Final Reflection

The vast content and learning from this course has been at times overwhelming however I feel like I have had the 'push' I needed to gain exposure to tools and programs that I wouldn't have ordinarily gone out of my way to look at. I have enjoyed it and have found it invaluable however I know that unless I now 'use it I will lose it'. As I am not full time in the classroom( PE x 2 days,Year 3/4 x 1 day and Year 5/6 x 1day) and my opportunities to apply my learnings in my planning and teaching appear limited, I need to take stock of what I have learnt and try to extract what is practical and best for me to use. It will be a task on the holidays that I will undertake. Putting what I have learnt during the course and ensuring that my students are engaged, happy and supported at school is the challenge for me. Already I know that I would like to use Prezis to present photos from different sporting events and will get students to be involved in this creative process.I am also interested in continuing with Twitter with special programs and events at school. I have heard colleagues talk about using Glogster and Animoto in their classrooms so when I have the chance I would like to see how this looks and decide if it is something that interests me. Although I had quick chats with some of my work colleagues who were doing the course because we worked at different paces it was not often we were on the same 'screen'. Although we had good intentions of all working together on a Thursday afternoons it didn't work out that way, and as we only had a skeleton staff actually doing the course it was hard to keep up the momentum. 'Techie Brekkies" and other such collaborative learning opportunities would have been more motivating and would have been helpful when some tasks were extra challenging. I admire my work colleagues who have put over and above the necessary hours and have taken their learnings straight to their classrooms. I have enjoyed hearing about this and have looked and commented on several blogs. In particular I commented on Nerissa Kinnairds blog(Module 7) and chimed in on her thoughts about the usefullness of techie brekkies. This course has been a real beginning for me but has captured my attention personally and professionally. Although I feel a sense of achievement I still acknowledge that I need to do a lot more research and application of my learnings.