Reflection on November 5th, 2015

I can’t believe I am finishing up my second last week of classes!

I am definitely getting excited, as well as nervous for my block. I feel prepared but also quite unsure of what to expect. Today I chose to come to our optional tech class in order to feel more prepared for block and to finalize some of my learning before my Genius Hour Digital Portfolio is due next week.

As a learner, I feel I have grown significantly during my time in EDUC 8Y34, Teaching and Learning with Technology. Coming into this class I had very limited confidence in my technology abilities. I didn’t think I would incorporate any technology into my block. So far in my placement class, I have taught two lessons (three if you include my micro teaching with a few select students from my class!). I have been able to incorporate the use of the SMART Board into each of these lessons. I realize how fortunate I am that my placement teacher really promotes the use of technology and that it is economically feasible in my school. For these reasons I hope that as I enter block I will continue to incorporate technology to a greater extent, including various tools I have learned about in this technology class.

In terms of my Genius Hour Digital Portfolio, I have completed most of my blog posts and artefacts. With that being said, I still have my TED Talk to complete. I have created a vlog post before, but this seems a lot more intimidating! When I filmed my vlog post I had an outline of what I wanted to say  on a Word document below my webcam, and when I reviewed my video later I could tell that it was a bit scripted. It is my goal to make my TED Talk a lot more authentic and personable! I have written a script but I will make sure I don’t read directly from it (which was my plan before coming to class today!) I also hope to be able to break my TED Talk up and then edit it after, which is something I hadn’t thought was possible until I came to class and saw some examples of how other students did this.

Hopefully my TED Talk will be filmed and uploaded soon!