Goals

Watching the videos and going through the readings in the first week of this course (Teaching in the Digital Age) has prompted many thoughts about ways I am succeeding using technology in my classroom, but I have also gained ideas for expansion. Reading the Technology Integration Matrix developed by the University of South Florida gave me a general idea of where I usually fall in the characteristics and levels of integration. Although the projects I develop for my students range from the adoption to the infusion levels of technology integration, I do not do enough of them. For now, with the limited amount of devices I have in the classroom I would like to include at least one project per week or an ongoing project that has students actively collaborating and constructing. As I get more devices, we should be able to manage more projects. Last year I taught a 5/6 multilevel class, and I was much more familiar with the content I was teaching which made it easier to come up with projects that covered a broader scope of material. For instance, I spent about 6 weeks on a huge integrated tsunami preparedness unit. Some aspects of the unit were supported by different technologies and other parts were centered on technology. The culminating project was a public service announcement that groups created using iMovie. I built this part of the unit using resources I found at Rock Your World.  That leads me to my second goal; so far my projects this year have centered on math as that is my comfort zone. I would like to expand to other subject areas and focus on cross-curricular projects that will facilitate students to use technology to demonstrate their understanding of content. Third, I would like to become better at tracking students’ progress as related to the specific standards addressed by the goals of the project. I can track each student’s progress throughout the project and use the data to facilitate dynamic and purposeful grouping.To help me reach these goals I will more actively seek out the knowledge of other teachers who use technology in the way that I aspire to.