Wow, my EME2040 class is coming to an end! I have learned so much about how to use technology in the classroom and how to make the classroom a learning-friendly environment. In the Collaborative Lesson Plan, I learned how to incorporate technology into daily lessons, even for younger children. I realized that, although teachers have to follow and meet with certain standards, they can adapt the way they portray the information to their own teaching style and to the needs of their students. For example, Learning Outcome #6 of our syllabus states that we would learn how to evaluate a selection of technological tools for students with diverse needs, and in our lesson plan we considered how me would adapt to a student who did not speak English.
The Webquest was definitely my favorite assignment! Webquests are a great way of encouraging independent learners since they minimize verbal instruction and maximize time for exploration and discovery. I actually learned quite a bit when I designed my own webquest. The goal of my lesson was for students to learn about problems that the environment is facing worldwide, what other people are doing to help, and what solution they could come up with to contribute to those efforts. This oroject most closely fit Learning Outcome #2, which was that students would create an internet- based project that uses technology as a medium of instruction and a goal. You can check out my webquest here!
The Teacher Webpage assignment gave me a small view of what it is like to be a teacher and have my own classroom, and it made me reflect on the values by which I would guide my teaching and the role that I want technology to play in my classroom. I am happy that my professor introduced me to Diigo, which is a great bookmarking site for saving websites that I like or plan to use in the future. The other day, I actually visited a teacher's classroom and she showed me her teacher webpage and I was so impressed to see that my webpage was actually very similar to hers! She also showed me the long list of websites she had under a tab called "Student Websites" and gave me new ideas for future reference. Communicating with other teachers will be highly important when I enter the field so I can learn from their experience. I fulfilled the requirements of Learning Outcome #4 in this assignment because this website is essentially a portfolio that contains all of the assignments I completed throughout the semester. Click on this link to visit my Teacher Webpage!
One of my favorite websites for teaching purposes that I found is Education World. It contains blogs of different teachers, helpful information for techniques that are effective in the classroom, and lots and lots of lesson plans. I also liked EdTechTecher because it provides a list of apps that can be used for a lesson pan based on the subject and the technology available. In reference to the textbook content, my favorite idea was that of the democratic classroom because I think it is very important for children to feel like they have a say in their education. Today, testing has become a big deal in classrooms, but I want my students to learn by doing interesting projects and experimenting with new things, not by memorizing facts for a test.
This class taught me a great deal about the teaching profession. To be honest, at the beginning I felt a little intimidated because I saw so many new things I had not seen before with regards to technology. However, I am glad that I had to dive headfirst into the material because I discovered websites and other useful tools I did not know about before. To improve my learning, I would suggest choosing more engaging discussion topics, although I understand that the material had to be covered. Sometimes, I did not understand what the prompt was asking me to do (i.e, on the Best Practices discussion) but I eventually figured it out when I researched what certain terms meant. One of the things that I really enjoyed was the feedback that the professor provided on every assignment I submitted. Thank you for that! I am so glad I took this course with you!
In honor of my last blog post, I want to share this video that talks about what students think the world would be like without teachers. It might move you to tears! It is comforting to know that my efforts can and will make a difference in someone's life one day. I can't wait to start!
My Resources
Jubilee Project. (2015, May 21). World without teachers. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/RN3iLeq1828
Zaragoza, S. (2016, April 10). EME2040 Webquest. Retrieved from http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=317403
Zaragoza, S. (2016, April 27). Miss Z's Teacher Webpage. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/eme2040webpage/welcome"
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