In the Fall of 2015, I decided to take my first step towards becoming a teacher. I knew that this was a big step, and the first step into my ultimate future. I spent hours on finding the best professor and choosing which class to start with, and I am now 100% confident that I made the right choice. EME2040 was the absolute perfect way to begin my teaching experience. Though it is a technology focused class, I learned so much valuable information about teaching. Though it was an online class, I managed to gain many new friendships along the way. Though I never got to see or speak to my professor in person, I still felt that she genuinely and deeply cared about each and every one of her students. And though classes come and go with each passing semester, this is the first class that I really feel like I am going to miss.
In EME2040, we used a textbook called "Transforming Learning with New Technologies" by Robert W. Maloy, Ruth-Ellen Verock-O'Loughlin, Sharon A. Edwards, and Beverly P. Woolf. This has been one of the only textbooks that I've ever actually liked. This book greatly aided me in learning about numerous teaching methods, as well as how to incorporate technology into all of them. I found that the text gave really great examples and didn't ever beat around the bush. I only rented this book, but I'm wishing now that I could buy it because I feel it would definitely help me in my career, especially in the early stages, to be extremely successful.
Even though I won't have the textbook with me to use for reference in my career, I will have every single assignment, activity, and discussion done in this class, which could be even more useful. Throughout this course, I have accomplished more than I ever thought I could in a class. I kept a weekly blog, created a lesson plan, a Webquest, and a Teacher Web Page, I collaborated with other future educators to create a Wiki page, and I discussed real and important issues that I will have to deal with in my career. As for the learning objectives for this class, I feel that I hit the mark on most of them. I did struggle somewhat with the teacher web page and the webquest, but overall I think that I mastered all of the objectives.
My only suggestion I can think of to improve this class would be to make it a bit more challenging. While I think that the workload was the perfect amount and I learned more than I ever could've hoped to, I do wish it were just a bit more difficult with more chances for constructive feedback so that I can always be improving.
As I said before, this will be a class that I will always remember and look back on throughout my life and career. I thank everyone who was and will be involved in my learning process. To teach is to touch a life forever.
Resources:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Weston, D. (2015, June 19). Unleashing Greatness in Teachers | David Weston | TEDxGrandRapids. Retrieved December 10, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebh7PkuWUe8
It is always amazing to read students' reflective posts as they realize all of the new skills they now possess as well as new knowledge. You also expressed the secondary (but critical) benefit of collaborative and collegial connections which are often difficult to achieve, especially in an online class. Your confidence level also shines through - those are all skills that will follow you as you move through additional classes, your future teaching...and your life! Enjoy the pursuit of your teaching career and the "greatness" that I'm sure you will achieve! :)
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