Throughout this semester, I have learned how to critique others in a constructive manner through discussion and uses of different technology that I can utilize in my classroom. I have grown up in the computer era and technology has always been a part of my life, but through this class I realized that even technology has its pros and cons. I need to think about the technology I am using and make sure it is doing the job it is intended, or is it only being added because it is required.
First, this class showed me how much we can learn from each other if we would just communicate our ideas to each other. Throughout the entire semester, we have discussed different learning theories from behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and social constructivism. I always knew I was a teacher that liked allowing her students to construct their own learning with hands on activities and working collaboratively in groups, but I did not realize how important group work was until now. Group work is not just about working together and having one person do all the work. Group work is about working collaboratively, building on each others experience and schema, and reaching conclusions to make sure our own thinking is correct. This is part of the social constructivist approach, and this is the way this class was conducted. Our group worked very well together and I learned so much from my classmates. We were from different grade levels and experience levels, which was nice. At first, it was hard to tell other people my thoughts about their work, but as we learned more about each other from our postings it became easier. I think it is easier to do this face to face because you can form meaningful relationships and have a sense of community with someone instead of over the internet, although it was still a great experience and wonderful learning tool. Discussion is powerful and should be utilized in all classrooms. The only important aspect that I feel would make discussion better is the ability to explicitly teach how to critique others. I know we were all adults in our class, but previous teacher had never really focused on REAL critiquing. I remember looking at a partner’s work and just putting good job at the top. That comment did not help my partner make his work better. Therefore, some strategies I learned to think about while critiquing was if this was my paper, what I could add to make it better. Also, I think another important aspect is building trust and community with your partner(s). If this is not in place, then true critiquing will never occur.
Lastly, I learned about wonderful technology that is available to me as a teacher. I learned how to implement interactive games into my lessons in order to keep my students engaged. I also learned about a wonderful project online called the Monster Exchange Project. I fell in love with this and plan on using it in my classroom next year to teach descriptive writing. I also learned how to conduct an affordance analysis before I add technology to a lesson. This will show me if the technology I am adding is aligned with my desired outcome. I never thought about doing this before this class. I also learned the importance of knowing what resources I have available at my school dealing with technology. I made a huge list of all the wonderful resources we have, but half of them I never used because I did not know how to use them or even know we had them. I plan on using my list of instructional technologies as a guide when I am doing my lesson plans to figure out if I can add technology in a prior lesson. This idea came from when we completed our lesson redesign where I took a lesson and adding technology to enhance it.
Therefore, all in all I have learned a great deal about myself as a teacher and how technology can help my students and myself learn and grow. I have always realized the importance of technology, but know I know how to use it effectively in my class in order to help my students be successful members of society when they grow up.
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