Course Reflection

Over the period of this course I learned about some great tools for teaching.  In fact, in many ways, it feels like I'm starting teaching over again, but at a higher risk. Learning to teach involves making mistakes, and from what I've learned throughout this course, many of the mistakes that involve students and technology can have high-impact consequences.  For this reason, I'm going to integrate tech use into my ELA classroom slowly. I see strength in the PLC. PLC members can work together to determine if a tech tool poses a privacy danger or needs to be presented to the principal and/or parents, among other things. Before Chromebooks (B.CB.?), it took me years to work out kinks in lessons, and typically I was on my own. I may be getting a little old school saying this, but I hesitate to go all of the way back to the drawing board.  I see the huge potential in technology, but I also fear a knee-jerk reaction to the access we have, and the potential whiplash of trying everything at once. As of now, I have a functional classroom that produces results. I will slowly incorporate tech use into my classroom if it can help me give students more timely and useful feedback, provide more variety in the ways I get information to students, or provide useful, educational, and effective tools for students to communicate what they have learned to me and to others.

What do I find useful? Well, some things I already use but will intensify After Chromebooks (A.CB.). For one, I will up the ante on Google Suite. I think the potential to timely feedback on students writing and critical thinking is powerful here, though I need to strengthen my understanding on how to organize the work without needing to excessively click (click, click, click). Some of the add-ons will be very helpful for this as well, such as Kaizena. I really see no excuse for students not to write well in the coming year. As for a trial run, I think I will give Goggle Classroom a shot in Reader's Workshop. I see the potential to improve engagement and prevent some distractions in this class. Plus, handwriting can be some of these kids' only downfall; typing can be a great boost to them. As far as whole-class presentation and relearning, I think some of the screencasting tools can be useful, not to mention Peardeck, but that's as far as I'm willing to venture this year (I already use Prezi and Slides for almost everything). And for assessment, I want to dabble with Google Forms; I had no idea it contained so much potential for relearning and fast assessments. I really hope to find this intuitive and effective.