Farewell...

Although this course only lasted for a short period of time, I really enjoyed the assignments, activities, and reading material.  What I loved most was being given the opportunity to explore literacy websites and learn ways to motivate and engage my students in the classroom. These websites not only offered strategies but also supplied me with an abundant amount of resources such as free printables, tips on working with differentiated learners, and technology tools that can support my instruction.  Some technology tools that I have started utilizing in my classroom is wordle, edmodo, and slide share.  What I found beneficial about these tools is that students socially interact with their peers while creating or using these tools during a lesson.   I think that creating a personal technology blog will be of most help in the future because it provides a place to store all my tools. 

Another activity that I am truly grateful to have explored is the Course Management System-Engrade.  I have shared my Engrade activity with other teachers in my department who thought it was awesome that a system like this was provided free of charge.  We all agreed that these systems are the future of education where students will have the opportunity to make-up or advance in courses when offered online.  From my experience with creating a simple lesson, I found Engrade to be very user friendly and actually made the grading process of test/quizzes much easier.  I believe that with this technological advancement, the island will truly be developing our students to become global learners and effective users of technology. 

I also enjoyed creating my Geo-Narrative project.  Before taking this course, I wasn’t very comfortable using Google Earth.  I only used this tool to have my students find the distance or absolute location of a given place.  However, with the time spent exploring Google Earth, I was not only able to locate places on a map but also view climate, roadways, 3-D building, study the sky, learn about the historic significance of certain locations, etc.  This tool is amazing and can be incorporated in any content area.  I’m very excited to have my students go on the virtual tour of different land forms and explore places they’ve only dreamed of visiting.  I’m grateful that technology has helped me bridge the gap by connecting my students to people and places.

I truly enjoyed working and learning from everyone and I hope that you all reach your endeavors.