My Semester in IT 365.

All in all, this has been a wonderful semester in IT 365.  I, honestly, did not know what to expect coming into this course.  I knew it had to do with technology and computers, that like our IT class mandatory before this one.  I had no idea, however, that I would take so much away from this class.  There were tons of new programs I learned how to access and use, programs I had no idea even existed, right at my fingertips this entire time.  Starting from the beginning, one of our first assignments was creating and using a concept map through Kidspiration; I have, in a previous blog, reflected on this, but I will definitely be downloading the Kidspiration software on my home computer for future use.  Once we got into the Web Tools, things really became at my fingertips; this was a fun assignment to learn about Quizlet and EclipseCrossword.  Making a movie was a blast and learning about free Google Groups was even more fun.  Once again, the website I found to be a little bit more agonizing, but I know it will come in handy in the future because I will need something for my students' parents to look at for contact purposes, as well as keeping up with what is going from a day-to-day basis.  I can honestly say that my weaker points were definitely the website, but everything else in this course I did pretty well on and it came easy to me.  I cannot wait to integrate technology into my future teaching and I will probably do it almost every single day.  Technology is not something teachers can avoid anymore; it is a must.  In order to improve my weak areas, constantly tweaking the website that I have already created in class would be necessary.  I only have a year left before I actually start teaching, so learning these things now--at this point in my career--is pertinent.  Back to integrating technology into my future classroom, there are TONS of ways to do this, as I have learned in IT 365.  Students, these days, have cell phones as young as elementary grades and right there is one way to integrate it into lessons; if a student needs to research on the internet, that is the perfect to do so without causing commotion.  I know that I will be using all  of the programs and tricks that I have learned in IT 365 throughout the rest of my career and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to learn it and pass it on.