What I got from it

These past four months in the classroom have been very beneficial for me. I started this class with knowledge on how to use Excel, Word and Power Point but never imagined there was so much more you can do with it. Now I know how to bring to life boring Power Point presentations by incorporating hyperlinks, videos, podcasts and more. I know now that Word does not have to be just for research papers but also for amazing handouts, flyers, brochures, newsletters, business plans and more. You can make a Word document very interactive and appealing to students. I always thought Excel was the most boring program but after taking this class I know that I can use this program to create seat charts, grade books and even crossword puzzles for my students. In addition, I learned how to use other programs such as Inspiration that can be extremely helpful when trying to engage students that prefer a visual way of learning. Inspiration also will help me scaffold my instruction by providing my students a way to create concept maps, graphic organizers, diagrams, story webs, outlines, etc. Also I learned how to make Podcasts and how to create my own website where I was able to practice how to design it and most importantly how to make it student and parent friendly. As you can see, I brought some skills with me at the beginning of the class but I definitely have a deeper understanding of how to use technology to support my students. I can see myself using what I have learned to accommodate my ELLs in ways that I could not have done before this class.

SMART Boards

After the initial WOW I had about SMART Boards, the feeling wore off and I am just left with the question of how beneficial are they really. Don’t get me wrong! I would love to have one in my future classroom but like everything else, it really depends on how you use it. I am aware that with this technology my life as a teacher will be easier. It will help me bring multi-media into my lessons and help me do interesting things that I cannot do with PowerPoint. The SMART Board resources in the internet are abundant and I can use them to make the content more dynamic and clear. I think the smart board technology is relatively easy to use and helps accommodate many learning styles at the same time. However, the SMART Board is just a tool and as such, it is how you use this tool that counts. When trying to emphasize nonlinguistic representations of content, we must make sure not to clutter slides and choose relevant, focused visuals. I don’t have a lot of experience with SMART Boards but it seems to me that it will help reinforcing the material more than explaining the reasoning behind it. In other words, I don’t know if it will help students focus attention on the “why” behind the correct or incorrect response. This is where teacher intervention is necessary and cannot be replaced by software regardless of how smart it is! The software cannot read students the way we can. Again, don’t misinterpret what I am saying. I think that proper usage of this technology can be very beneficial in the classroom but again…the key word is proper usage. I firmly believe it is more about the teaching than the “tool”.