Looking Forward: What Comes Next?
by Lindsey Griffiths
Now that I am in the process of completing the last course before receiving my masters degree in education (MAED), I am in the position of contemplating what the next step is in my educational journey. One of the cores to my personal belief system is that a good teacher must always be an active learner. This does not mean exclusively academic learning, although that certainly is an important component. This also encompasses new technologies and new ways to use familiar ones, fresh management strategies and tools, keeping abreast of new laws and regulations for both general and special education, and always looking for new ways to teach material to help all students learn and succeed. I also believe that it is important to be aware of what interests are popular among the children and to incorporate them into the classroom community. Students that are interested are more invested in their learning and teachers than can connect with the children in their classes are more likely to interest them and help them be interested in their education.
One of the learning resources available to my school district that I plan to use is a teacher whose sole function is to support teachers and classrooms with up-to-date technology and technological resources. This may be as simple as teaching Google Docs or SMARTboard tools or as complicated as whole class instruction and preparation for the SBAC (Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium or assessments that align with Common Core State Standards). There are times that I will contact this individual with specific questions and schedule times to work with her on improving my skills, and at other times she will come to the school as a part of a professional development program to introduce the staff to new technology and connected resources. Technology is an important part of the future of education and it is vital that all teachers remain as up-to-date as possible. One of my biggest concerns looking at the future of the educational system is my own ability to remain current with the latest technology available for both my students and myself, and one of my primary goals is to push myself to select and use appropriate technology in my classroom to better support my students’ education and life skills as they move on in their educational and professional careers.
A major benefit to completing my masters degree almost entirely online is the online resources that I have been able to add to my teaching and learning toolbox. These tools will always be available to me as long as I have an internet connection, regardless of my geographical location. Some of these include:
These three examples are by no means the only resources I have found and plan to continue using to further my own education, but they represent the diversity of the technology available for independent use. It is important to not allow yourself to become pigeon-holed into one type of technology you are comfortable with, but to continually push yourself outside of your comfort zone to learn and use new technology to the advantage of both yourself and your students.
One of the learning resources available to my school district that I plan to use is a teacher whose sole function is to support teachers and classrooms with up-to-date technology and technological resources. This may be as simple as teaching Google Docs or SMARTboard tools or as complicated as whole class instruction and preparation for the SBAC (Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium or assessments that align with Common Core State Standards). There are times that I will contact this individual with specific questions and schedule times to work with her on improving my skills, and at other times she will come to the school as a part of a professional development program to introduce the staff to new technology and connected resources. Technology is an important part of the future of education and it is vital that all teachers remain as up-to-date as possible. One of my biggest concerns looking at the future of the educational system is my own ability to remain current with the latest technology available for both my students and myself, and one of my primary goals is to push myself to select and use appropriate technology in my classroom to better support my students’ education and life skills as they move on in their educational and professional careers.
A major benefit to completing my masters degree almost entirely online is the online resources that I have been able to add to my teaching and learning toolbox. These tools will always be available to me as long as I have an internet connection, regardless of my geographical location. Some of these include:
- IRIS Learning Modules: Developed by Vanderbilt Peabody College and Claremont University, this library of modules provide background information and instructional information that is likely to be useful in classroom applications for a variety of potential issues including problem behaviors, learning disabilities, and more.
- Kurzweil 3000: This text-to-speech software allows teachers to model the process of comprehending what they are reading by thinking out loud and manipulating text as a visual cue for what they are saying. The class can work together to highlight the important passages in the text, then extract the highlights and change them into notes in a column format. The column notes could then be kept as a study guide, or even used to generate a graphic organizer of the information on the same software. This could readily be used to teach research skills and how to organize information once it is located into a usable format for creating a project or representation of the knowledge. Take a look at this video to see how it could be used!
- Evernote: This is a webclipper program that allows you to take pictures of websites you would like to save and add annotations to help you with future uses of those sites. You can also choose to save the link to an entire webpage. Once you log into Evernote you are able to view your ‘clippings’, organize them into folders, and view them as you would a scrapbook. This tool can be used to organize all sorts of online resources, be they for teaching, learning, or personal uses. They could even be used in the classroom to teach students organizational skills, how to find reliable internet sources, and how to summarize in creating annotations among other skills.
These three examples are by no means the only resources I have found and plan to continue using to further my own education, but they represent the diversity of the technology available for independent use. It is important to not allow yourself to become pigeon-holed into one type of technology you are comfortable with, but to continually push yourself outside of your comfort zone to learn and use new technology to the advantage of both yourself and your students.