Pause and Ponder March 21

Some key points that will stick with me from my readings are the importance of having community in the classroom to give students the confidence to take risks and try new things. I have always given students some freedom or choices when doing projects, but I need to expand my choices to the things they are good at and enjoy doing. I understand that this digital thing is here to stay and all of us are not at the same point as others. It is a time consuming thing, and I am glad that I have grown some in my knowlege of it all.
The way I can apply things I have learned in my class is to try to get even closer to my students and know what their intersts outside the classroom are and try to bring their interests inside the classroom so they can explore things of importance to them.
When I reflect on the technology I have learned so far in this class, I can't believe I can do some of the things I am doing. I find myself thinking, "Oh, I can blog about that!" when something happens in my classroom or anywhere. I really enjoyed Photo Story 3 and was surprised how easy it was. I plan to let my kids use it before the year is over when doing a book report or research topic. My kids are doing power point projects now on poetry and biographies, and I just may let them go one step further and make them into a digital story. I feel it will enhance their learning of the topic they are working on because they will want it to be especially informative if it is in this form.
The class discussion has been wonderful. I like to hear what other professionals think about topics we are studying and reading about. So many time the things others say is exactly what has been on my mind. Then there are times that i don't totally agree with what they say, or don't understand how they thought that way, but we are all different.