Blog Post 1: Technology Strengths and Weakness

As an educator it is very important for me to keep up with the latest trends in technology. The 21st century learner is not like the student of yesterday. They must be engaged, interactive and entertained at all times hence the importance of technology within the classroom. During my short stint as a teacher I have found that some of my greatest strengths in technology can be found when I am helping facilitate small groups of students during computer based projects. I love helping young minds explore the world and quench their thirst for knowledge. Being a computer junkie myself I am able to effectively model the do and don’ts of internet surfing and research for each and every one of my students.

While I maybe an expert with the older patrons I at times experience difficulty teaching younger students on their appropriate level when using technology. My mind is constantly working and at times I experience a hard time differentiating a lesson for younger or lower level students when using technology. At times I also find it difficult to create rich and rewarding technology stimulated environments when students have very basic understanding of how to use a computer for anything outside of social media or checking the scores to a baseball or football game. I would love for students to learn all the amazing educational things that technology can do for them in and outside of the classroom.

I plan to use both my strengths and my weakness to help me grow into a better me. First, I will start off by placing more effort into planning for my younger patrons possible having several interactive activities (on different levels) for them to do that involve research, book search (using the online catalog etc I am sure I can find more information about this using sighs such as Pinterest. I will use my love for books and technology to help spark interest through hands on activities such as creating book trailers, blogging, etc. I would love to continue to learn the different ways that I can use technology to grab and hold my students attention for the duration of class. I would also love to find out more information on how to create effective differentiated assessments for all of my classes. I am hoping that throughout the duration of this course I will be able to really strengthen the weaknesses that I described as well as add to my repertoire of skills.