Reflection 10

This class has probably been the most useful class I’ve taken throughout my college career. I am actually thrilled about the content that was taught to me in this course. I was actually taught things that would help me and prepare me for higher education when I transfer. I loved the fact that I was taught things that I really needed to know. I want to be a teacher, and I was taught how to do so. I liked learning about the different types of lesson plans. The work put into one lesson plan is strenuous. Lesson planning requires a lot of thinking and pre-planning. We learned the value of the new technologies that would help the lesson planning progress be less time consuming. Before this course, I had no idea that lesson planning took so much thought and preparation. I loved learning how to use as many resources as possible to make that job easier. I liked learning about the digital stories. I had no idea that this was such a hit all around with teachers. I use to think that technology would lessen a teachers importance in the classroom, but after being in this class I know that it is not true at all. The digital stories help portray a message to the students. This form of storytelling is both effective and creative. A teacher can tell a story using bright colors, audio, text, music, animation and pictures. I think that this helps all type of learners learn. It is an easy way to teach and get your message across to everyone at the same time. I loved learning about this because it made me excited to be able to complete something so great. The most valuable thing I have learned in this class, to be honest, is everything. Everything I learned in this course would help me become a better educator. This class has prepared me for what’s to come. I know that with the material that I have learned will better my chances at surviving in a university. I know that my hard work will pay off. I will try my best to keep all this information in my mind and put it to good use. I am grateful to have had such a great course. I hope that I continue to have a passion to become a teacher. This course has assured me that I want to do nothing else with my life except become a teacher. And that discovery is something very valuable to me.

Reflection 9

Teaching styles have evolved over the years. More and more technology has been integrated in teaching. Every year or so a new invention is created to better aide the teacher in the classroom. Grade books use to be all written by hand, now they have a program which allows them to grade faster. This program is almost virtually error proof and gives the teacher more time to use for planning, etc. Before the use of technology, teachers would use verbal instruction and some visual aids such as: maps, chalk boards, and posters. This helped the teachers instruction be more diverse. Some students learn information better when they can see it. Some need a text book and others might just need to touch and feel for themselves. With the new technology, The learning styles of students are taken into consideration. It helps them to understand the material and be more open to learning it. I have learned not to shun technological advances. I use to be skeptical about a classroom that was run by this method. I am more open to the idea because I now understand the benefits this can create. There are so many options for a teacher now a days. I have seen this technique first hand when I was doing my service learning hours. The students were learning how to create compound words. The teacher used a the over head projector to show the students how to do this in a fun colorful way. For example, the screen displayed a picture of a brain and a storm. The teacher would drag the pictures together and it would create the compound word. The picture was animated to show a Student “brainstorming” ideas. I thought this was the most wonderful thing I had seen. If this type of method was used while I was learning, I probably would have been more interested in Language Arts. Computers are being used to do amazing things. I think people should be more open to letting the teachers explore what other things can be done. I Also have gotten to like the idea of the digital story. Being a Visual/kinesthetic learner, I know first hand what its like to be stuck in an auditory classroom. I think that auditory delivery paired with the new technology, would be pleasing to all the students in your classroom. I can’t wait to learn more about the benefits of technology in the process of instructional delivery.