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About the Author

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I teach 4th grade at a Dual Immersion school in Napa and have been able to experience many different needs among my students throughout the years. I am able to observe and address many of these challenges, but unfortunately class size makes this a difficult task when it comes to engaging students. Engaging students in learning is what motivated me to develop my driving question. I wondered how I could use technology to engage my students. This continues to be a learning process, but I have found that the proper use of technology in the classroom can have a positive impact in student engagement. 

 

Reflections on your Journey
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Before starting this program I tried to incorporate technology in my classroom in different ways. I would try different tools that were appealing but was not really implementing technology in the best way I could. Many times it would not add to the content we were working on but served more as a filler to have students simply practice on the computer. Students would type their essays and add images to their writing to make it more engaging. I didn’t realize I should have been exploring other strategies like peer editing on google classroom, creating informative posters or infographics,  creating a different product and allowing the transfer of information to happen in a different way.

Overall, I was not paying full attention to how I was implementing technology, my knowledge of the content I was teaching, or how my students learn best. In my journey through this course I have realized that there is a good and a not so great way to use technology in the classroom. The use of technology should go along with the content and the knowledge of how my students will learn best. Through this program I have been able to better identify which tools work best for the content I am teaching and how to deliver using technology.

Most of all, I have learned to take a risk and try something new with a good plan in mind. 

Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program
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There are many valuable lessons I have learned through this program. My driving question led me through a process of reflection and learning as I implemented student-created video lessons in the classroom. ​At the start of the program, I wondered how I could use technology to engage my students. I had some previous knowledge using technology in the classroom, but the way I implemented technology was not always effective. Many times, using technology would actually affect my teaching time and student engagement would not get any better. Being able to understand how to implement technology and going through TPACK in this program has been very valuable as I am able to better plan and use technology tools with my students. I plan to continue implementing and practicing with different tools as I continue with my journey. 
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My Blog: In this blog you can track my progress as I reflected, recorded, and practiced what I learned. 
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