I recently handed in the next assignment I had for this class. This class is so crucial, and the assignments have thus far been extremely relevant. I am so looking forward to putting them to good use in my classroom. Now, I just hope that I am lucky enough to get hired in a school district that can take advantage of my great teaching and technology skills.
But, that is a topic for another blog post. Back to the current topic....my Technology Implementation Unit Plan. I initially created a unit plan on the Holocaust for a Social Studies class in a previous semester. I worked very hard on this plan, and was proud of it in the end. The goal of the unit was to delve deep into the subject matter and understand how and why the events unfolded as they did. The revamped plan had the same goals, yet this time technology was weaved throughout the unit. I am even more proud of this plan and believe that it is more relevant to students' lives. I used such amazing tools like Skype, glogster and Edmodo. Initially, I thought I would create a classroom website using Wiki Spaces, but upon further investigation I realized that Edmodo would better fit this classroom needs. I was able to create literature circles and student blogs through this site.
This project and the class in generally opened up a whole new world for me. I feel like I have built a strong foundation for technology that has enabled me to learn more about the importance and what tools can be used in the classroom. I keep discovering new tools that would be great in a classroom. For example, just yesterday I learned about a website called Wallwisher that is a virtual post-it wall. This is a wonderful way for students to work collaboratively to create background knowledge for any given unit. I also recently learned about Webquests, which is a fabulous way for students to learn about what they are interested in. Its also a good way to differentiate.
I believe that this class should be requirement for all students in teaching programs. Moreover, I think that schools must make technology a priority and dedicate time and effort to quality professional development opportunities.
Hi Becca,
ReplyDeleteI can't agree more with this post! I have learned SO much in this class and the other educational technology classes I am taking. I thought I was really up to date with all of the technology, but clearly I was wrong. I really don't know what I would do without these classes. Hopefully, I would get a job in a district that offers a lot of technology professional development workshops, but if not, I don't know how I would find all of these resources. I didn't even know Thinkfinity existed and its such a great resource! I'm really glad you are making use of all of these new resources!