Reflection

Before starting this course on Instructional Technology, I thought I would know how to utilize different technologies in my classroom without any information from this course. 

I found that I was extremely wrong. 

Technology is constantly advancing and with those advances comes the opportunity to improve our lives and our education system. Without this course, I would have never realized just how useful technology is in the classroom. In another course I'm taking, I found that most of my peers are against the use of technology in the classroom. They seem to think that since they were taught without it, this generation doesn't need it in the classroom either. I  was one of three people in my class who saw the many opportunities that come from using technology to educate. Although I was one of the few against the majority thought, I found that this class was where I was drawing my support and counter-arguments from.

Technology has a place in the classroom and it may be more important now than it ever was before. This generation has grown up with a phone in one hand and an iPad in the other. Yes, there are negatives to that. BUT. We, as educators, can't ignore the reality. These kids will be motivated and engaged when we utilize what we know engages them. Some may argue to leave technology out of the classroom because they are consumed by technology at home. I understand that point but I counter it with a simple sentence that has come to be my teaching motto: If they aren't learning the way we teach, we have to teach the way they learn.

I've found that I've learned how to use so many programs that I've used for years in a completely different way. A way that is going to help me engage my students and their parents. I have been introduced to so many new applications that have been created to help educate. For example, I learned how to add hyperlinks within powerpoint to make fun and interactive review games. I learned how to make an educational youtube video. I was able to use Kidspiration, a educational program that I had never heard of before.

Initially, I thought that this course would be easy. That I wouldn't learn anything I didn't already know.

But I couldn't have been more wrong. 

Educator Profile

I decided to make my blogs address "Miss Hart". It's a name that I was proud to be called by my classroom full of kids for the one year that changed my entire career. After I graduated from Ohio State in 2014, I was not sure what I wanted to do with my B.A. in History. I have always LOVED history and I wanted to share my interest and my passion for history with students. But after graduation, I was planning on taking a year off and then pursuing licensure to teach high schoolers. I wanted to teach American History and Geography and I was convinced that pursuing my licensure for Integrated Social Studies for Grades 7-12 would be the best route for me.

And then I got a job at an elementary school as a 3rd Grade Teacher's Aide.

Initially I wasn't sure how I felt about these young kids. How could I connect with a bunch of 8 year olds and get them interested in anything I was interested in? How could I get students to listen to me, when I don't fully understand what keeps them focused? Much to my surprise, those kids were so interested in anything that I wanted to teach them. When I was substitute teaching, I found that I had at least ONE kid interested in what I was talking about. Every kid had subjects they loved and subjects that they hated, subjects they excelled at and subjects they struggled with. The most rewarding part of each day was learning how to engage and teach as many students as I could.

When a third grade teaching position opened up at the end of the school year, I was so upset that I didn't have the qualifications to take the job. It was then that I realized that I KNEW what I wanted to do with my life and it was NOT teaching Grades 7-12. I wanted to teach the younger grades and encourage their love of learning, not just their love of American History or Geography.

This course is teaching me how to teach. But this course isn't teaching me how to teach these students in the way that I was taught. Instead, It's teaching me how teach this next generation of students who learn a completely different way.

I think this quote embodies the point of this course:

"If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn" -Ignacio Estrada