Reflection

As this course comes to an end, I want to take the information I have learned and apply this new knowledge to my classroom. As Dr. Tomlinson (2009) addresses, students vary in their levels of readiness, interest, and learning profile. Using technology can help me address these variances with my students.

I want to continue to use technology to reach students by creating lessons that engage the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learner. Using the online surveys that we have found for a previous assignment in this course will help me narrow down my students’ learning styles and their areas of interest. Making sure that my students have exposure to content in their learning preference will be beneficial to them. Using my smart board and interactive learning websites will increase student participation. I also want to be more deliberate about reserving our team’s laptop cart so that my students can complete more multimedia type projects to demonstrate the content they have learned.

Incorporating assignments that enable my students to investigate areas that are of interest to them is one of my immediate goals. I have not focused on student interest as much in the past and would like to do so by creating assignments that allow students to take more ownership of their work. Giving students options is an important key for engaging students and I can create options by assigning various assessments for the students to complete using technology, based on their interest. For example, visual learners would enjoy creating an online graphic organizer and auditory learners might enjoy creating a Voice Thread.

I also want to use technology to help with differentiated instruction in my classroom. Students are on different levels of readiness, so some students will need more support than others. Using technology will enable some students to receive more support, for example, online read-aloud textbooks and vocabulary practice. Other students can enrich their knowledge by completing more extensive, critical thinking projects that may require addition resources found on the web.

Overall, technology makes differentiated instruction and teaching to a diverse group of learners more practical and accessible for students and teachers. I hope to use technology in beneficial ways to create a more successful learning environment for my students.

Resource
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Program five. Learner Differences [Motion Picture]. Reaching and Engaging all Learners through Technology. Baltimore: Author.