My reflection as we wind down the Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society Class is that I feel challenged, enlightened, and have really expanded my technology know-how. As usual, I feel that the Masters of Education program at Walden University offers an unparalleled knowledge base, incredible resources, access to the leaders in American education, compelling and timely coursework, dynamic instructors, and the ability to access and collaborate with my peers. Although my schedule is so jam-packed and unyielding, especially when including my Master’s classes, I feel that I am exposed to relevant and essential information that I can immediately use, something that my veteran co-workers aren’t having the benefit of. When I was taking a brief moment to look ahead, I wonder how I will be able to stay current when my only professional development will come in the form of an occational workshop or some personal research. No time to wonder now though, I’ll take the stimulation I am getting presently and go with it. I need to work towards improving my classroom environment and practices, and to model my curriculum in a 21st Century Learning style.
I really seem to flourish and grow in this program, and in this particular course I have learned so much from my discussions and collaboration with my classmates. During this term, it seemed like we had an exceptional set of Teachers, who taught similar types of classes, had strong and insightful opinions and ideas, and a wealth of diverse and direct experiences. I found this group to be really positive, and I feel that I have grown much more as a Teacher because of it. During the school year, we get very little time to collaborate with our fellow Teachers and administrators at school, and our usual social interactions are only with our students, which doesn’t really expand our teaching abilities.
This class has provided with so much insight into improving my teaching abilities, and expanded my technical abilities to a much higher and more modern level. As a result, I feel that I can make improvements to my classroom, and implement some very positive adjustments and strategies to further assist my students. I see myself always as a student also, so I continuously try to look from the learner’s perspective at my teaching, then assess myself regularly, and then adjust my teaching accordingly. I concentrate on teaching my classes to accommodate many different learning styles, and setting high expectations for every student. I believe that you have to know your audience, and you have to constantly listen and assess what your audience is experiencing and how they are reacting.
I believe that reflection is an essential quality in getting the most out of your students and yourself. Reflection to me is very similar to assessment, at least in reference to my classroom practices. I have only been a teacher for a few years, as I worked in the IT field for almost 10 years previously. In the corporate world, the ability to reflect or analyze a situation or experience, and then use this analysis to improve your future performance is essential to success in your career. Even if you have a negative experience, showing the ability to recognize your failure and take steps to eliminate it will reflect well on you from an employer’s or client’s perspective. “It can be argued that reflective practice….is the process that underlies all forms of high professional competence” (Bright, 1996, p. 166). This statement verifies my professional experience with reflection, and is certainly applicable to teaching as well. I believe that we must take steps to assess student understanding of each concept we are teaching, certainly before we move on to the next lesson. This is my practice that I excersize in order to ensure individual and class student comprehension, the ability to close a lesson and move forward, and to assess if my “teaching” of the lesson was on the mark, or if it needs to be reviewed and re-worked. I am lucky that though my curriculum is extensive, I have 540 class hours over a 2 year period with my students, so if I find that a certain lesson has gone over my students’ heads, I can stop and find a new approach to learning without falling behind. Finally, reflecting is a learned behavior and some people are better at self reflection than others. The ability to reflect and change is an admirable trait, and I find that I need to force myself to do it if I want to accomplish my teaching goals.
References
York-Barr, J., Sommers, W. A., Ghere, G., & Montie, J. (2006). Reflective practice for continuous learning. In Reflective practice to improve schools: An action guide for educators (pp. 1–29, 2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
York-Barr, J., Sommers, W. A., Ghere, G., & Montie, J. (2006). Reflective practice for continuous learning. In Reflective practice to improve schools: An action guide for educators (pp. 1–29, 2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
