Reflection Paper

As I reflect back on this semester I have several thoughts that come to mind. First, I would like to reflect back on this class in general. When I first got on the computer trying to understand what I was suppose to do, I was shocked at how life has changed since I was in college from 1984-1992. Never had I even emailed someone at that point. On top of emailing, I also had to figure out what I was suppose to do in our new technological world with online classes. This entire process has been an awakening in my mind.
When I look at our discussions concerning IT categorizations. I truly was amazed at how blessed we are as a school, county, and country to have what we have for our students benefits. When we don't have Kleenex or paper towels in the classroom, I can always reflect on what we do have and be thankful.
Affordance analysis was a different tiger to tackle for me. It was so hard to focus on the meaning of the terms because for some reason, the words and meanings don't fit together. This was totally new for me. I understand it now, but I will probably will always use different terms instead of those.
Being a school counselor in my past, looking back at the learning theories was interesting. I never truly enjoyed the psychology part of counseling. I've never thought of myself as a constructivist or social constructivistic teacher. This study truly made me think through all 4 theories that we studied. I know that I would not fall under the other 2 as far as my teaching theory. I want to be the best teacher possible. I want to take the best of all the theories and BECOME who I am to become as a teacher. Studying these theories has definitely made me figure out who I am. I am a teacher who wants to teacher using the environment, the knowledge of others, and all the manipulatives and tools available for my students to love learning. With this, I will show these students love, unconditional love, as their teacher.
Lastly, I want to address the discussion part of the class. This was the difficult part of the class. I think the first difficult part was just figuring out where to go to find all the information. As time went on, I figured out how to navigate my way around. It wasn't anything Dr. Wang could change, it was just my inexperience that played a big part. Actually, the class meetings we had were very beneficial and helped me so very much. I'm sure for those students that have been in college and have learned the workings of posting, threads, blogging, and discussions it wasn't as difficult. Discussions were hard at first. It is difficult to critique other's work when you don't know them. It could have been good to meet my classmates. Also, when we are discussing, it is so important to be sure what you say is said in the appropriate way for others to not take offense. I know if I am offended I have chosen to be offended. It is just critical in discussions that we are careful and follow the guidelines. One hard point about discussions was if you really couldn't find anything that you thought needed to be changed, it was hard to make a suggestion.
Overall, I am so glad I took this class. My reflections are positive. I feel having a professor that is willing to help you figure out the pieces of the puzzle that are missing for you, is critical. I have learned and will be able to use by knowledge in the very near future. It will be incredible to see my learning theory come to life in my classroom.