February 9

           This is my final submission for this course. I feel that I have definitely grown in my technological skills and confidence. Mostly all of my assignments and work for this course I can see myself reusing in my job. I especially enjoyed the artifacts assignments because it really pushed me to try new things. In my job as a resource teacher I find myself feeling that I should know more! I think I need to be up to date on all the latest and greatest there is out there to support my students learning. Then I can share it with my staff.
 It is important for myself to not disregard objects of the past because there is still a lot of value in them. It is too easy to get caught up in the craze of "newer is better" but this is not always the case. I covered this issue in my final assignment.

February 8, 2014

       It has been a busy week with report cards and meetings at school. I have had a lot of "tech" experiences at school this week. Some of my students were having difficulty with their net books for writing so I had to get the tech man to come and fix them which was an easy fix. And then I had a student start using a new program called Fast ForWord that our Speech Language Pathologist prescribed. It is a computer program that essentially is supposed to "retrain the brain." Our school is piloting some subscriptions to the program and we are hoping for great results for our students. Each subscription is a lot of money so we have received some funding. I think I will add this topic to my last big project for this course which is on AT in elementary.
I plan on continuing it work on my final assignment for this course. I have decided to do a PowerPoint presentation for the purpose of this assignment because I think I would be able to p[perhaps use this presentation in my school for my staff if they are interested. 

February 1

It's hard to believe that it is the first day of February! I have made good progress on this course. I recently completed Module 5 which was a great module. Creating a growth plan really made me question where I want to be in terms of technology in my teaching career. The video posted at the beginning on Module 5 was a very enlightening video. It made me see that technology is not only a great benefit to teachers but even more so to students. This quote is one of my favorite from the video: "It's not just about the technology its self, its about unleashing the powers that students bring with them into the classroom." This is so true! If students are engaged and empowered then they learn better and have more confidence. Perhaps as teachers we should try to incorporate more "student led" teaching of what they know. We can all learn from each other.

January 29

            I have completed my website and am very proud of my accomplishments. Previous to taking this course I had never made a website. At first I was a little overwhelmed by creating my site but after reading the great tutorials on line it really gave me confidence. Personally I find that I learn by doing when it comes to computer stuff. Once I got the hang of my website building it was smooth sailing. My links that I put in my website worked and I was able to easily access images to insert into the site.
          I feel confident that I could recreate another web page with my students if I ever became a classroom teacher again. Also, I think that my course webpage would be a great spot to post my newsletters, assignments etc.
        

January 18

I have been busy this past week with my discussion forum which went fantasitc. I have also particpated in other classmates discussions. I enjoy the time talkig with other teachers. We have so much to learn from one another!
 I am now working on creating my artifacts. I have always wanted to do a Prezi and I was very happy to have the opportunity to do so. I had never heard of Bubbleus and was also happy to learn something new. I am still trying to decide what to do for my last artifact....I am planning on going back to the resources in module three and looking at my choices. I found the websites that were provided for us very helpful in making me decide what I should do for my skill set.

January 4 2014

This is my first post of the new year! I have been working on my website and I am impressed with my site. I am going to now focus in my discussion topic for module 1. I am considering narrowing my focus to assistive technology for writing in elementary. I have several students who have fine motor issue and can not hold or use a pencil properly. I would like to research this further.