Blog 8: Lessons Learned So Far

Integrating technology into the classroom has been such a rewarding experience for my students. Students walk through the door in the morning, “Ms. Kubala, what are we doing today?” My students are excited about coming to class and learning in a new way. I have cut down the trips to the copy machine and trips to the storage room looking for pencils. My Students and I came up with our on AUP for the classroom. This has given them ownership of the rules that we must follow. It has given me great joy to see each student reminding the other of the rules when they are not followed. Many of my students that were not success have really blossomed using technology. I have started a blog for each of our classes. I was able to download the App on the iPad. The blogs contain the day’s lesson with attachments needed to complete the lesson. The attachments my include Power Points, Short video’s off of Discovery Education, or Lesson Zillion. . The students can plug in their headphones and listen and listen as many times as needed. A student having the opportunity to listen to material more than once has really helped. Some days there is an open ended question to answer Technology in the classroom has also been an exciting, but a learning experience for me. Being excited about an app and realizing that it doesn’t quite work the way we want it to. Not having access to the Air server because the Wi-Fi was not cooperating. These have been a few of the disappointing moments. On the other hand, we have had a lot of exciting teachable moments not only for the students, but for me also. The students have taught me quite a few things. I look forward to all the new things we are learning in the iPad immersion program as well as the technology classes being offered through the district. Today’s world revolves around technology and to be successful teachers, we must integrate this into our teaching.