Final Reflection

I have learned everything that I hoped to and more in this class. I wanted to find out ways that I can use technology in my classroom to diversify my instruction, and I have definitely done so. I have not only learned about, but I have experienced many different types of programs that would be great to use with my special needs students. I really love the ease of a lot of the things that we discussed. I thought that things like this would be much more difficult, but now I know that my students will be able to do them with only minimal assistance. This means that I can use technology with them, still cover the curriculum that I must, and they will have fun! Before this class, I was a little unsure about using technology in my classroom, but now I know it will play a huge role in my instruction!

Storybird, Google Site

I thought that storybird was interesting and fun. I think that it would be a great way to students interested in writing! I also love the fact that it gives pictures as prompts for writing. This would be great for students who are lower functioning or who sometimes have a hard time getting started. I do think that the number of illustrations available might be distracting to students, though. They might spend more time picking out pictures to use than they spend writing. This could be fixed with careful classroom management, though.

I am excited about seeing the final product of my google site! I think that this project has been very relevant to my future career, and I can't wait to use one with my class. The only draw back I can see about using a google site in an area like I am from is that many of the students may not have access to the internet.

Spreadsheet

Above is a screenshot from a contractions quiz that I created using a spreadsheet. I thought that this activity was really fun and would be extremely useful in a classroom! Even using this program to assess students would be great for diverse learners and would be something interactive for students that they would have fun with.