Final Reflection EDUC-6712-3

Teaching in a district with limited technology resources, I thought that this course was going to be quite challenging. However, as I went week by week it seemed to get easier and easier to incorporate the new literacy skills into my lessons. Students did not necessarily need to be in front of the computer; we could do it as an entire class.

A striking revelation I had about teaching the new literacy skills to my students was, how much more students were engaged in my lessons and their ability to rise to my high expectations. This was an entirely new experience for me and the students and they did a fabulous job with it. I would implement a mini lesson and the students would then run with it. I had students talking, discussing, and asking questions that did not say more than two words before. Each day the students would come into class asking what we were doing that day. It’s amazing when stepping outside of your comfort zone the success you are capable of by practicing with confidence. The students buy into it and produce some very impressive projects!

The knowledge and experience gained in this course will influence my teaching practices by giving me the confidence I needed to try new activities and strategies with my students. Even if I have not tried anything like it before, this course has shown me how successful I still can be. It’s all about getting the students ‘hooked’ into the concept and they will produce.

One professional development goal I would like to purse that will build upon my leaning in this course is to complete two projects with my students like the one I created for this course. By following through with this goal it will allow me to continue my own development of the new literacy skills as well as keep them fresh in my head. So often we are taught something and put it aside and when we are ready to go back to it, we forget. The steps it is going to take for me to accomplish this goal is first, I will have to look at my curriculum and pick out four concepts that would work for this type of project. Second, I would have to do some research myself to create an example of what I would expect my students to produce. This step would allow me to determine what considerations would need to take place during each project. Next, I am a big believer in rubrics, so creating them ahead would be a must. The last step is to implement the project. If students are as enthusiastic and engaged as this last project, I foresee no problems in them being successful with the new projects to come.