Scenario

After completing my undergraduate degree, I believe I will be highly equipped with the knowledge and resources that would enable me to enter into a classroom prepared, but still ready to continue my education and professional development at the same time. While I know I only have a short time left in college, I am committed to being a lifelong learner and plan to seek opportunities to sharpen my own knowledge and skill set whenever possible. This is very important especially today because of the fast-paced, quickly changing society in which we live.

As a future educator, I believe I have a very strong sense of myself and my abilities making it easier for me to focus on the task at hand, which is enhancing the learning experience for all students and setting them up for success. While I am very confident in my abilities, I realize that teaching day to day is not always as easy as it might seem. With such great emphasis placed on standardized testing, mainly in reading and math, I think one of my greatest challenges will come in planning lessons which cover the core content areas while still making the lessons new, creative, and interesting for the students. In order to do so, I would be diligent in planning coherent lessons which are aligned with the standards, while focusing as much as possible on integrating technology into the daily curriculum.

Although there was not much technology integration happening in my elementary school, there are several benefits to using technology in today's classrooms. First, technology helps to engage learners because it allows them to create and view much more interesting presentations, play fun educational games related to the curriculum, and it can help teachers alter lessons to fit students' individual interests. It can be very visually striking, which is especially beneficial to visual learners (although they are not the only students who benefit from its use). Technology is a great way to link the classroom and home, allowing parents to become more involved in their child's education and at the same time providing students with a great tool for organization for their classwork. In addition, technology is very effective approach to providing accommodations and modifications for students with special needs, as we saw earlier this semester when learning about the Universal Design for Learning. (A recent example of an accommodation is the Text to Speech tool that we used for our final reflections.) Last but not least, familiarizing students with technology in the classroom is a great way to teach about internet safety and equip them with relevant skills they will need upon entering many different career fields. 

As you can see, there are many benefits for using technology in the classroom. However, with budget cuts and decreasing finances, it is sometimes hard to convince educators to jump on board. The good news is that there are several places for educators to go where people are willing to help out with funding for technology. One of which is the Grant Wrangler that can be found on our Kan-Ed desktop.