Course Reflection

I found this course to be highly useful in showing me new ways to present information to students using technology. Many of the projects required me to use websites that I had never used before, so it was good to break new ground and experiment with what's out there! This course definitely changed my perspective of technology in the classroom. I have always felt like I have struggled with technology, especially with new tools/websites/etc that I haven't had experience using. This class has made me much more comfortable in learning how to use new technology tools and implementing them into a classroom.

Throughout the semester I have found almost every technology tool to be useful, however I would say that the Prezi and the Screencastify stand out to me in particular. The Prezi is a much more creative way to create a PowerPoint, and its all online for students to access at their leisure. Screencastify could be quite useful to create videos for students to watch at home, or perhaps for students that miss class. If a teacher was feeling particularly evil they could create a Screencastify video from home and have their students watch it for 'homework' during a snowday. What I like about both is the potential for accessability to students. I would be most excited about making a screencast for students to listen to for instructions while I prepare an activity or something like that. I could definitely see this being implemented into my classroom, my CT is very tech-savy and is always trying new/different things in his classroom.

Final Project

For my final project I am in an 8th grade US history classroom on the tail end of the Civil War unit. My lesson plan focuses on a three day project in which I will have students break into groups of four to research different battles from the Civil War that we have not specifically learned about in class. Students will have different components of the battles to research (major leaders, troop movements, batlefield statistics, and significance of the battle) and will collaborate to form the information they gather into a presentation, which will be given in front of the class on the third day. For the technology piece, students will be expected to effectively use Google Slides/Weebly/something else creative and a SmartBoard to create an interactive presentation for the audience. As a formative assessment I plan on askikng students to give a short layout of the information they have gathered in bulletpoint form on the second day, just to make sure everyone is researching the assigned battle and gathering the appropriate information. The summative assessment will be the group presentation in front of the class on the third day.

Gifted Learners

One thing that I found surprising about the videos was the ability for gifted students to be several ages at once. Besides their actual physical age, gifted students are generally several years ahead cognitively yet several years behind emotionally; often leading to a misdiagnosis of aspergers or ADHD. I also found it interesting how gifted students are generally not very social, but I suppose that would come along with the under developed emotional mindset and the different sense of humor. I like the idea of the 'new normal' for gifted learners. It's good to recognize the fact that they don't always need a lot of friends or don't need tons of social interaction in their daily lives.

I think the 'symptoms' of giftedness are what I will be looking out for in a classroom. If a student is quite brilliant yet struggles socially, that may be a cue to a teacher of a gifted student. Using technology to help gifted students, using programs such as Google Slides could help a student who prefers to work alone, yet is a part of a group project. The videos mentioned that students may be more open to talking/discussing things online as opposed to in person. Using an anonymous chatroom for the class could be another way to incorporate technology to make gifted students feel more included and comfortable in the classroom discussion.