When reflecting on my personal theory of learning that I stated in week 1 not much has changed other than the fact I now more than ever believe my theory is possible and I will continue to strive to make this my goal as an educator. My learning theory is every child can learn. Many times teachers see students who are struggling and not understanding concepts but they are only delivering instruction in one specific way. I strongly believe, through the use of technology and differentiation, you can help each and every student reach their potential. Students have many different types of learning styles and teachers must focus on trying to connect with each. “Learning styles refer to those conditions under which we learn best” (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2008). My personal learning theory is reflected in my current instructional practice by the various types of assignments and assessments I have my students complete. Not only are my assignments focusing on different types of learning and intelligences, but I also try to incorporate technology whenever possible. This technology use can be through the form of a teacher driven blog, or podcasts my students create. This course has introduced me to many new forms of technology that I can now use in my classroom to continue to strive for my goal of allowing all children to learn.
While I was currently using technology in my classroom this class has taught me many news ways and new types of technology to incorporate into my classroom. When using technology at first it is more work for us as educators to come up with assignments that incorporate the technology but after the initial work I feel the technology tools are very teacher friendly and help all teachers and help aid their students. Two tools that I have already begun to add to my classroom are the virtual field trips and the VoiceThread website. I think both tools allow students to create artifacts and the ability t share their work with their peers. We have learned throughout the course and through my time as Walden University the more creativity and freedom we give to our students the more they learn because they are putting their knowledge to use to create an artifact. When students have to share their work with their classmates they have pride in their accomplishments and want to show off what they have done.
Two long term goals I would like to make in my instructional practice are to incorporate more technology into my health education classroom and to begin to incorporate technology in my physical education classes. The easier goal to accomplish is my first goal of incorporating more technology into my health classes. Since I have started this program I have already added a blog project, podcasts and a concept mapping activity to my curriculum. I have incorporated the website, www.spiderscribe.net to my assignments and the students love it. It’s a simple website and activity but it allows the students to be creative and allows them to create an artifact which I learned is very important. My second goal of incorporating technology into the gym is a little tougher. My plan for this is to create an activity where the students will be creating an activity or game on their own. The students would be working in small groups because of my belief in collaborative learning and the students would use the Internet and any equipment in the gym to create their game. Not only would the students create a game but they must create a website highlighting the game and type up in Microsoft word the rules of the game. Each group will then present their game to the rest of the class and all the students will get a chance to become a teacher for the day. This is a specific idea I have to integrate technology into Physical education but I think it’s an important step and I will continue to try to develop new ways to create student interest in the class and allow them to become physically fit but also use technology to help foster student learning.
References:
Lever-Duffy, J., & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical foundations (Laureate Education, Inc.,custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
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