As an educator, what are your present strengths and weaknesses in technology? How do you plan to use your strengths? How do you plan to address the weaknesses?
As a teacher, I understand the importance of incorporating technology into my teaching in order to capture the attention of my students. Whenever I use technology in my lessons, I usually feel that the students come away with a better understanding of the material. I am always looking for new ways to incorporate technology in my classroom. I feel like my background in technology is fairly strong, and I have a good working knowledge of various forms of technology and how to use them, but I also admit there are still many things I need to learn.
My biggest weakness is that I often get scared off by the amount of time it can take to prepare a lesson that uses technology. Sometimes it seems easier to continue teaching a topic the same way I have in years past than it is to try something new with technology. Another weakness is that I sometimes get frustrated trying to teach my students to use technology. I teach second grade, and many of the students don't come into my class with a very strong background in technology. With twenty students in my class to one teacher, it can be difficult to get all the students to use technology successfully.
I plan to do a better job of using my knowledge of technology with my students this year. I am going to spend more time planning lessons that include technology and try not to be more positive and not think of all the things that can go wrong when trying to teach seven year olds how to use various forms of technology. Our school is a little behind in getting the latest technology, but this year I have a Promethean Board to share with another second grade teacher. I know there are so many exciting things that can be done using the Promethean Board, so I am going to attend a staff development offered through my district to learn about some of the ways I can use the board with my class. I am excited about this course because I know I will learn about new ways of using technology with my kids.
