Final Reflection Part 2

I think that I can continue to increase my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading  with technology by reading articles pertaining to the issue. I found our course text this time to be very informative and helpful. I also plan to look for different professional development opportunities dealing with integrating technology in the classroom. Since it is becoming more common to integrate technology into the classroom, school districts should begin to offer more inservices in this area. I also plan to play around with new technology on my own  in order to figure out what works best for me in my situation.

One goal I plan to set for myself is to try to give all my tests online. This will eliminate a lot of copies on my part. Also, by giving the tests online, I will be able to have them graded online as well. This will create more time for myself in order to work on lessons for my class. I won't be spending nearly as much time grading papers because it will be done automatically. This would be an ideal situation for me. Also, it would be better for my students to type their answer. Even though they are in 2nd grade and not very good spellers, at least with the computer I will be able to tell what letters they are using. In order to accomplish this, I will need to overcome the obstacle of out of date technology in our school, and also a county wide internet that crashes quite often. I will also need to overcome the fact that my students do not have access to computers at home, so it will require more teaching on my part on taking tests online.

Another goal I have it to plan more online collaborative assignments for my students. I would really love to use blogs and wikis in my classroom. Again, even though I work with younger students, I feel that these would be beneficial lessons. It would take a lot of modeling, but I think towards the middle and end of the year they might be able to accomplish these assignments with little help. The challenges I face with this is having access to enough computers for my students to use. We have a computer lab, but you must sign up to use it. It is often difficult to get 2 days in a row on this schedule. Also, our county blocks various websites so I would have to do some research at school to see which sites are available to use. 

I think that these are 2 goal that I should be able to accomplish. I am excited to get started and see how far I get!