Final Reflection

1. What are the most important things you have learned in this class? Why are they important?
   In this class, I learned about lots of different resources and tools for teaching using technology. Some of these tools were ones that I could use for creating lessons, such as emaze and prezi, and others were ones I could invite my students to use for creative projects, such as Sway and Pixton. I learned how to navigate the UEN website to find the core standards, lesson plans, and additional resources available for teachers in Utah. I have learned more about how magical google drive is and ways to be able to use it as a teacher. I also learned that if there is a web tool that is stressing you out or you can't figure it out, there's always going to be a similar one that you can use instead and there's also probably going to be a youtube video to give you some additional information to help you figure it out.  I think these things are important because technology today is a lot different from when I was in elementary school so there are a lot of things to which I have not had any exposure. While the available resources will continue to grow, I need to have practice with the ones that are already around because it's easier to build on a base of knowledge than to just jump in and start all the way from scratch.
   
2. What, if anything, has changed about your perspective of technology from the beginning of the term? Why has it changed, or why has it stayed the same?
   One important shift for me this semester was realizing how technology skills are not just important for education but also for preparing my students to be effective an an increasingly technological workforce. While that might not be the first thing on the mind of an elementary student, the earlier they practice and become comfortable with using lots of different apps and programs, the more comfortable they will be with those things as an adult. I also think that whether or not we use technology in the classroom, students will use it somewhere at some point and it's never too early to teach them to use technology ethically and effectively.
   
3. How will technology help you innovate teaching and learning in your classes? (provide at least 3 specific examples of what you hope to do)
   Technology will help me diversify my teaching and learning so I'll be able to better reach my students.
   One lesson I am particularly excited about is a health standard 5 lesson for 6th graders. The objective is to examine emotions that may lead to violence, and determine safe ways to manage them. (uen) My plan for this lesson is to brainstorm with my students situations that may elicit strong emotional reactions and to cover some examples of emotional reactions-sorting them into constructive and destructive reactions. I would then have my students break into groups and identify a character from history or a book they've all read who handled an emotional situation destructively and create a "how it could have ended" comic strip (using pixton or similar) detailing what could have happened if the character had handled it constructively instead.
   In 5th grade math, we will be working on operations with fractions. Because fractions can be hard to conceptualize, I will use ShowMe or similar to create a quick whiteboard video that the students can pull up at home to help the students when they are at home with their homework or studying for a test.
   I am also excited to use technology for 5th grade social studies. Standard 4 objective 2  is to describe the impact of physical geography on the cultures of the northern and southern regions (e.g. industrial resources, agriculture, climate). Using maps and other similar tools, I will be able to help my students visualize these concepts in a way that might be trickier using a textbook. It'll also be helpful for when they need to map the different trails used for westward expansion.