Reflection

In week one, I identified the learning theory that I most identify with as being behaviorism. While I still lean toward many behavioristic patterns such as drill and practice and behavior plans, I now realize that social contructivism is the learning theory that most represents my classroom. I have begun to implement project based learning, cooperative learning, blogging, and much more! I believe that it is crucial to prepare my students for a lifetime of working cooperatively with others. Collaboration is a skill that must be taught and will serve the students well as they enter their careers.
Two strategies that I plan to implement with my students are voice threading and virtual field trips. Voice threading will allow me to share knowledge with my students in a new and inventive way. I hope that they will be able to create their own voice threads as an alternative to PowerPoint presentations. Virtual field trips will allow me to take my students to places they would never be able to experience otherwise. The possibilities are endless! Webquests are another tool that I am excited to implement in my classroom.
One long term goal that I plan to implement is to ensure that my district teaches inservices on softwares, webquests, virtual field trips, etc. I will outline a plan with my administrators to make sure that they are aware of how the students would benefit from the knowledge of the teachers.
Another long term goal that I have is to write a grant to receive more technology for my school. We are lacking things such as Smart Boards, mobile labs, and much more. I believe that our students are suffering because of our lack of technology. I must do my part to make sure that each of our students has a chance to succeed through technology.
Overall, I take from this course so much knowledge about technologies that I never knew existed. I know that my students will be excited to learn all the new technologies that I have to teach them.