Technology Skills Boot Camp Reflection

  When the Technology Skills Bootcamp project began, I remember being pleased when I reviewed the checklist.  It included many things I was familiar with.  I thought that will be helpful, because I could gain more practice on the tools I already knew about.  I thought I could also build more confidence in my skills.  Now that the project is completed, I think I gained more practice and confidence in my skills, along with much more.

  Looking back at my goals from the beginning of the semester, I feel that I have accomplished each of my goals.  I wanted to become as comfortable using Word as I am with Pages.  Now I find myself picking between the two depending on the task.  Before, I would have immediately chosen Pages without giving it much thought.  As for PowerPoint which is a tool I use regularly in my classroom, I found that by taking the time to add details such as hyperlinks and the use of master slides can help keep the transitions smooth.  For example, my class was using our daily PowerPoint on 75 phonograms, when the computer froze.  Once it restarted, it was easy for the students to return to the task, because the updated PowerPoint has hyperlinks for each slide and a master slide for them to guide the slide show.  In the past, I would have had to click through each slide to return to our spot.

  When the checklist mentioned databases and spreadsheets, I was eager to learn more about how I could use these as a professional.  The last time I had used a database was during my undergrad courses.  I was pleased to see how user friendly many of the databases were.  That was encouraging to continue the search for desired articles.  I hope to use them to help parents find useful articles on their child’s education.  Spreadsheets were something that I had seen many other teachers use.  Before this course, I was not as familiar with it, therefore I did not use it on a regular basis.  Now I see many ways that it can be used to organize and display students’ information.  I plan to take the time to use the charts and graphs to display students’ work and progress.  

  I am very confident in my graphic design skills, therefore I took the time in module six to build my skills in Smart Board Notebook.  I use my classroom Smart Board daily.  I have a few favorite activities in the files provided.  I was eager to have the time to explore more of the activities and pre-made lessons.  I would like to incorporate more Smart Board activities to enrich lessons now that have have seen what is available.  Before this course I used Smart Board Exchange to download many activities, however the activities objectives did not always match my own.  Now that I have explored the many possibilities and options Smart Board Notebook offers, I would like to build and develop more of my own activities to match my specific lesson objectives.  

  In conclusion, I found the Technology Skills Checklist a beneficial project.  I was able to gain confidence in many skills and tools.  I plan to continue to use these tools on a regular basis to further my learning and build my understanding of how the resources can be used in the classroom.  The project also allowed me to explore unfamiliar areas in technology.  My explorations led me to develop ideas of how I could use many of the resources in my classroom, from things to encourage learning in a lesson to making my classroom more organized and successful.  I gained a desire to incorporate even more technology in my classroom and I saw many possibilities to how I can do so.