Incoming Reflection

Image courtesy of www.thewritingloft.com

In my seven years teaching elementary school, I’ve come across many dramatically different media resources. Early in my career I often made the mistake of finding “cool” resources, whether online or installed on the student workstations on the school network, and tried to find ways to fit them into daily instruction. This backwards thinking, taking the resource and adjusting instruction to fit it in, often resulted in lessons where my main objective was not achieved. I’ve also fallen into the trap of using a resource that seems to be absolutely perfect, then when trying to use it with students, come to find out many technical difficulties or programming limitations in which I hadn’t considered.

I have grown from the many media resource failures, and now have a better understanding of how a resource may work in the classroom. I also have a more innate understanding of what to look for when considering media resources. From this course I hope to become more proficient and evaluating and implementing resources, finding an efficient way to locate, evaluate, and implement resources that powerfully supplement and extend learning in my classroom. I’d also like to be able to share my learnings with colleagues of mine who may be more leery of using media resources after a few bad experiences.