Szychlinski/Reflection 4

This course has been very helpful for me because, while I comfortable using technology with my students and try to use it as much as access allows, I am someone who integrates new pieces as I go. I thrive on finding new ways to use technology to the student's advantage, new websites that students can use at school and at home, and new presentation styles to keep engagement at high level. This course allowed me to take a step back and delve a little deeper into some projects I had going. In addition, the handouts that we gained access to on some of these programs will be helpful for those students that aren't as comfortable just jumping in. While I do like kids to use their problem-solving skills to explore programs such as the Adobe Creative Suite or iLife, I recognize that when completing a project, providing them with guidelines on how to do certain things properly will be helpful.

As I work to integrate the ITL standards for fifth and sixth grade language arts next year, I am excited to build in experiences with many of these programs. In the past I have used iMovie for students to add their own digital photography and music tracks to poetry, and I look forward to tying it to other genres of writing. To scaffold this, I hope to start with creating book trailers as a class and in small groups before having them work in partners or individually on these types of presentations. My overall goal for next year is to teach and model how technology can enhance a presentation just like soundtracks, photography, and editing do in movies and TV. While this is something we have discussed this year, I look forward to modeling this and analyzing popular media they love to demonstrate the power of technology.