I feel like I have become much more confident in the technology that I already use, and I am more willing to explore new options in incorporating technology into my classroom. I have entered the "Twitter-sphere" and have already found immense learning opportunities and learning partners as well as feeling better connected to my community.
I have changed how I think about my lesson-planning and my use of technology. I particularly like the sentiment that the technology is not the lesson- it is simply the forum or modality of the curriculum that was already set in place. I used to feel that I needed to teach them the technology first, but now I like to use choice boards and give them an option on how they would best like to represent their finished product.
I have rethought my philosophy on grading with and without technology throughout this course. I am now using a lot more completion grades at smaller points to allow students to go back and fix, change, and grow from what might not have been correct the first time instead of being punished for taking a little bit longer than everyone else to learn the material.
I feel my class is a lot more accessible at home for my students because of my use of videos and my outreach on social media. Students have an opportunity to watch video lessons and rewatch parts that were confusing to them.
I have already been asked to do some professional development on some of the tools that I have learned throughout this course in addition to reaching out to like-minded teachers within and outside of my own corporation to help continue to learn and grow as a professional.
In conclusion, this was extremely valuable to me, and much better than a one day conference when you are completely overwhelmed with ideas and thoughts without the time to truly process, experiment, and grow from the learning process. Thank you!
