"And so I'll take with me the memories..." (That's Boyz II Men, y'all. Go ahead. The tears are good for you.)
This Class, This Semester
First of all, a fat thank you to the heavenly creatures who paired this enjoyable and creative web tool exploration and integration course with the dry, textbook Quant/Qual course. While the latter taught me a lot of important information about how to conduct research, it was difficult to actually enjoy until I really started thinking about it in association with my own research. THIS class, though. This class is why I entered this program. I loved the idea of integrating technology into my units and lessons, but I had no clue what I was doing and needed some guidance that encouraged my creativity. This course helped me to know some of the capabilities of Internet tools, and I use many of the tools we explored this semester in my everyday personal and professional life now; these most notably: Google Drive's prolific menu of apps, Jing imaging and screencasting, Diigo social bookmarking, and Twitter professional development. I also enjoy blogging, but the time it takes for me to compose each post makes personal blogging a logistical improbability. That’s a shame, because writing is a passionate enterprise for me. I enjoy sleep, though, too, so there’s that. Irony: posting about the joy of sleep at 12:23 am the day after finals are due.
Me, a Leader?
Several times this semester, I've forced myself to direct people to my blog for answers and how-tos. It's strange, in those moments, to feel like and trust in myself as a tech tool authority when I've only pulled a few of the nested dolls out of their precocious hiding places thus far. Still, the job of teacher-teacher is an intriguing and inviting one. What better, more purposeful audience of learners? What better means of helping large populations of students than by helping their teachers? There are political, academic, and environmental reasons for a change in teacher culture: Teachers will need intensive training to use engaging strategies that actually elicit the critical thinking necessary to meet the new standards of rigor their students will face, and American schools' paper usage alone is enough to encourage me to consider paperless education. But who will train the teachers on how to really deepen their students experiences by going paperless? I am glad to be a part of that important effort to get teachers thinking beyond Internet presentation tools.
Helping Students
My research, experiences with my own preschooler, borrowing of high school classrooms for field work, and tutoring of a wide age range of students have begun to meld into a desire to work with younger students, to "catch" them early enough to help them develop critical thinking skills and digital literacies that will provide them with a strong enough academic base to handle whatever is coming to them. I've been asking around, and it is alarming to me how many high school students have yet to "hear" their own voices in their heads, to actually experience inner speech and active consciousness about their learning or about anything at all. Developing this capability in my students has become a goal of mine, and I have worked to apply the tools I learned about this semester to that end. I have every faith that it will work, and as I refine this connection's actual implementable classroom approach and actively research it next semester, I grow as an educator, a researcher, and a person.
Thanks for this semester, Dr. Clark. It's been a big one.
First of all, a fat thank you to the heavenly creatures who paired this enjoyable and creative web tool exploration and integration course with the dry, textbook Quant/Qual course. While the latter taught me a lot of important information about how to conduct research, it was difficult to actually enjoy until I really started thinking about it in association with my own research. THIS class, though. This class is why I entered this program. I loved the idea of integrating technology into my units and lessons, but I had no clue what I was doing and needed some guidance that encouraged my creativity. This course helped me to know some of the capabilities of Internet tools, and I use many of the tools we explored this semester in my everyday personal and professional life now; these most notably: Google Drive's prolific menu of apps, Jing imaging and screencasting, Diigo social bookmarking, and Twitter professional development. I also enjoy blogging, but the time it takes for me to compose each post makes personal blogging a logistical improbability. That’s a shame, because writing is a passionate enterprise for me. I enjoy sleep, though, too, so there’s that. Irony: posting about the joy of sleep at 12:23 am the day after finals are due.
Me, a Leader?
Several times this semester, I've forced myself to direct people to my blog for answers and how-tos. It's strange, in those moments, to feel like and trust in myself as a tech tool authority when I've only pulled a few of the nested dolls out of their precocious hiding places thus far. Still, the job of teacher-teacher is an intriguing and inviting one. What better, more purposeful audience of learners? What better means of helping large populations of students than by helping their teachers? There are political, academic, and environmental reasons for a change in teacher culture: Teachers will need intensive training to use engaging strategies that actually elicit the critical thinking necessary to meet the new standards of rigor their students will face, and American schools' paper usage alone is enough to encourage me to consider paperless education. But who will train the teachers on how to really deepen their students experiences by going paperless? I am glad to be a part of that important effort to get teachers thinking beyond Internet presentation tools.
Helping Students
My research, experiences with my own preschooler, borrowing of high school classrooms for field work, and tutoring of a wide age range of students have begun to meld into a desire to work with younger students, to "catch" them early enough to help them develop critical thinking skills and digital literacies that will provide them with a strong enough academic base to handle whatever is coming to them. I've been asking around, and it is alarming to me how many high school students have yet to "hear" their own voices in their heads, to actually experience inner speech and active consciousness about their learning or about anything at all. Developing this capability in my students has become a goal of mine, and I have worked to apply the tools I learned about this semester to that end. I have every faith that it will work, and as I refine this connection's actual implementable classroom approach and actively research it next semester, I grow as an educator, a researcher, and a person.
Thanks for this semester, Dr. Clark. It's been a big one.