EDLD5364+Final+Assessment

EDLD5364 Final Assessment

1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?

I was excited about taking this course, because I was looking forward to learning about new tools that I can incorporate and use in the classroom. I also wanted to learn ways to take things that I am already doing and combine those activities with elements of educational technology. I was able to learn some specific tehnology tools to integrate into my teaching, but I would have liked to have learned even more. My favorite was the UDL book Builder. That is something that I see myself and others in my school using for many different applications. There were also some ways that I learned to take what I was already doing in the classroom with my current curriculum and do the same thing with technology. There were some additional things involving UDL, the correlation between play and learning, among others, that the course went over that I had not already envisioned. I was familiar with those things, but it is great to be able to see the research behind them and more information about them.

2. To the extent that you achived the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?

The biggest takeaway from this course for me will be my use of the UDL Book Builder tool. I have already used it for my cooking club for the students in my school. As a language arts teacher, I am also working on some writing activities to let my students do with it next semester. As a teacher in a self-contained campus for all emotionally disturbed children, I am also working on some ways to use the Book Builder tool for social skills instruction. The idea of fun and games as a template for student learning is also very relevant for my students. I already would pride myself on being someone who incorporated play in the classroom. Now I am even more cognizant of doing that regularly. I think of it as sneaking in vegetables in the spaghetti sauce. My students are learning, but they are having so much fun, they are not digging their heels in at all. While all of my students are emotionally disturbed, they all also have secondary disabilities. The UDL concepts learned in this course backed up some of my previous learning on the subject, as well as going deeper and giving me more ideas as to how I can incorporate UDL principles in my classroom.

3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?

As far as the outcomes I was looking for, I really feel as though I achieved them all. There was nothing that I wanted to see happen that did not occur at all. One thing that I would have liked to see more of is specific tools that I can use that I did not already know about. The Book Builder is an incredible tool, and I am already using it and am brainstorming more ways that I will use it in the future. I have also shared it with the teachers, administrators, and LSSP on my campus. It is catching on because it is an amazing tool that none of us had ever heard of before. I would love to have been able to build a portfolio of more tools like that through the duration of this course. There are some principles that are very helpful, but most of them were more of a reinforcement than new learning.

4. Were you successful in completing the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

The assignments were good applications of the things that I will be wanting my students to be able to do in the classroom. They were collaborative problem solving assignments with real-life implications. Working with our team was a great experience, and it is a great model to use in the classroom for students to use on their group projects. The only discouraging thing was the workload in week three of the course. The other weeks seemed more manageable, but week three was especially challenging. It was not the content in week three that was challenging, but simply the volume of work assigned and due that week. The readings were relevant and helpful. The UDL book online had good information in it, but the navigation on its website was disjointed and not user-friendly. The videos were a good visual of the principles being taught in this course and ways that those principles are being applied in schools and classrooms.

5. What did you learn from this course: about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

This course was a very helpful reminder of the way I want to teach and the kind of teacher I want to be. I have always tried to incorporate fun and games into the classroom while still facilitating meaningful learning for my students. I want to reach all kids, and not just the mainstream students who learn in a traditional way. This course helped me to stay mindful of the things that I need to do in order to continue doing that. In the realm of technology, I learned (or again, was reminded) that I know more about technology than some, but that I still have so much yet to learn. I am enjoying learning about new tools, hardware and software, that I can use with my students to help them access the curriculum. When our team leader was scheduled for surgery toward the end of our course, I enjoyed being able to step up and help our team complete assignments and make sure we had covered all of the necessary components of things. Our team was a joy to work with. That is not always the case, so I felt blessed in that part of the course.