From+My+Heart

Wow! I am finished with my webpage...not. I don't believe I will ever be finished and am ok, excited and scared all in one about that! I do have a sense of relief that this class if over and yet one of fear as I don't think I learned everything there is to know about all this technology stuff!

When I signed up for the class, I was very excited as I knew I didn't have a clue what I was doing online. I barely knew the basics and was very eager to learn more. Once the class started, I was painfully aware of how little I knew. Even though the directions were very clear, basic and easy enough for a fifth grader, I was lost. Can't tell you how many times I yelled at my computer screen and my husband would dutifully come and check in with me to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. Slowly but surely I would get an assignment completed -- maybe 12 hours later, but it would be done. Sometimes it really was the computer's fault, but sometimes it was that I was unhappy with my first project. Sometimes I felt so uncreative and really struggled with just coming up with something teachable.

I really like the way the wiki turned out. I probably had the most fun making the slide shows. The web2.0 tools and widgets are so much fun, I had to share many of these with my daughter to use with her daughter - learning made fun even for a 3 year old! I love the tumblr work I did in the research lesson. I was pretty proud of that - showed my teenage son and got a high five from him. I can't wait to redo the digital story using my own pictures. I had a blast doing that one too. So, I don't know if I have one thing that I am most proud of except for the fact that I stuck with it and did it - learning, reaching outside of my comfort zone and grasping all that your lessons had to offer.

I learned that I can be stubborn when it comes to wanting a project to come out just right. I learned that I am a baby when I don't have anyone physically there to ask questions and expect help with. I learned that I could get past that and figure it out on my own (big, huge step -- thank you). Finally, I learned that I am not even close to scratching the surface of all that is to be learned on the internet and that is only one part of technology to use in the classroom...I still have cellphones, ipods, etc to incorporate into my lessons!!

From a teaching aspect, I learned that I have a long way to go before some of my lesson plans are complete. It takes a long time to think, process, research, find and put together a lesson plan that will work for students in various levels of learning along with something that is creative, thought provoking and will make them eager to learn. Something I would do differently include not trying to do everything in one day - even though I would read through, print out, brainstorm, etc. before I actually sat down at the computer. Once I sat down, I just expected things to go as planned and they never would. Needed to give myself some breathing room. Something I am unhappy with is incompleted lesson plans as of today. I know I will get them completed with technology incorporated into them, just didn't get that done this class. I would also like to have a classroom blog to put on my website.

After this class, when I am confronted by something techno that I don't understand, I know that I can research and practice and I will eventually get what I am needing. My comfort zone in the past has been to just ignore it, but not anymore!! I don't believe that a teacher can effectively teach a class without having technology in it somewhere. I think English will be an easy place to use many of the tools we learned when writing and presenting the work. I want my classroom to be one of "what will happen today" expectation instead of the "boring" attitude I see so often. I want the learning presented where the students will be eager to check out what is new. I think the only obstacle to that may be the lack of computer/internet access for some of the students.