I know that
I have definitely grown as both a student as well as a teacher as a result of
this course. Before this course, I would
have mostly described myself as very computer illiterate. However after working and practicing with the
different computer programs I think that is safe to say that I know more about
computers than I ever have in my life. I
also think that by being a teaching assistant for this class I have grown a
great deal because I had to learn the material in order to teach it to help my
peers and when I did not know something I was compelled to seek out the answers
in order to be a successful and effective teaching assistant. The technical skills that I have picked up
are manipulating through Microsoft office, Publisher and Paint. I have learned many features of these
programs that I think will better enhance the presentation of future projects that
I will create. In addition, I feel that
I am now very acquainted with working and using all of the programs that we
worked with this semester such as NVU, WSFT_P. I think the
program that I have not mastered yet however is Photostory3, this is because I
didn’t really explore what the program had to offer and just did the basic
requirements for the project.
I
think the most important thing about this course is that I learned how to use
the programs so that I can teach and use these programs in my future
classrooms. I think that I have learned
that I should not shy away from something new and difficult especially if everyone
else is doing it. Having said this, I think
that technology has definitely become part of the classroom and one cannot
teach if he/she does not know the fundamentals. Therefore, I think that this course has unquestionably taught me
these fundamentals and I will incorporate what I have learned in this class to my future teaching. For example I will use programs such as
Microsoft office and Microsoft publisher with creating various projects. I also happen to think that web quests are
wonderful learning and teaching tools that I will most definitely include in my
teaching. Lastly I feel that students
will benefit from the games and word puzzles that I learned how to create in
this course, these puzzles will serve as reinforcements of what the students
already know.
I think some of the exciting
experiences include when I was able to help my fellow peers with what they were
having difficulty. Nothing gave me more
satisfaction than working through a problem and fixing it. Fixing the problems on my own made me feel
very accomplished and excited because I knew that I was learning. In addition, I think that when I published my
web-pages and saw them on Internet explorer for the first time I was extremely
happy that I was able to transfer my work from NVU to WS_FTP. Some frustrations include links that would
not work, when I wasn’t able to help out as a teaching assistant, and I had
some difficulties working with the tables in NVU. At times the pictures and words would not
center, and when I published the pages they did not look the same on the
Internet as they did in NVU.
One
project that I worked on by myself was creating a word search puzzle. I liked working by myself I listened to the instructions
and followed along with the instructor.
However, I liked working with groups more. I liked collaborating with each other and
helping one another gathering the content for our project. I worked with groups for several projects, one
was when we create our school and the other project was doing a web quest. It was a little stressful at times however, I
think that the final products came out very well and it was a lot easier to do
these projects with working with other people. In terms of learning I think it
is also easier to work with people because in my groups everyone helped each other out.
I
think that working in small groups is powerful because there are many benefits
when there is additional help available.
In addition, the amount of work is also delegated to each of the members
in a group so therefore the work load lessens when people work in small
groups. The way I exchanged ideas with
others is by talking to them as well as emailing various content to them. The purpose of communicating and exchanging
ideas was to decide which person was going to do what, as well as people
communicated in order to help one another out when they were having
problems. I think the best thing that
people can do in order to avoid problems or stressful group situations is to
communicate with each other.
Furthermore, I think that it is also necessary to delegate different
tasks and have the delegated people only be responsible for their part in the
project. This way not only a couple
members are doing the whole project. I
know that I will definitely incorporate group work into my classrooms, I
believe strongly in collaborating together and helping one another out. This is because I feel that sometimes
students can learn better or easier from other students rather than
teachers. Group work also teaches
students social lessons as well as leadership and responsibility.
I
think that it is a little more difficult for students to work on group projects
when using technology rather than working in a group analyzing the Declaration
of Independence. However I think that it
can be done. I think that I will have
the students just create one technological project rather than
individually. However, the students will
be responsible for a distinct part of the project. I will assign grades based on if and how the
student accomplishes his/her specific part of the project.
I would like to teach my students and have
them work with the programs and features of the programs that I have learned in
this course, I believe that every project that I have accomplished will enhance
students learning. I feel that students
will benefit from puzzles that both I as the teacher can create as
well as the students can create. I think
that web quests are fantastic learning tools, students will really enjoy going on a website created by me and learning from it. I think that web quests are great because the
students will learn the information themselves rather than having me tell
them. I want the students to be able to
use Microsoft office and publisher to design their projects. These programs can make one's work visually appealing I will expect students to use these programs.
My
teaching philosophy includes my belief that knowledge is always
changing, and therefore students must be able to have access to this unchanging
and critical knowledge. This is
especially the case with technology therefore it is the teacher’s job to expose
these changes to the students and have them practice with the latest
technology and programs. I also think that it is extremely
important to foster and encourage young children’s curiosity. I believe
that children are innately curious and want to learn, especially in their
younger years. Therefore I think that the students’ role in education
should be being an active learner and not passive. Students should ask
questions, identify problems, and instigate their own learning. I believe
that students should not just “cruise” through their learning instead they
should challenge themselves as well as their peers and teachers. Having said all of this, I believe that the
things that I have learned in this course will definitely help me fulfill or
incorporate my teaching philosophy in my future classrooms.
Lastly,
I think that it very important for teachers to collaborate and work together to
satisfy the needs of the students.
Teachers, especially in the same grade, should share with each other
what they are doing in their lessons and what they are expecting from the
children. Therefore, I believe that faculty
meetings and/or teacher meetings are a great way to designate time and go over
what they need to. Furthermore, integration
of technology and an academic course is a great way to combine technology and subject
matter. For example, in this course, for
our web quest, our instructors integrated technology with what we were learning
in science. I think that students will
benefit greatly with teachers working together on a team with a common purpose,
the purpose being to educate effectively and with success.