Reflective Blog # 3

     This course has expanded my knowledge a great amount and helped me immensely in incorporating technology into my classroom.  Different articles read in this course have helped me gain an understanding of not only the importance of using technology with my students, but also the pros and cons and how to get technology available.  I have used what I have learned in having conversations with my peers and student's parents, in staff meeting discussions as well as Professional Development training days.
     In doing my research for writing a Grant, I have discovered how to find grants.  I also looked at past grant proposals to understand how to appropriately write one.  I am able to contribute research details from the information I have gathered from several of the articles read in this class by arguing how I would appropriate use the technology if in my own classroom.
     Presently, taking this course has helped me most in my confidence with public speaking.  I usually am one to mostly observe in a meeting, however after gaining much knowledge of technology in classrooms and how it positively affects students, I feel comfortable to participate.  I even am involved in our school's technology group and lead a lot of technology based projects.  More specifically, I have created a Google Doc (which I never knew of before this class) and have it in public viewing to check out our 6 carts full of student computers.  Every staff member is able to log-in no matter their location with the simple click of a link.
     Our school is focusing mainly on our technology usage in our classrooms this year.  I plan keep up with this by incorporating any technology I can, as often as I can.  Teaching in a classroom that comes with a projector, documentation camera and Smart Board, I feel like I can easily complete the task of getting students to use technology.  I will do this by having presentations of the projector for whole groups, using the Smart Board to work out math problems, use our mini laptops for academic testing, etc.  Using all of this technology gets the students more interested to learn.  I plan on continuing this technology usage even just for helping make learning more fun!