Be gentle! I am beginning to write my Philosophy of Educational Technology. This is going to be a process that is long going, because even after I finish writing it now, things will change and it will be an ever changing statement.

My thoughts are probably jumbled, scattered, and poorly written, but it is just a 'rough draft'. I used  Teaching Philosophy Layout as a skeleton idea of my essay.

ROUGH DRAFT

Title: Technology Foundation in Education  

    

Thesis-

I believe each child is unique and special, they each bring strengths into the classroom which build the classroom environment into an environment conducive for learning. A learner-centered classroom is the best environment for students to learn, as each child learns differently. Through experiences in the classroom students learn how to problem solve and it forms a strong foundation to the students climb to success. As an educator, my task is to create engaging lessons, guide, and provide instructional support. Students should feel secure and important to the class. Every year the teacher must learn and form relationships with students to better help them succeed to the highest standard they can. An increasingly important part of the classroom is technology. Bill Gates said, “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important tool.” The students must use technology, it is this way through creation and collaboration students learning becomes more relevant to them. We as educators must teach future technologies now in order to prepare our students for success in our world.

Narrative: When I started college, I was working in a preschool to pay for my courses. One day a teacher had to leave for an emergency and I was asked to take over her class. I was to teach the four-year old’s how to add and have them complete a workbook page. As I began to go over the page, something made me put the book down and pull out some toys from the centers. I had the class help me practice with those toys then had them complete the workbook assignment. I remember thinking, this is so natural to me. It was then I’d realized I was always teaching someone. I taught my brother algebra when he was in elementary, taught my sister to color, helped my friends in school to pass classes and the TEAMS test. I’d had lots of practice helping others through teaching.

I realized how much of a difference I could make in a student’s life. If I could make a difference like some of my teachers did then I’d be able to touch the future. Patience is key in teaching students. Whether its repeating something numerous times or dealing with the occasional behavior problems. It’s important to remember allow time for either the student to catch on or for the student to deescalate to find out what is going on.

Life has its ups and downs for everyone. As an educator, it’s important to form a relationship with the parents as well as the students. It is in this way we can communicate on changes in behavior or in difficult situations as they arise.

I stated that we as educators must teach future technologies now in order to prepare our students for success in our world. This statement means we must always be a step ahead, trying out new software/apps, in order to help our students. Students should be in a classroom inundated with technology. Gone are the days of simply using a website and powerpoint in class. We need to step it up with blogs, tweets, website creation, and videos creation.

The last few years I’ve had Pre-AP/GT students. I encouraged them and provided the tools they needed to create a video lesson for the class. The group designed a spacecraft of their own and presented the needs of the craft well past just the design. With a simple video camera and software, they used this technology to present their project.

During 21^st Century Learning, an after-school program, I taught students website design, including basic html coding to create free websites. Along with this class, the students had to think about audience, colors, fonts, layout, navigation, and purpose of the page. We used free online tools for creating graphics.

I've also taught Coding classes. There are a variety of free coding software out there and they are setup so that the students can easily move through and learn coding. Coding is now, it will be even more important in the future. 

Summary-

My overall goal as an educator is to make a difference in my students lives. I can teach the TEKS and other objectives to them, but to make a real difference is key. Experience in the many years since I’ve been teaching has been that my students do remember me. They all speak about how much fun my class was and how they are interested in science because of me. Some really touch my heart with statements like, “thank you for giving me a chance and believing in me when the others wouldn’t”. I’ve kept up with several of my students via facebook and see how they are making a difference as citizens. This is why I teach.