Monday, April 12, 2010

Thanks for the Memories

We had some great presentations during our last class session-- I was really impressed with the way you incorporated technology into lessons and projects. Of course, using technology is almost second nature to most of you.

I had a lot of fun teaching and learning with you. Please comment on this last-- sigh-- blog post with what we in the Army call an "After Action Review." Tell me and our fellow readers:

1. One thing you really liked about the class: format, teaching methods, assignments, or anything else that comes to mind; and

2. One thing you would change. Be critical, as I love that kind of feedback.

You have been great. Thanks for the memories.

11 comments:

Jannea said...

1. I really liked the laid back format of the class. You were willing to listen to us and make adjustments to the curriculum if necessary. It's also fun to be part of a teacher's favorite class :)
2. I had a hard time keeping up sometimes, just because it doesn't seem like there is a really concrete thing we needed to learn here. It was almost like review, and it seemed like it was a little too easy to follow along sometimes, which gave me anxiety. I'm not used to a class being so easy!

Taylor Louise Garry said...

Even though this class went just a bit too late on Monday nights, I always looked forward to it! Each night the time seemed to fly by because we were all so actively engaged in the lessons. I loved how each week you had an agenda and stuck to it. I enjoyed all of the PowerPoint presentations and I thought that was a great way to not only teach us about technology but show us first hand. Although I am a fan of routines myself, one thing I would change is the structure of the class from time to time as opposed to always following the same agenda (but I do like the agenda idea!)
Thanks for a great semester!

kmvanhootegem said...

I really liked how much we learned about basic technology in this class. I'm not very versed in technology, and in this class I learned a great deal about how to use technology in the classroom, as well as why we use it, and how it can create a classroom that is efficiant, and different. One thing I would change about the class is the level of difficulty on the quizes. I took notes every day of class, but sometimes found the quizes too challenging with questions that I didn't remember from the lesson before.
Overall-great class, and had a lot of fun! Thanks again.

Unknown said...

One thing that I really liked about the class is the fun resources that were introduced during the PowerPoint presentations (i.e. youtube videos, and sketchpad for geometry). I really liked trying out new educational softwares because even when I was young, I really enjoyed playing around with those awesome educational programs, and I know my future students would enjoy them as well. I also liked the into discussions. It made the class more fun, and the topics were still related to technology so it was all good. I really enjoyed the yummy treats too! (om nom nom nom...)

I know this sounds like I'm just being nice, but I really don't think I would change anything that was done in this class!

pixie said...

even tho at first I thought I would dread them I really liked doing the blog posts it was a nice way to sum up the class and get my thoughts together. I wish we had done more of the into discussions like one at the beginning of each class I thought they were a good way to get started and prime us for the class. over all other then the time of the class I really liked it and will miss coming here every Monday night. thank you so much.

Amelia said...

1. I too loved how this class was laid back, we always got treats, shared interesting stories, and just had a good time together. I enjoyed having a set format for classes and teh creativity we got to put into our projects.
2. In the beginning I remember getting lost in all the links and documents we had to use. I also felt after some classes that I wasn't really sure what we were supposed to have learned or how what we lectured on aided our assignment and overall learning.
All in all I had a lot of fun with this group and with you as a teacher. Thanks for brining in your little boy, I have to say he is the cutest baby I have EVER seen! I am going to miss Monday nights :)

Unknown said...

1. I really enjoyed the content of the class and the relevant and helpful activities each week. I feel like I gained a lot of technological skills in the last few months that will easily transition to my future classroom.
However, my absolute favorite class was when your son came. :)

2. Class seemed a bit slow, which was in part due to the late hour and the fact that most of us have been in class all day. However, if at all possible, I think it would be more interesting and meaningful if you incorporated more movement in the class.

Michelle Abuyaghi said...

1. I really enjoyed all of your teaching methods. You made learning enjoyable and all of the students in the classroom were connected with all of the lessons. I especially enjoyed the PowerPoint presentations because it made it easier to organize and review information.
2. The quizzes were sometimes challenging. Ultimately, maybe a review during the class the week before the quiz would be helpful to let students know what criteria would be on the quiz. This is because there is a lot of information covered on the powerpoints and it would be helpful to narrow the information down.
Thank you for a very enjoyable semester!!

Ali McMahon said...

This class went by so fast! It is sad to see that it is really over. I just loved the enviroment. You made it a blast. If the class had a bad teacher, the class would have been so boring and would have sucked to come to. You made it fun and I always looked forward to coming to class. I would say the best thing was definitely the teaching, it is true! Definitely a fun teacher who knew what he was doing. I guess one thing I would change would be how long the class was!! It wasn't to bad though since it was only once a week :)
Miss this class, hopefully the other teaching classes will have good teachers like this one did.

Ali McMahon

Heather J said...

I really liked that the class made us think about how we would use technology in our classrooms and then gave us examples of tools on how to do so. i didnt like that there wasnt much help about making technology age appropriate. i had a hard time thinking of more than a couple things to use in a first grade classroom and there wasnt much direction for elementary students/teachers.

Anonymous said...

1. I liked the fact that everything was open-note for quizzes and other assessments, since in the real world we would actually look it up if we didn't know something. There were definitely a good handful of things that I learned and didn't know before, like the uprising of the internet and the informative youtube videos shown in class.
2. I second Heather about instruction on integrating technology for an elementary level classroom. I had a hard time with this because it seemed like there were more options to make the curriculum more creative for middle school and above. I sometimes became frustrated in finding legitimate things that I can actually use in my own classroom one day.