10- & it's a wrap!

I think that Data Collection tools, such as surveys, are very important to take advantage of as a teacher. They can be used not only to get feedback from your students, but to get feedback from parents as well. Even though my current declared major is elementary education, I am also interested in teaching 8^th grade algebra. Before big tests I could give surveys in my class to see what topics they need the most review on. I could give a survey about what kind of problems seem confusing for them, such as word problems, multiple choice, and fill in the blank. Surveys can help the teacher pinpoint student’s strengths and weaknesses in order to help make class time more productive and give students the help that they need. For parents I could send out a survey about how effectively I am communicating with them, and how I could improve. These are just a few examples, and the list for how to use surveys as a teacher is limitless.

The blog posts that I most enjoyed reading were about the Independent Learning Projects. It was really neat getting to see the different technology that people used and sparked interest for me to experiment with some of the tools that they used. In fact, after reading everyone’s blog posts for ILP#1, I decided that for my second ILP I wanted to make a Prezi presentation. I was very impressed with the Prezi’s that my classmates came up with and saw the potential of using Prezi as a future teacher. I also found that I could write more meaningful comments on the ILP blog posts because we weren’t all posting about the same things. I also loved seeing screenshots of the assignments on people’s blogs, like the websites we created and newsletters. It was neat getting to see my peers work and how creative they all are.

There are so many awesome technology tools out there that it can seem overwhelming. There is never ending opportunity to learn new technology-related skills and I’m excited to keep learning. One specific technology-related skill I would like to learn next is how to make videos using applications such as windows movie maker. I could make videos to show to my class, or even teach them how to make videos themselves for group projects. I have zero experience making videos or recordings. For the PowerPoint assignment we had in this class, it was my first time recording my voice and using a microphone. So making a movie seems overwhelming to me since I have no background knowledge about it. I won’t let my lack of knowledge and experience discourage me though. I look forward to playing around with movie maker applications and researching it on my own until I become comfortable using this technology-related skill.

The main way that I plan on achieving my future educational technology-related goals is by maintaining a close relationship with my school librarian and also keeping myself up to date with the latest technology and ideas. My librarian will have much more time to research technology and will be a huge asset to me as a teacher. He or she can give me ideas, teach me about new technology, and help me get access to the technology for my students. I don’t want to become an old dog that can’t learn new tricks, so as a teacher it is my responsibility to keep up with new educational technology through personal research.