Reflection
The Mitten project has been a very positive and beneficial one for me. I primarily used computers for word processing with my students. I also had used some software provided by our district and had the children used the Internet for some research projects. Mitten allowed me to look at other programs and ways to intergrate technology into my classroom. I really liked the emphasis on integrating technology into the curriculum. While our project involved science, I found myself thinking of ways I could use technology in the other curricular areas. My student teacher, Danielle Pusilo, was also invaluable. While she had not used Macs before, she had much more experience with computers and was a very important part of all that we were able to do.
I also liked the way it allowed me to differentiate instruction with my students. While we had some activities that were whole group, other activities involved groups of students. It was also fun to see how the children who often had difficulty in the classroom did very well with our computer activities. This benefited them both academically as well as in their self-concept and as others saw them. Many of our activities allowed the higher level children to do additional things providing both a challenge and new learning experience for them.
I did experience some frustrations. Our district recently added internet drops into our classrooms. However, some of the programs the children were able to use in the lab were unavailable to us on our classroom computers. Also, new students could not access their work on our computers in the classroom like the other children could. Some lessons also would have been very hard to manage with only one teacher in the lab with the class. With two of us we were able to help all the students needing help. Without a student teacher or a parent volunteer, some of these activities would be very difficult to manage.
Another frustration was working on our e-portfolios. This was a completely new experience for me. Doing our work on Macs and then trying to use it at the university for our e-portfolios sometimes proved to be a challenge.
I know that I will continue to use the programs I used in the Mitten project with future classes. I have also gained much more knowledge than I did before I became involved with this project. This has encouraged me to continue to find new ways to improve instruction for my students.