CEP 811 has been a great course for me. I have been able to build upon my skill set, learning several new tips that will help me in my classroom and help me work with our district in developing plans for a stronger technology curriculum. I am very excited to use the Wiki assignment that I started to create in this class. I will be developing the Wikispace site more thoroughly in the next week to help my school set technology goals for the school year, create computer lab schedules and hope to use it for a school technology lesson plan data base. There are so many collaboration tools out there, but I think the Wikispace will work best for what I am trying to do.
I am also very excited about the Camtasia software that I learned to use while I was working on my StAIR. I have been trying to figure out a way to create visual directions for our students that I can post on our school website. Using this software I can also create tutorials for staff members and parents. I started using Power Point for my StAIR, but incorporated the Camtasia software as much as I could. I felt I was able to learn a little more about both programs by creating my StAIR this way.
Our UDL lab pushed me to think more outside of my comfort zone. I was not so excited about the idea of giving students options when developing my lessons. However, in really thinking about making my lesson more universal I was able to refine my goals and expectations and comfortably find multiple ways for my students to reach those goals. I liked how it forced me to be a little more flexible and creative. I am planning to explore Dragon Dictation more in depth this year to see how we can empower our students in their writing.
One of the most obvious teaching strategies I was reminded to focus on in this course was clearly establishing lesson goals and defining lesson objectives for the students. I have always appreciated this in my learning experiences, but had not been doing this in my own lessons. I typically outlined lesson tasks for students, however, the goals and objectives are so important for both the teacher and the students to have a successful learning experience. I intent to use more lesson check off guides this year with my classes.
As web-based technologies continue to grow at a record speed, it is so important to evaluate each critically as an appropriate tool for the curriculum or content I am trying to teach. The technology should always be secondary to the content. CEP 810 was an introduction of this concept and I feel like this continues to be my focus as I learn new technology and new ways of integrating them into my lessons. I'm looking forward to the next course in this program.
I am also very excited about the Camtasia software that I learned to use while I was working on my StAIR. I have been trying to figure out a way to create visual directions for our students that I can post on our school website. Using this software I can also create tutorials for staff members and parents. I started using Power Point for my StAIR, but incorporated the Camtasia software as much as I could. I felt I was able to learn a little more about both programs by creating my StAIR this way.
Our UDL lab pushed me to think more outside of my comfort zone. I was not so excited about the idea of giving students options when developing my lessons. However, in really thinking about making my lesson more universal I was able to refine my goals and expectations and comfortably find multiple ways for my students to reach those goals. I liked how it forced me to be a little more flexible and creative. I am planning to explore Dragon Dictation more in depth this year to see how we can empower our students in their writing.
One of the most obvious teaching strategies I was reminded to focus on in this course was clearly establishing lesson goals and defining lesson objectives for the students. I have always appreciated this in my learning experiences, but had not been doing this in my own lessons. I typically outlined lesson tasks for students, however, the goals and objectives are so important for both the teacher and the students to have a successful learning experience. I intent to use more lesson check off guides this year with my classes.
As web-based technologies continue to grow at a record speed, it is so important to evaluate each critically as an appropriate tool for the curriculum or content I am trying to teach. The technology should always be secondary to the content. CEP 810 was an introduction of this concept and I feel like this continues to be my focus as I learn new technology and new ways of integrating them into my lessons. I'm looking forward to the next course in this program.
