Reflection
The message we want to give to all students,
"you are important, you can succeed and we will not give up on you."
-T. Patterson ASCD
I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in MITTEN twice. It has been a learning experience both times, not only for me and my student teachers, Christine and Jennifer, but also for the classes involved. My first experience in Winter, 2004 was trying at times because of my lack of knowledge and experience with computers in and out of the classroom. I had been using my classroom computers as centers, not as a teaching tool, and the computer lab as an enrichment activity, not part of daily lesson design. As Christine and I began to implement our technology based lessons, I was excited to see that it enhanced our lessons and actually made the teaching easier because of the increased motivation of our students. The most difficult part of MITTEN that semester for me was the creation of my e-portfolio. We had some technology/hardware "hurdles" to overcome and I had to learn everything about e-portfolio design. As we completed our lessons and the e-portfolio began to take shape, I remember feeling proud of all I had learned and the extremely pleased with the end results of the project.
This semester, participating in MITTEN was so much easier! I was again fortunate to have a wonderful student teacher, Jennifer, who was comfortable with technology in the classroom. We were able to decide quickly which direction to take and began as soon as our year started. The lessons took shape quickly and we had fewer hardware issues to deal with. Having taught this same science unit a number of times, I was able to see the advantages of adding technology to the lesson design. The students were more involved in their learning process and my lessons were more student driven, instead of teacher driven. The end result I believe was a greater understanding of the life cycle of the butterfly. I was able to confirm again that adding technology to a lesson does not add more work, it just changes the direction and adds a new dimension.
I am very thankful for my MITTEN experiences. Thank you, Mesut and Rob, for all the "tech support". A very special thank you to my student teachers, Christine and Jennifer, who seemed to know so much more than I concerning technology, but never made me feel that way! We made great teams!
