Foot- Final Reflection

Many of the things that I have learned in this class will help me in my future career as a teacher. I can really see myself using the multi-genre autobiography. I think that this is a great way for students to see how texts have affected their lives. I also think that it is a great way to introduce the students at the beginning of the year. Also, after reading Dr. Kist’s book, I am a lot more open to the idea of using technology in my class. I now know how to use blogs, wikis, and nings in my classroom, and I definitely think that I will—especially blogs. They can be used for responses and portfolios for students. One thing that I really like is the use of Facebook. At first, I thought that this was really unprofessional, but I thought that I could at least start a Facebook group to alert students to homework and tests. After participating in the Facebook discussion groups, I can see the bigger projects that it can be used for. Overall, I definitely view technology in the classroom as more doable. I don’t think it will all come at once, but I would like to use some of these strategies in my classroom. Students are using these modes of communication in their everyday life, so why not incorporate them in their school life? It might even make class a little more interesting.

I think using these multi-modal means can enhance communication with both students and their parents. The Facebook group that I mentioned above is a great way to keep students reminded about different classroom activities. It also gives students a space to ask questions about class. I also think that blogs are a great way to keep in touch with students’ parents. Announcements and information about what their kids are doing in class would be interesting to them. Students’ work could be posted on the blog to share with family members at home. I really do believe that using these forms of communication can keep both students and parents in the loop and interested in what is going on at school.

Looking back at my blog posts and reflecting on my blogging experience, I see that I have become a lot more comfortable blogging. It doesn’t seem as forced anymore, or at least it didn’t until the end of the semester quickly approached, and I had a million other things to do. I see that as the semester went on, I began to include a lot more multi-modal aspects into my blog. I have videos, pictures, and links. I realize now how easy it is to send viewers to different parts of the web that relate to my posts or even bring those parts of the web directly to my blog.

I also have started to see blogs as things that I can get great teaching information from. In my blog about my Firestone experience, I mention such a blog. Also, when I was looking for links for my Wiki, I found a few blogs where teachers talk about their classes. I think that this is a great way to hear from other teachers and find out what worked for them and what didn’t.

Looking at the class as a whole, I must say that it was extremely complicated. Out of all of my education classes, this had to be the one that made me the most stressed—which I thought was really unneeded. Some of the assignments were much more complicated than they needed to be and I feel as though even though I learned from them, it wasn’t enough to make the tediousness of the assignments worth it. Although I felt like this for many of the assignments, I did learn some valuable things.