Final Reflection

One of the main motivators for me to take this class was the fact that I'm getting a classroom set of Chromebooks this school year, and I wanted to be sure that I had some ideas of ways to use them within my classroom to enhance my students' learning. Mission accomplished! Though it was sometimes frustrating and time consuming (Google branching form... Ugh), I did learn a lot and was able to explore several tools that I really liked and foresee incorporating into my instruction.   I think Kahoot! is going to be an excellent tool to engage my students while also using it as a quick assessment tool. I would also like to try using Socrative, though it's not quite as intuitive to me as Kahoot.  After being part of a Webinar to understand Pear Deck enough to complete the associated Tech Nerd Camp Activity, I ended up being pretty proud of the Pear Deck presentation I made and do anticipate using it during my Spanish class (since I spent so much stinkin' time on it!). I will continue to use Google Forms as I have in the past, but now I'll be able to include more bells and whistles than before I took this class. And I'll be able to use Flubaroo!!! HOORAY! (Very excited for this!!). I just need to be careful not to overwhelm myself as I often have a tendency to do...!

Some of the tools we explored during this class I was "introduced" to during the year at various times, though it was basically a colleague giving a brief tuitorial during a staff meeting or something like that - a fire hose of information thrown at us without giving us much chance to actually explore and work with the tools. One such tools was Google Classroom. I was introduced to it during some professional development day, did a wee bit of exploration during the session, then attempted one menial task in my own classroom using it, never got any responses from students in my class, and then promptly gave up and never went back to it. However, now that I was forced to face my Google Classroom fears, I would like to try it again, though I'm not sure at what capacity I'll use it. I can say that I don't think I'll be creating many Google branching forms in the near future as that was much too time consuming and frustrating for my liking.

In terms of collaboration, I did end up liking the blog format, which was a surprise to me. I liked being able to read other people's posts, and getting ideas and tips from them. That was actually super helpful.  I don't, however, think I'll make blogging a part of my normal classroom communication. 

So, again, I'm thankful that I decided to take this course even though the Activities often took longer than I anticipated/desired. I learned a lot and my students will (hopefully) reap the benefits!