Final Reflection

As I look back at my "Personal Theory of Learning" that I developed in the beginning of this course, I have to say I would change anything. I sum up my theory by saying that all students learn differntly and there is no one way to teach. I think this couse and the strategies that I have learned go right along with my theory of learning. I will take bits and pieces of what I have learned and incopotrate them into my class and lessons when appropriate.

I definitly want to incorporate more technology into my class. I feel that I have learned about new tools and strategies that will effect my students in some really positive ways. Like I have mentioned, I am getting my Masters in Integrateing Technology in the Classroom because I know I have a lot to learn. This class has made me use tools and find programs I didn't know were out there. Two tools I would like to use with my students are voicethread and virtual fieldtrips. I think my students will really respond to these tools in a positive way.

My goals are going to be to incorporate technology as much as I can in my class and to become even more child centered. I think these will go hand in hand. I want the stduents to use tools that will allow them to tech each other. I think I can accomplish this because we are suppose to be getting new technology that will allow us to incoporate it so much more. I plan on becoming very knowledeable about the new tool and using in the more productive way.

Voice Thread

Here is my voice thread link:http://voicethread.com/share/786770/

Let's Learn Together, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!!!

This week we read about collaborative learning in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works and we were suppose to relate our learning to the Social Learning theory. I definitely think that the strategies that were discussed in the text, align directly with social learning. Having students collaborate and work together on projects allows the students to bounce ideas off each other, teach each other, and work out problems through discussion. In today's society students have to learn how to collaborate and learn from others.

I really like the Jigsaw strategy and have used it before in my class. Students really like feeling like they are the expert and teaching other what they know. It also helps to break up the information to the groups and they can choose how they teach their part. Students use different vocabulary that sometimes make it easier for the others to learn from them.

I like to use collaborative groups in my class, sometimes it is very difficult because several of my students do not work well with others. I think it is important to keep using these groups so all the students have to practice skills that should be used in social settings.