LE 3 Thoughts and Reflections

I have really enjoyed some of the activities that we have done in this unit; from realizing how lacking the school board is in resources and training, to renewing hope that I could be a part of the change to inspire other teachers, I have come full-circle to my attitude towards collaborating. I was quite frustrated at the lack of opportunities to collaborate, but now realize that I can be the catalyst by doing it with my own power of positive thinking and can use my own skills to teach reinforcement.

Teacher development has come to the forefront of my mind and has really made me think about what a great decision I made to take all 3 parts of the Integration AQs for Technology. It has woken up the lazy, complacent attitude that has been allowed to fester. Combine that with the fact that I am moving to a new school in September, I feel like I have a renewed spirit and vigor towards teaching. At my new school, I am definitely going to be leaning towards staff development and training in technology and am going to let my ideas and attitude known to all that are willing participants!

The introduction of Google docs to allow people to either edit in real time or on their own schedule, has really peaked my interest. I am loving the Google Calendar and think that going forward it is going to be one of the tools that I will use consistently. Being able to co-ordinate to arrange meetings and teaching workshops or teach and greets, is such a plus for me to have the tools to accomplish this.

The discussions that we have had about staff development and the ideas we have shared among ourselves, has given me a sense of both reality and hope. I realize that the challenges to change the culture of technology in our schools is one of major proportions, but I feel that going forward, it can be very exciting and very self-fulfilling. Communication is the key and twin that with collaboration, I think that all teachers can hop these hurdles with the least amount of discomfort possible. The world of education has opened up even more with the integration of technology as one of the tools of life-long learning and will only get better as the future unfolds. I am excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!