From+My+Heart



When I began creating my wiki at the beginning of the semester, I can honestly say that I had low expectations of myself. Wow, was I wrong! This wiki has taken my on quite the technology adventure, and taught me more than I had hoped for. I consider myself a pretty technology savy person, but this project has showed me that I have a lot more to learn. I would say that ninty percent of the tools and technology pieces I used in creating my wiki were completely new to me. I had no idea that there were such tools, resources, and ways to integrate technology into the classroom. Learning how to build my wiki with each weekly project definetely posed a challenge for me. It constantly made me think about students in the classroom. For me, learning how to embed a tool into my wiki, for example, was a challenge. This is the same way a student, for example, can feel about learning their addition in elementary school. Overall, it really made me reflect on the process and challenges of learning new things. After creating so many lesson plans for this wiki, I have also learned that I need way more practice doing this! I am proud of all of the lesson plans that I completed, but all of them came with a certain level of struggle. I have not created many lesson plans in my previous courses in the teaching program thus far, so this was an eye opener for me. I realize now that lesson plans, and creative ones at that, take lots of time and deep consideration. I also now understand that having a technology aspect in all lesson plans is imperative in today's classrooms. My biggest fear as a future teacher is being able to create lessons that leave lasting impressions, and truly teach something to each and every learner. I know this is not something I will master overnight, but I'm now excited to start learning how this process works. This class has also made me reflect on what I want my classroom to look like, and what teaching philosophy I will go into it with. I am most proud of the "why you should hire me" project I completed. This was the first time I truly thought about the kind of teacher I want to be, and how I am going to accomplish this. I have chosen, without a doubt, that I want to teach in the twentyfirst century. However, I know this will not be an easy accomplishment. Our world is constantly changing, and I think it's important to keep the education world at the same pace. I want my students to be able to use technology wisely, work collabratively, and recognize how the world connects to everything they do. In an overall sense, this class and creating this wiki has taught me a tremendous amount about myself and my personal goals as a future teacher. I know we are at the end of the semester and turning in our "final wiki." However, I plan to continue to work on my wiki and use it as a resource during my adventures into the teaching world. I think there is always room for improvement and continuous learning. I have an endless amount of goals when thinking about entering the field of teaching, but I can now say that utilizing technology in the classroom on a constant basis has been added to my list.