Course Reflection

   Well, here I am at the end of the first class of my educational technology cohort. The last few weeks flew by, and I'm not just saying that because the first trimester of the school year is always busy and chaotic. This class flew by in a good way because nothing we did ever felt like a chore or was something that I needed to push through, knowing there would be no benefit. I've learned so much from this course, from small tips and "technology life hacks" to big ideas to implement with my students, I appreciate it all. I installed Grammarly (which is helping me edit this blog post right this very moment), I learned how to participate in a Twitter Chat (turns out, not that scary), and I downloaded Google Keep on my phone (which has deeply satisfied my need to cross off items on lists).

   I have always been more of an ELA fan, so math hasn't been my favorite thing to teach. I made it one of my goals this year to pull some new ideas into my math block to make it more exciting for both me and my students. One of our projects for this course was to create a collaborative space, so I decided to make a "home base" for my students to use as a check-in at the beginning of math each day. I'm excited about having this tool as a way to collect data, encourage my students to be collaborative, and expose them to different apps, games, and tools. I included a screencast below that walks you through our space!

   The only two challenges that I've had with this course are that 1) I'm the only primary teacher and, therefore, 2) I'm the only one who has a shared iPad classroom. This makes it difficult to fully relate to what the other teachers are sharing and can be frustrating since implementing new ideas always seems to be a bit more of a challenge with shared devices. One way that I try to combat the hardships of 2:1 iPads is to teach my first graders how to navigate the iPads proficiently, which will help them use their time efficiently. I created a poster that I introduced and hung in my classroom to help them remember the steps for posting to Seesaw. This will be especially helpful at the beginning of the year next year when the students are trying to get used to all of the apps that we use!

   One of my very favorite things that I took away from this course was something that our instructor introduced us to during our last class. It's a Mood Check-In Google Form that contains 4 questions that the students answer at the beginning of each day. The impact that this could have on the students' social emotional well-being is tremendous, and I am so excited to implement it! I made an appointment with our MRC director for tomorrow morning and she's going to help me create a bookmark so the students can access it easily, and help me brainstorm how to make this work in our shared iPad classroom. I can't wait to see what I can learn about my kiddos by using this tool!

   All in all, I really really loved this class and I am so thrilled that our instructor is staying with us for the next one! I can feel myself getting more and more comfortable with technology, and I know that it's going to make me a better educator.