Final Blog Post

Throughout this course, I got the opportunity to learn an entirely different aspect of teaching. We learned more than just teaching with technology. We learned about the difficulty of teaching students with learning disabilities and language barriers. We learned about different ethical and political issues. But more than all these difficult challenges, the most valuable lessons were those that taught us how to handle all of these things. We got a chance to explore different ideas and scenarios on how to best deal with these different challenges. Challenges that we will definitely face in our future careers.  This was actually one of my more challenging courses. I had to think outside the box. I had to come up with ideas and solutions that had never crossed my mind. But more than that, I had to adjust and learn new styles of teaching that had never been brought to my attention. What I learned through all of this, is that when I am challenged, once I come out on the other side, I am proud of myself. I am proud of my hard work and what it creates and the end result. I learned new technological skills that will not only help me in school, but in my career as well. Thank you for that Professor Coleman!

My favorite assignment by far were the Wiki and the WebPage. These are two forms of assignments I think I will definitely use in my future classroom. Setting up the Wiki and the Webpage were projects that I was very intimidated by going into. I had never heard of either one of them and creating something so far out of my element was scary. But once I completed them and received feedback on how I could improve and what I excelled in, I realized how much fun they could be and how I could use them to my advantage. They also helped me learn how to create a lesson plan. How to structure an assignment and the importance in a rubric and grading policy.

An example of how this class helped me was evident in another class I was taking this semester. I was also taking and Oceanography class in which we had to create a blog and a YouTube video to go along with a field trip we went on. Because I had already created numerous blogs within this course and had worked within YouTube within my own blogs, I knew that it was nothing I couldn’t handle. More than that, I had never actually created my own YouTube video before and at first I was a little scared on how I was going to complete something so foreign to me. But once I had thought about all of the different things I had already accomplished in this class and how many obstacles I found out I could accomplish, my anxiety was relieved and I went into the assignment with confidence that I could complete it.

 

There were numerous sites that I had visited throughout this course. A lot were just for research that I skimmed through but didn’t utilize. Others were more pertinent. They helped me in understanding that Chapter that we were in or a concept that I was trying to understand. One of those websites was through Education World. This site really helped me a lot during the concepts of the difficulties that teachers face throughout day to day work. The website also went in depth with tips that teachers share amongst each other on how to relieve some of those challenges and ways to cope with them. It was my favorite website and one that I will refer back to in the future.

The textbook was phenomenal. I have never utilized a textbook as much as I used this one and I plan on keeping it with me for the future. There were so many key concepts in there and it was written in a way that was compatible with anyone’s reading level. Chapter 8 “Communicating and Collaborating with Social Media” was my favorite chapter. It was a new concept to me because throughout my entire academic career, it has always been frowned upon to bring social media or any kind of electronic devices into the classroom. This chapter was a completely different opinion. It was a refreshing new way of teaching and learning and I cannot wait to see it in action in the classroom.

All in all I am a little sad this class is coming to an end. I never thought I would learn so much in a single semester. Maybe because this is a subject that I am insanely interested in, or maybe because this class had so many new concepts, I cannot believe how much I loved taking this class and how much fun I had completing the assignments. Thank you so much Professor Coleman for making this class so intriguing and beneficial. I have never been so compelled by a class and I thank you for showing me the pros and cons to my future career. It was both eye opening and inspiring to see my future and I was blessed to learn so many resources that I can use in the future. Thank you again. I hope you don’t mind hearing from me in the future because I think there is so much more I can learn from you and I plan to pick you brain while facing future endeavors!

Resources:

Maloy, R. (2011). Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

 

Mote Marine Visit Oct 2015. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLV44FngnNw

Teacher Diary: Reflections on Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2015, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev033.shtml