From+the+Heart

Dr. Stocker,

This was one of the most challenging and rewarding courses I have had the pleasure of taking as a part of my teacher licensure program. In looking back, I remember the project examples that you shared with us during our first weeks and I remember wondering how I was going to create these creative projects as a part of my wiki. What I learned with each new project was just how much new technology was available to use in the classroom as a part of the learning process, and that I didn’t have to be afraid of using technology! I had the pleasure of taking a technology and education course at Red Rocks Community College where I used different software products available for schools and teachers. When I was told I needed to take another technology course at Metro, I didn’t feel as if there was much more I needed to learn. I quickly discovered that I was wrong. I had never even heard of a wiki before I started classes at Metro, and I already feel as if this is a tool that I couldn’t do without in my classroom.

I knew that technology had a place in the classroom, but, before this course, I never had a reason to create an entire unit of instruction using technology. This semester has been extremely difficult as I have had multiple courses where I have been required to prepare all inclusive units of instruction. This has required me to think like a teacher, and I realize more than ever the work and dedication that goes into preparing lessons. When I visited my sister for spring break and spent time with her in her eighth grade language arts classroom, I was amazed at how knowledgeable she was in grammar! She is my twin sister and has had the same educational advantages as myself, but she decided to go into teaching straight from college and has now been teaching for five years. She told me that what she knows about grammar, she learned from teaching her students. I now understand the merit behind that comment. I now feel like an expert on Edgar Allan Poe and his literary works. I even started spelling my last name incorrectly (Allan instead of Allen) when creating my log-in accounts with the different web 2.0 sites! Even though it was a lot of work, I feel as if teaching is where I am meant to be, and I am excited for the challenges.

It is difficult to select a piece of my wiki that I am most proud of. I have spent many hours on each project and setting up my wiki page to reflect the type of person I am. I am a perfectionist, and I feel that every project received the same attention and dedication. The wiki frame gave me the most challenges. I had a mental image of what I wanted the page to look like, but it took almost the entire semester to create the perfect look. Each project provided me with more knowledge and insight and helped me to finally create the desired look. I had no idea that I would be able to dabble in HTML coding, but I realized that with the right information, anything is possible! I absolutely love the idea of the scrolling text bar on my home page where I can insert different literary quotes! I have been bragging about my wiki to anyone that will listen, and any chance I get to bring it up on the computer, I do so!

What would I do differently? This is a tough question. I put a lot of thought into this project right up front. I tried to think about a unit of instruction that would benefit from technology and that I would enjoy working on each week. Because of the challenges in my other courses this semester, I usually put off working on my wiki assignments until Sunday mornings and spent most of Sunday scrambling to complete them in time. I guess I would change this fact. You gave us some useful advice at the beginning of the semester, that I didn’t necessarily follow; that was to work on the wiki a little each day. If I had followed this advice, it would have saved the many backaches that I suffered through due to sitting at a desk for over eight hours each Sunday.

I was fortunate to grow up in a time when technology started booming. I was always receiving the new technological toy as a holiday gift, and I remember spending hours reading the manuals to try and figure them out. I wouldn’t stop until I knew exactly how it worked. This same excitement is I how I feel about using technology in the classroom. I am excited to see the projects that my students will create, and I am excited to have a tool where I can showcase their projects. I can’t wait to see the excitement on my students faces as they see there work displayed on their own classroom wiki. Teaching is about life long learning, and technology is always changing. I am excited to continue this journey with technology. I never thought I would know more than my husband about technology, but now I do! I have all of these great tools at my finger tips, and now I have the knowledge of how to put it all together in a unit of instruction. I will most definitely be a twenty-first century teacher. I will be a teacher that thinks outside the box to discover new tools to be used in teaching. Technology allows access to all different and unique learning styles. Students will be able to have hands-on, visual, and auditory learning all in one lesson. Technology can help reach more students and engage them in the learning process.

I plan to be the type of teacher who inspires and motivates her students to appreciate the language arts. I will use technology to listen to audio recordings of great literary works, to show creative adaptations of literary works, and so that students can create their own projects to show and understanding of what they have learned. I plan on having an online classroom library list so that students can check out books to take home and read on their own. There are limitless ideas in using technology in the classroom, and this class has opened my eyes wide to the opportunities available. Thank you for an amazing class. I hope you have enjoyed my projects as much as I did creating them!

Technology is incredibly important to use in the classroom. There is always the chance that something will go wrong with the technology being used, and therefore it is important to always have a backup plan. That means thinking creatively on two fronts; the first being the technology lesson plan and the second being the backup plan to the original plan. It is definitely worth it! It is also important that each lesson has the right amount and most relevant use of technology. In creating this unit, I learned that technology can not simply be thrown into a lesson; it needs to have a rightful place. It needs to enhance the learning process. Another worry in using technology is the availability of technology in our students’ home. If there is homework or a student needs to make up work and there is no computer at home, this student would seem to be penalized. There needs to be an awareness of this fact so that no student is penalized for not having the tools at home. As a teacher, I will need to be flexible and allow students to work after school or during planning periods to complete homework.

Teaching is a demanding position that requires dedication and passion. I am nervous about students knowing more about technology than myself, but I will have to get over this and allow my students to teach me what they know. I am nervous that students will not find the technology I use in my lessons creative or engaging. I am also nervous that students will not be as excited as I am to create their projects using technology. What I have learned in this course and my other education courses is that if the teacher is excited and energetic about a lesson, the students will be too! I am extremely passionate about the language arts, and I feel that I will be able to instill this passion into my students.

Sincerely,

Erin Allen