Final Reflection...

Although my time in 486 has been short I have learned a lot! I found great new ways to integrate technology into the classroom, and realized personally how much more engaging it can be to use technology to learn. Coming into this course I was unsure what I was going to take away from it, but now that it is over I realize how much I have learned. As we create our classroom websites I am using everything I have learned in this course. I never realized how easy it is to create webquests, make websites, and put together a movie. I hope to use everything I learned in this course next year during my internship!

OME...

I must say that Google docs has probably been my favorite overall activity. When we worked on the lesson plan, the changes were instant and it made the whole experience so much easier. Then again, today I had a lot of fun creating my Plant Life Cycle diagram. I find it interesting to think of ways I can implement all of this new technology in an elementary education setting. I feel much more comfortable using all of these new tools, that have always been right in front of me. The scavenger hunt and Google presentation will be great for students to show off their work and present their slide shows to the class. I have retained more information in this class than most, which just makes me realize that using technology in the classroom is a great way to engage the students!!!

Inspiration Adventure

I loved using Inspiration to create a diagram. I think this would be a great interactive web activity if students have the right resources available. I also like the idea of using this to map out my thoughts for the next days class. I can print it off on one page and use it throughout the day to refer back to. I am glad that this type of technology will be easy to modify for an elementary school classroom!!

Shapes Scavenger Hunt

Digital Collection

Google Docs

Working as a group to plan a lesson can be difficult, especially over the computer. I loved using Google docs to create our lesson plan in class. This was a way for all 3 of us to work on a document at the same time and not have to keep updated a word file. The changes are instant, and it made the lesson plan so much easier. I could be typing the standards, while someone else added links to all the web pages we planned to use in our webquest. Google docs makes life so much easier, especially when it comes to group work.