom without it replacing or overshadowing me. I’ve learned about some great ways to connect with my students and their families through technology. Some tools I am most likely to use in my future classroom are the blog and the website. After taking this class, I have so many ideas of ways I could use a blog in my classroom. I could use it to connect with the families of my students. I could put up my classroom rules so the parents can see how their children are expected to behave in my classroom. I could put up some resources that could be helpful for students when they are working on homework. I have thought about putting all the work from the day on the blog so that absent students can stay caught up with the class as much as they possibly can. I then thought about how I could use make a website to do the same thing. Either one would be a great way to stay connected with the families and a great way to provide some extra help to my students.

I think this class has prepared me to integrate technology into my classroom pretty well. I now have some cool websites that I can use for all sorts of fun activities and projects. I have learned all about the standards that students are expected to meet in regards to education. I have also gained a great resource in the form of my professor, who has guided me through this course. I do want to learn about more ways to use different forms of technology to keep in contact with the families of my students. This course has taught me a lot about what I need for my future classroom.

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