I have always had a dream of becoming a teacher, although the image that came to mind in previous years was teaching in a more traditional way. Through the bachelor of education program at Mount Royal University I have learned how teaching is so much more than simply relaying information to students. Technology has furthered the ever changing elementary classroom and has allowed teachers to engage in a multitude of new ways with the students, and learning community as a whole. I have always enjoyed using technology that is constantly changing and improving. Exploring new avenues within technology is exciting and engaging for me, especially with the new technologies in the classroom. I have never feared the use of technology and feel very comfortable navigating the different avenues that technology offers.
I have some hopes for what I can gain through the technology course I am currently learning in. This semester I hoping to learn how technology can further aid me in the planning of learning in the classroom. I want to develop engaging lessons using technology, not only for immersion into other subjects, but for students to specifically learn technology skills. Within planning, I am also hoping to learn how time management due to technical difficulties could change a whole lesson, and how to adapt. I would also like to learn how technology can be used to communicate with other people in the students' learning community and be able to show progress and evaluation of students through other means than report cards. In terms of my professional responsibilities, I would like to learn how to have a professional and respectful online footprint, and how to continue this throughout my teaching career. Since I would like to have a respectful digital footprint myself, I would also like my students to learn these same skills. There are many unsafe areas of the internet, and I want to teach students proper navigation. If I am creating an environment where students are respectful in the physical classroom, I want them to also respect our virtual classroom and have respect for the peers they are interacting with online. Most of all I want to learn ways to teach students technology that is engaging and sparks exploration into this ever expanding subject.
Teaching English as a second language is my minor, and I want to know more about how language learning can be assisted and improved through the use of technology in the classroom. English language learners often need more individualized time to learn language than what is offered in the classroom, so I would like learn how having access to technology outside of the classroom will aid in the learning process. This is an important question for me because communication is a key skill needed for all students, and I want to learn how technology can ease that communication barrier in language learning. Technology isn't something that I will be able to know everything about, but I hope that through this course I learn how to stay informed about the ever changing technological world.
I really like how you talked about your minor and how you want to use technology to help students whose first language is not English. This is my minor as well, and this is not something I thought about initially when talking about uses of technology in the classroom. Thank you for this insight I agree that technology could be very useful to ESL students!
ReplyDeleteI also like how personal you made your post in the way you communicated with your audience. Reading it was very relatable and this is a great quality to have in your blog.
The only thing I would recommend is to have 5 goals - one for each of the teaching competencies (we didn't know this before and now the guidelines have been updated)!