Final Reflection

Polly I am SO glad I had the chance to get in on this last class of yours. What a great resource to have. I know I will be often looking back to the Things provided to remind myself of the many ways to incorporate technology into my teaching. I know you encouraged us to get creative, but first I need to organize my thoughts by answering the questions!

1: What did you learn?

How did you put what you learned into action at school? Personally?Every "Thing" I have blogged about I have continued using. My twitter is stronger than it was and I feel more confident every day. Although I love and know I will be using most things regularly, the four that I have been using nonstop since learning about them are Adobe Spark, Ebook Creator, Google Keep and Bitmoji.
Did you expand your Personal Learning Network? Make new professional connections? YES! I have two FB groups that I adore and get endless ideas from. I love the tech blogs that I have signed up for (Matt Miller and Kasey Bell). When I first tried PLN's with my library classes I clicked willy-nilly and was overwhelmed. I was much more careful this time and find I am able to keep up better with the groups I chose and am finding what they offer to be of extreme relevance.
What challenges did you face during the workshop? SOOOO much I want to learn and so little time! I also know I want to go back to show my teachers, but they have even less time than I! I am finding the biggest challenge to be time. Time for me to really internalize and know different programs, websites and apps, and then time to teach to students and staff. I have a big list in Google Keep of my summer study project!
Any big “fails”? Any huge successes? What did you learn from trying, failing, succeeding? I am really excited about Adobe Spark and my summer reading idea. (although still looking for more pic uploads! :-) My building is taking a hiatus from a summer reading project as they felt that parent feedback was not good. I am going to offer that all that they need to do is send me a pic that I will put into a Summer Reading Video to show at opening day meetings and put on the library website. I am hoping that parents (and students) will find this easy to remember to do.
Were there projects that didn’t work out well for you? None-there are some that I think I won't use as much at the elementary level though.

2: What’s next?

Did you start some projects that you’ll be following up on in the future? Definitely! I mentioned my summer reading project with Adobe Spark above. I will be trying out some BreakOut EDU in June with my 5th graders, keep tweeting, learning about Google. Next year I am hoping to offer my staff a morning PLN for technology where I can share with them some of what I learned. Over the summer I also hope to get my "Teacher Bitmoji" all figured and set in Keep so I am ready to go in the new year.
Are you planning to share what you’ve learned with others? oops-should have read all the questions before writing....using too many screens at once! I have already started talking and sharing with my teachers and am hoping to offer time next year to teach them more!
Other thoughts? I am hoping over the summer to keep studying and reading up on others posts in Cool Tools as well as the blogs I am following. I'm going to get my Bitmojis all lined up and probably get my teaching videos made for teachers.

3: Did you like learning this way?

For some of you, this might have been your first experience with this kind of independent, online, self-driven learning. Did this work for you? Because time is such a challenge, this was a great format for me. I liked having such a large list to chose from so that I could focus on the areas that I thought would most benefit my students and staff.
What did you most value about the program? Extraordinary resources! Thank you so much for providing such a wealth of excellent information. What didn’t work well? I know in my college classes part of what we had to do was comment on at least one colleague post. I wish I had more time during the course to see what others had to say.
Would you do it again? YES!!!!!!!!!!!