I feel everything I have done in the program reflects all of the values that Touro University California put forth. I feel I have learned so much during this year. One thing I have mentioned before was that I’m glad that I took this journey after teaching for 5 years. During my 6th year of teaching I had Touro University guiding me. I wouldn’t say I was “suck in a rut” but I wanted to gain more knowledge of what’s to come. Being in the program helped me better my teaching practices and helped my students better understand technology. One thing I am taking away from this journey is that to effectively incorporate technology into my classroom it has to be part of the curriculum, not just side by side with it. I need to use it to enhance my students knowledge of the curriculum. Another thing I am taking away from this program is making sure my students are effectively collaborating with each other. I would always have them work with partners, but I feel Touro helped me take it to another level.
I have been thinking a lot lately about how I am going to use my research after this program. One of the things that drew me to this program was the final product. I felt making a website instead of a paper was such a fantastic way of showcasing our work. Not only is it useful to be able to give someone a website for more information but it is having us practice what Touro preaches. It’s such a 21st Century way of presenting our research. So I have been thinking about sharing it with my colleagues when it is complete. I would also like to share it with my principal for anyone she thinks it might be useful for. I have friends and family currently going to school to become a teacher and I will also share my research with them. As for Twitter, I might post my website on there but I do not currently use my Twitter that often so it might not go anywhere if I post it there. As of right now, though, I will be focusing on my classroom and making sure that I am preparing them for beyond.
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Before this journey I have been using technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. The program has taught me how to combine all of these things called TPACK. I have learned how to match up my pedagogy and content knowledge with finding the correct or best technology to support the students. Finding that "sweet spot" that incorporates all of these things helps increase student motivation and makes the content accessible to all students.
Entering this program has really changed me not only as a teacher but as a person. I am truly honored to have been able to work on my Master's Degree with Touro University. My teaching practices have been refined an rejuvenated during my time in the program. My students were able to join along with me on this journey and try out many different technologies and new teaching practices. By going through this program my students are on their way to becoming 21st Century Learners. After reviewing the capstone websites I have an idea of what I would like to do. I know for certain that my audience is going to be lower elementary school teachers. I feel that being a 2nd grade teacher, I don't hear a lot of ways to use digital tools for the younger kids. I'm not sure if it's because people do not know if they are capable or if it's because teachers are afraid to try. But I would like to make them my audience. I also have been thinking about the "Learn More" pages. I really like how Lisa Gottfried had all of her research on the first page. I think I would do something similar to that. Also under the "how to's" she posted videos on how to use the tools. I would like to do that also. That is something I need to get to work on because I would like to do a "how to" on Flipgrid and on Voice Thread since I used those in my first and second round of research. I would also like to start looking for more visuals to add to my page. I know that after reading Baggio visuals are key! I wish I realized we had to start doing these earlier because now I feel like I have a lot to do in a little amount of time. So off we go!
Saelee:
As soon as you get to Saelee's website you know the audience is teachers. On her home page in her video she addresses teachers right away by saying "Teachers, are you tired of falling behind the cursed pacing guide?" When you go a little further into her website you see that it's not just teachers but Math teachers. I feel that she had a lot of visuals and even some videos. I did feel that the first page had a lot of writing on it but then I realized that it was reflecting her video. So if you did not want to read it, then the video was there for you to watch. Overall I thought she was very effective on presenting to her audience. Gottfried: On Gottfried's page, you see that her audience is high school teachers. I thought at first it was specifically her peers at her high school then realized it was also for other high school teachers who would like to incorporate blogging into their classroom. I feel like Gottfried's page is really eye catching. I think she has a lot of really helpful visuals and videos. I specifically liked the "how to" videos. I think those could be really helpful to the teachers. Overall, I also think Gottfried was very effective on presenting to her audience. Ellison: On Ellison's page, you can infer that her audience is elementary teachers. Based on some of her graphs that she posted on the first page, you see her data has 2nd through 5th grade. So I assume that her target audience is teachers who teach those grade levels. Her video on her first page had me a little confused because she started out her video saying "are you ready to level up your learning?" So I thought that maybe she was going to have her audience be her students, but then she starts talking about research and how teachers should use gaming in the classroom. Also, she has a video on her page that is almost an hour long. I think she could have picked out the most important parts of that video and made a shorter more engaging video OR just put a link to the video. I feel she was effective in giving information, but not as effective as the first two sites. Avrukin: On Avrunkin's page, I notice that the home page does not have as much information as the previous websites I visited. I did see that her audience is teachers, but I'm not sure what grades. After viewing her "how to" videos, it sounds like she teaches high school. Her "how to" videos are really long and wordy. I feel that she should make the videos more "to the point" and then give more explanations in the writing about the videos. That is just my opinion though. I kept skipping parts of her video because she was telling stories within her videos. I also noticed that her "Learn More" page is really different from the others. She lists what's on each page of her website where the others sum up their research. I'm not sure if this website is as effective as the others. |