Secrets Video by One Republic

I chose this song because I felt that sometimes as teacher we keep secrets. We are closed off in our classrooms most of the day, and sometimes I think we forget that we still have colleagues out side those walls who would benefit from what we are teaching in our classroom.

I enjoyed this class so much because it taught me many different ways I can communicate with teachers outside the walls of my classroom or even my school building

Reflective Blog # 8 Where Do We Go From Here :)

One of my Aha! moments were the wiki page. Once I started reading about how they are used for collaboration I knew what I wanted mine to be about. I wanted to make a wiki that could be used by all the BIM teachers in Mesquite ISD. We don’t have textbooks at the moment, so we are creating lesson from scratch. Emailing someone a new lesson was time consuming. The wiki was a great tool for this. Every teacher could just upload their lessons, and the res t of us could download what we wanted and use it in our classroom.

My other one was about reflections and e-portfolios. We have been reflecting this whole time, and I really didn’t make that connection until Week 4 when we discussed assessment and e-portfolios. The reflections have really helped me to process all that I have learned in this class. My students would also benefit from reflection. I am going to start doing this in my classes. All my students will have a blog account, and will write reflections about projects that we complete in class. The Google Apps project I used reflection as part of the lesson. Before taking this class, I would have never thought to do that. Now I know it is a crucial part of the learning process.

My technology statement has change regarding e-portfolios and reflection. These were not even mentioned in my first statement. Now I see how important these two things are for student learning. I will include both of these in my lessons for next year. Technology is something that all educators should embrace.

Reflective Blog # 7 Google Applications Project

I wanted to find a motivating way to assess my students on the use of Publisher. I wanted them to be motivated to do their best on this project. I think implementing the different technologies helps do this, but also knowing that other students will be seeing their work also helps.

I chose the learning objective that I chose because I wanted my student to use their higher level thinking skills. They needed to reflect on what they were creating and why they chose it. I decided to use blogs, wikis, and websites because those are the technological tools that are being used in college and the workplace. Students need to be prepared for the real world. The first time they use a blog, wiki, or website for educational purposes should not be in college or the workplace.

My expectation is for my students to take pride in their work. So often students throw things together at the last minute, and do not put much thought or effort into it. I hope that this assignment shows them that they should do their best no matter who will see the work.

I have not put enough emphasis on reflection, and that is something that I am in the process of changing right now. I need to give my students more challenging assignments that will benefit them in the long run.