FINAL REFLECTION

So my teaching with technology class has come to an end. I must say it has been an adventure. I began this course with mixed feelings on technology and I have to be honest I still have mixed feelings towards technology. See, my computer actually crashed this past weekend so me and technology aren't on the best of terms. However, in this reflection I am going to give my overall perspective on what I did in this class. We began by making our own blogs. My sister actually introduced blogs to me about a year and a half ago- so this aspect of technology was not new. We also made our own websites. I took a teaching math with technology last semester so I also knew how to make a simple website. However, I had never used the Google Calender feature before so that was good to learn. In both my math and PE classes I want to put up the different assignments that we did in class each day on the internet so that parents and students have access to it. This way if a student is absent, they can go online to see what they missed. This will help me as well so that I won't have to make special arrangements every time a student is absent. Also, parents can look at my profile page and get to know me better so that they feel more comfortable with me teaching there son or daughter. Out of all the projects we did I can see myself using a website the most.
Learning how to use iMovie was interesting. It was fun to see how you can manipulate videos. Honestly, I would need to get a lot more comfortable with the program before I used it in teaching. My students would also need to be very familiar with it before I would assign a project to them using it. The problem with iMovie and some of the other projects is that the time spent working on the technology aspect takes over the time that should be spent learning the material. I experienced this with my iMovie. I had issues with uploading the video, then saving, and making sure there was audio. Thus, the actual time spent editing the video was little in comparison to the time fussing with making sure the equipment worked. With that said, I was impressed with the PSA we made in Advocacy. The black and white, slow motion, music, and fading made the video look very professional. Thus, iMovie does have potential- I just need to find the patience to use it. Overall the class introduced me to some new ideas. I've realized that there is a lot out there to help me in teaching and I don't have to do it all alone!