Is this the end?????

Is this the end?? No, not for me!!! I believe that after taking this class I am not at the beginning of my path to the digital age of teaching. I am so excited to go into the classroom with the wealth of knowledge and resources brought to my eyes by Dr. Luongo. I really appreciate you as a teacher. You a great role model. I have definitely learned some things from interacting with you online. You are always around without being around. You answer my question as quickly as if I were face to face sometimes. I am glad that you demonstrated to us what a "good and effective teacher" can do and enable his/her students to be. I better understand now the functions of a teacher are not only to teach but to engage and enable the student to enhance his/her own knowledge base.

When I first signed up for this class, I had no idea what to expect or that it would be online for that matter. I loved it. I enjoyed the freedom of working at my own pace and to the needs of my schedule but the fact that the work was challenging and exciting helped me to get it done. I had some issues with my blog, and starting a second blog and my webquest but in spite of those few things I feel better prepared to step into the classroom than before. I am excited about the vast abundance of resources we have learned about. I am even more excited about finding places for many of them in my classroom (when I get one). I have seen that our students will not survive if we are not better equipped when we enter the classroom. They are depending on us to show them the path and we are depending on them to follow it. But..... how can we show them the way when we are sometimes too stubborn to veer off our own path. I believe that the way I was taught oohhhh about 10+ years ago was a great advantage to me. I have skills that our young students don't have such as mental math, word-processing, and various other skills that they lack. However, I want to be one of the educators that the students who pass through my class say, "Ms. Davis taught me a lot and I enjoyed her class." Our students need open-minded educators who are willing to take a chance and advance.

There are so many resources out here that I am sure many teachers don't know about. Some are looking for them while others are not. Its those of us who are looking and searching for the next technological advancement to assist, engage and enhance our students that will help to create productive members of society, while those teachers who are set in their ways and don't feel that they need to learn anything else but what the books have taught that will stunt our children. I believe that once we are in the teaching setting we can aid other less open-minded teachers through demonstration and maybe one-on-one instruction because sometimes people are embarrassed to let others know their weaknesses. I have recently suggested to the head of the technology department at the school I am working at that they might want to have some professional development classes on how to use the Smartboard. I found through some research that our school does have one on the premises. I asked the media specialist and she said that it is rarely used. I have seen what it can do and what a waste of technology. Also, I went to a mathematics workshop and she she demonstrated using a CBL or CBR i cannot remember the exact abbreviation but it was used to demonstrate how students could associate distance, time and graphing. It gave students a hands-on approach. I enjoyed the lesson.

Our students will benefit from our instruction more if we can learn to benefit from the instruction of society. It is a digital world and if we don't get with it we will be left behind and so will our kids.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnbBVWDtYm0