I survived my first quarter of my teaching credential in EDUC 407! I learned from my failures the first 2 weeks, but was able to bounce back the last 8 weeks. I have to admit, I was very overwhelmed with the amount of work I saw on the syllabus the first week. I didn’t know how it would be possible to handle the workload on top of working a full-time job. However, here I am still alive and breathing. I have learned a whole lot during EDUC 407, and have also taken notes on what worked for me and what to avoid in the future.
It’s obvious that technology is a high-leveled skill to majority of students in today’s world. It is a way of life. When I talk about something as simple as the white pages or a dictionary, students roll their eyes like I am speaking a foreign language. Students rely on Google and so many online sources for their information nowadays that they would never even think to pick up a dictionary. The most important thing I learned from this class was that as an educator, I need to do more visual lessons and incorporate more technology into the classroom. The students do need current skills, and that will require some of the technology I just learned about like screencasts, Google Drive, Wikis, WordPress and etc. Just about anyone can record a video and upload it to Youtube. However, I learned how much harder it was than I thought. So many small details went into making a screencast. I had to construct a slideshow and then add audio and upload to YouTube. The entire process was more challenging than I had imagined. I am so thankful to have mastered these skills before getting deeper into the credential program.
In conclusion, I can apply all my knowledge about technology to future lessons that will promote more collaboration in my classroom. I read in an article, “We keep thinking of ways to help the current generation of school children learn technology we know how to use, but we are forgetting the fact that this generation will develop its own way of doing things, with technology current to their time.” It is my job to take the technology skills that the students may already know, and apply them in the classroom to stimulate more collaboration and productivity.
CLICK HERE: My Quest For Poetic Devices Screencast
Bridget Hammer's Blog 
Bridget, good to see you’ve made it! It appears that your experience was much like mine. Enjoy your journey and good luck in the future!
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Great Job! I completely agree with you, technology keeps evolving and we need to evolve with it. If we don’t keep up, we are only hindering ourselves as educators and not adequately providing our students with the latest technological advances. I recall being intimidated by the course load at a first glance especially not knowing many of the terms. However, how refreshing it is to now go through the learning outcomes and goals and know exactly what they mean. What incredible gain we all received from taking this course! It made me aware of things I didn’t realize was even created! If it were not for this class, I would not have had my eyes open to a whole new world of online learning tools. I think it would be great to have my students participate in some sort of online blog in the future.
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Bridget, great job this quarter. Out of all of us in the group you have always been on point and the “Go To” person. I completely agree with your blog post that we must keep up with technology in education no matter how complicated it becomes. We either keep up with it or else we get left behind. My only fear is that we eventually rely on technology so much that we render ourselves obsolete. I feel that there always needs to be a blend of both or maybe I’m just too old fashioned. Either way it’s been a pleasure working with you this quarter. Good luck!
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I completely agree with you that keeping up with technology! Things have sure changed from when I was in school. We as educators have to have an open mind when it comes to tech as it is how are future is learning. I agree that we have to keep up with it so that we will be able to connect with our future kids. I have a love hate with tech. It is ever changing and we just have to make sure that we stay with so that we don’t get left behind. Good luck to you and I am glad that you made it!
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I think that the point of the project based quest as our final big project for this class was supposed to teach us that the best way to teach students is to guide them, but to allow them to make their own path. I have been thinking this for a while now, but when I saw the title of the article you read, I realized how true this is. The students become more engaged when they are able to use something that they know how to use and create new things with it. I will not forget to allow my students to be creative with the technology that they will be using in my classroom. Thanks for a very thoughtful final blog. Congrats!
Nohemi
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Great post Bridget! I too was very satisfied with my experience within this course. I especially enjoyed reading the reflections of others in their blog post. I also agree that as educators we need to stay innovative and relevant to the generation that we teach. Our students are consistently in need of stimuli and adding technology such as Google, Facebook, etc., will ultimately keep our students engaged. I agree also that as an educator incorporating other forms of representation within our lessons is important to those students who learn differently. Providing more visuals and embedding technology is only helping those exceptional students who need just a little more than the average text book. The use of different learning strategies will ultimately provide students with the opportunity to engage and comprehend the topic. This is why I especially enjoyed creating a PBQ, because it incorporates all these things, and it put the learning aspect in the students hands. Thank you for sharing, I always enjoyed your posts!
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You did it! I’ve greatly enjoyed your contributions and reflections this term. It’s been great to watch you embrace technology and try new things with great results. I wish you the best as you continue with the program. Have a wonderful summer, Bridget!
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