Final Reflection

Ronda Wedhorn My collective reflection
I learnt new information that I did not have before this class; all the sites we linked to and the wiki information, blogs, storybook 3, the RSS feeds, the whole thing was all new to me. These are things that I can take with me into my classroom. I found that everyone was getting good sites and giving information on them and reading everyone’s blogs was a good way to see what everyone else was finding in the world of technology. I found that I do not have a passion for this sort of thing and it is not something that I enjoy doing and would not spend the time on it, unless I had to. I will set up my classroom to incorporate some of this but because I hope to have a grade one classroom, I will not make it the highlight of my classroom. I like playing on the computer but when I do it is a photo edit program like Photoshop and I have no interest in the other stuff. I am aware of this about myself so I know that I need to not let my personal feelings over ride the interests of my students.
When setting up my classroom I will use Story Book 3 or something similar as a documentation board for my classroom because I can save it and use it as a history tool, the parents can see it when they come to Family Fridays or to pick up their children, and I can even make a DVD for the parents to keep, if they want one. The environment is important in the classroom and I want my room to reflect the environment as the third teacher with child sized furniture, wall boards at eye level, and less clutter. Setting up the room so the children are free to move around is important and hopefully having an outdoor classroom area where we can go and use at times. I will have a parent area in my classroom so they will feel welcomed with coffee, a comfy adult chair and have an open door policy where they are invited to stop by anytime. Light is important in my class, I hope to have windows in my classroom and I will use disco balls, mirrors, and other things to reflect the light. It is important to use recycled materials for other things and that will be interesting for my students. Instead of spending tons of money on things, I can get by with recycled materials such as plexi glass with four milk crates for legs and it makes a great table. I also will invite people to my classroom meeting such as the janitor because everyone spends time with the students and has important things to share with me. It is important to build relationships with your community and collaborate together for the best interests of the student. It is important to remember that the role of the teacher is changing. We no longer stand at the front of the room and tell the students what to do…we should not do that anyway because we need to take the curriculum from our students interests.

My classroom will also have interesting invitations that are colourful and engaging instead of just the same old centres of play dough and plastic cars.
I would try in incorporate technology but I won’t have the computers in my classroom because grade ones usually go to a lab. I would like to use web logs, and wikis between the staff members, as well as the, Rich Site Summary (RSS) for links and information pertaining to teacher and parent related sites; book marking sites would be helpful. Knowing your audience is important and it would depend upon the children’s interests and what they wanted to do. I would use a blog for myself somewhat like a diary to reflect and keep notes of teaching experiences, tips for other teachers, post information for the parents of upcoming events, and past things in the classroom, a way to communicate with others.
I think that using the computer to enhance the learning is a great thing to do. Students that have a real interest in technology will certainly be more interested in doing school work on line and you can do anything online, math, social, science, everything. The guests tonight talked about how children will keep blogging when they are not in school and how they will go online and blog with kids in other countries and that we need to stay out of their way and let them blog in the way that they want to and give them that freedom and I agree with that very much.
It is exciting to have knowledge about this so I can be among the leaders using technology in the classroom. I really enjoyed this class and what I really learned the most is that I really do not know very much about what is available to use in the classroom. Thank you for bringing the different methods to our attention and for the wonderful guest speakers which I really enjoyed listening to. I feel like I now have some understanding of ways to incorporate technology into my classroom and at the very least I now have contacts to help me.