Reflection # 7- Revised Educational Philosophy

My Educational Philosophy has not really changed in the aspect of my vision and beliefs of my classroom, however, the enormous amount of information that I've gained from taking this class has driven me to want to do and incorporate more tools especially with technology. I still believe that to get anywhere in our world you need education. And with technology rapidly growing I feel my motivation is embracing the new culture that has aroused by incorporating it into the classroom. I chose to be in the profession of teaching because I want to give people the opportunity to reach their goals and aspirations. Moreover, target students while they are young and trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up, that with time, effort, and dedication, they will be exposed to countless opportunities to succeed. And with the use of technology in the classroom, it not only will make education fun and interesting, but it will create the room for new relationships to be formed inside and outside the classroom, accessibility to new information, and more. As an educator I will not limit the capacity of the use of technology. Technology will be incorporated in my lesson plans, giving the students the different opportunities to create, develop, research, and collaborate on projects they come up with themselves. Which gives them the freedom to find their own solution with the guidance of my instruction. With the ongoing training of the different ways technology can be used, I will make sure that I am up to speed on the many ideas technology could be used in my classroom. After all there are unlimited possibilities and multitudes of different technology tools I can integrate in the classroom.

 As a whole, the way I look at my past teachers and how they ran their classroom, I believe the impact I received from my worst teacher not being able to control her classroom was knowing that it is a must in having control of the classroom. If there is no control of the classroom, you have lost the interest of the students and willingness to learn. In addition, there has to be a foundation established of all the expectations you have for you and the students before being able to grasp the attention of your students and take them to the next level of learning. And this is beyond setting the rules and procedures because that is a given. However, my best teacher has opened my eyes of knowing that learning can be fun and can be refrained from the typical lecture method, which is teacher-centered. My approach will definitely be student centered that encourages them to put on their higher order of thinking hats every time they come into my classroom. As an educator we have to incorporate different views on the ways of learning and teaching, as well as not limiting the endless resources that are out there and that are being developed. By providing lessons that are incorporated and integrated with technology tools and devices, students would get a wide realm of the unlimited amount of resources that are out there. As an educator we just have to think ahead from the traditional way of teaching. I believe a great teacher is someone who goes over and beyond to become a life coach. Being an educator comes with the territory of being an emotional, psychological, and supporter of the student’s well being.

My philosophy has not changed in the aspect that I’m still drawn closes to the Constructivism teaching style. However, I do believe that having other philosophies incorporated in your main philosophy, helps bring out a well-rounded classroom.  While reading over the different philosophies, I felt Constructivism described the foundation of what my classroom would be. I believe that creating and developing a learning environment where the students are able to experience a real-world setting, along with having collaborative work area, study areas, and resource areas; it will shape the students to get into their own ways of doing things, yet give equal opportunity to share responsibilities and ideas to finding solutions. In which I also am drawn to the Pragmatism philosophy in which education should be looked at as life itself and not just learning to get by. We as educators should capture the motivation of our students and give the opportunities to use their different talents and ways of learning in projects and/or assignments that bring out the positive outcome of the subject. I liked that Pragmatism brought out that students are not the same and sometimes cannot be taught the same way. Which then brought me to Howard Garner’s 8 intelligences of learners in the classroom. We have the math analytical learner, linguistic learner, nature, music, tactical kinesthetic, visual art, intrapersonal, and interpersonal learners. And as an educator I will incorporate all the many possibilities and create a diverse learning environment. Specifically with the integration of technology. Thanks to this class I feel extremely comfortable of learning more on how I can incorporate more technology tools into the classroom.

Reflection # 6 Podcasting

After reviewing the article I know for a fact that I will incorporate podcasting into my lessons and plans for my students. Creating a podcast for audio and/or video can be very beneficial to us as educators and the students. Most schools have document projectors called Promethean boards that allow you to show documents so that students can see on a projector or link computers to show videos. But notice, I said that they are provided only in the school. After experimenting and creating my own podcast for this technology project, it dawned on me that this is a digital way of what is already practiced in the classroom so that students and authorized users can access all the information they need on the web right at their fingertips. Educators that are not familiar with the different possibilities of the use of podcasting are truly missing out on how it can develop an interaction with both the teacher and students. I look at it this way, most students are connected to social networks, so, they are in to the posting of videos and audios that they have an interest in. Why can't educators connect that interest of that particular digital era with their classroom assignments and projects. Youtube is the most popular hosting site of video posting, so if students knew that their teacher created an opportunity to create a video for a project, I'm sure that students will be intrigued with that experience. Especially if it's something that takes them away from writing an actual paper.

I will integrate podcasting into my classroom by providing a recording of class lectures for lecture review for some students that may have missed an actual day of class or need another reference to study for an upcoming exam. Also, create videos that demonstrate examples of an assignment that some may need additional help with, especially if it is given over a weekend and I'm not available to assist. But more importantly give the students opportunities to create audio or video reports and presentations over a topic that is assigned. Some may say that podcasting takes the hard work out of a class or allows students to lack in responsibility if provided with audio notes and video demonstrations. But I say that there is always going to be a downfall when using new materials such as podcasting in the classroom, however, if a podcast is created for lecture review, students could take it as beneficial if they didn't catch what the instructor was saying or possibly did not comprehend and understand how the instructor presented it. Therefore, students could rewind and review over those parts and grasp the concept that they might have missed. Some instructors speak very fast and as a student when taking notes, it may be hard to follow along, so podcasting could fill in those gaps. After all, we are providing tools to help students benefit and learn, not bring them down and make them feel discouraged for failing.

My thoughts on the future of podcasting in education is very simple. It is a tool that should be attempted or actually be used in the classroom. Podcasting has a great amount of possibilities that students and teachers will gain. It will definitely make learning a lot more fun and engaging just by stepping out of the traditional element of teaching. There are so many different ways that it could be used in the classrooms if incorporated in every subject. Some subjects require reading, research, applying fundamentals after modeling, etc. So if podcasting is incorporated, there can be daily or weekly postings done by the teacher or students of projects, reviews, presentations, and demonstrations. Overall, it is a wonderful idea that is archived and saved on a website that can be accessed right at your fingertips. I know that if I had a scenario where I forgot to cover material on a particular day, I could post an episode where my students could listen and review it right away. Collaboration with students amongst themselves if creating a group podcasting can develop understanding of different perspectives and standpoints then teach them how to relate their findings to facilitate and understanding of knowledge.