All Good Things Must Come to an End: A Reflection

It is hard to believe that my fall semester of my junior year is coming to an end. When I first began my IT 365 course, I felt a little intimidated by what was expected. I remember wondering to myself, how am I ever going to learn this? Now that it has ended, however, I can give myself a pat on the back for learning everything that I have.

I have learned standards for what teachers are expected to know and reside to as a teacher. I have learned how to create and save a concept map to teach my students a creative and fun way to come up with a flow chart. I have also learned that there are a variety of tools online for students to use, and most importantly there are so many free sites out there that allow teachers to use their products to enhance students' learning all for free!

My strong points include being able to research and teach myself how to complete a project. I also find myself very resourceful in finding the best-of-the-best sites and resources to use. I think of this as my strong point simply because I was a blogger prior to going back to school full-time. I would research and promote different companies, and that took a lot of time and effort on my part.

A weakness that I have is being confident in my ability to create something meaningful for my students. I have to constantly remind myself that as long as I work hard and put forth my best effort, my students will benefit from me and my knowledge of technology. I recognize this as a weakness because it is something I battle internally with every class and every day decision making in my life.

My future learning goal to improve on this weakness is to build my self-confidence and continue with exploring everything that the Internet has to offer. I want to find teacher blogs that have incredible resources, and find teachers whole styles complement my own. I feel if I surround myself with positive resources and ideas, that I will succeed and be even better for it which each passing day.

I plan on using technology in my classroom; that is a must! My favorite idea is to create a classroom blog for my parents. I struggle with keeping paper reminders, and think that if I also incorporate a digital website, that my classroom parents will enjoy that. I miss seeing my children every day, and really enjoy being able to see my children in their classroom element. By providing pictures (with faces/identities kept safe and private), class updates, what we are learning, a calendar, and spelling guides, that I will benefiting not only the parents, but also my students.

I enjoyed this course very much. I learned so much more than I already knew about technology in the classroom. I am confident that I will benefit all of my future students with fun and exciting ways to learn.