Scenario

I am very excited to become an educator soon! I have strong attributes as an educator, but like all teachers, I also have challenges in the classroom. I see my future challenges as being a young teacher in a classroom with older students, and trying to find the correct boundaries and classroom management in those situations. A challenge I also see myself having is disciplining students when it is necessary. I have not been heavily involved, as a teacher, in those type of classroom situations yet, so it will be a challenge to find my own way of dealing with a difficult situation like that. However, I have many attributes as an educator. I enjoy using technology, and plan to incorporate it into my teaching to help students learn in a variety of ways. I also am very passionate about what I will be teaching, so I see that as a positive attribute as well.

In three to five years I see myself as an educator in a classroom. I would love to be teaching both English and Journalism, but if not, I would be happy to just teach English as well. I want to be an involved teacher, so I could see myself helping students oversee the school newspaper or book club. I would enjoy connecting with my students outside of the daily classroom, and get to know them better. I want to be able to can adapt my lessons so they really reach my students on a personal level, and I think getting to know them is the best way to do that. I plan to get to this point in my career by staying up-to-date with the different technology that students can use in the classroom, and by attending professional meetings to learn these different technologies and how to incorporate them into the classroom.

 I think technology really impacts student learning. I believe that using technology in the classroom is the future of education, and using it will engage the students more. Technology can be used simply to get students attention at the beginning of class, but you can also use it in many other ways. Showing videos or pictures in class will help students who are visual or auditory learners. Having students create their own projects using laptops or iPads can help the students who are tactile learners. Also, for projects, students can make their own videos, and that can engage students who are kinesthetic learners. Technology is great, because it can easily address all different types of learning needs. Also, students who have special needs can use technology as a great resource. Computers can now read text to students, and there are a lot of features on computers you can use to enhance learning material for students. For a student who has problems following along with a PowerPoint or Prezi in class, you can share the document with them, and then they can follow along with it in class. Students can now download a lot of free electronic versions of books, so this would be helpful in an English classroom where a student has a hard time following along. They can let the computer read it to them, or they can enlarge or highlight the material the help the follow along better. There is so much you can do to help a multitude of students with technology.

I would integrate a lot of technology into my classroom in a simple manner. I would use Prezi for classroom presentations. I would also use Voicethread, Animoto, Toondoo, Story Bird and Glogster for students to use to present information. I would also use Delicious to continue my collection of resources in the classroom. This technology has had a huge impact on my education at K-State and how I plan to teach in the future. I would encourage schools to increase the use of laptops and iPads in the classroom, so students can work more individually with these resources.