Final Reflection:

I’ve often told my students, “Don’t be helpless; be resourceful!” Well, this semester has forced me to take my own advice. I know there is a multitude of technology to use in our everyday teaching, and I have tried each year to use something new, but of course, it’s easy to just get stuck using the same thing – even with all of those choices out there.

In this class, I’ve had to try several formats, I’ve always wanted to but never took the time to explore. For example, I kind of feel like I might be the only person out there (not really, but almost) who had never used Prezi. I’ll admit that program does make me a little whoozy with all of its zooming in and outs, and I had a couple issues formatting when I wanted to add some things that weren’t included on the template. But now that I’ve done it, I know I can and I know I’d probably use it again just to get away from Powerpoint or Google Slides. 

Similarly, I’ve fiddled around with Google Earth before, and I’ve always wanted to do a Lit Trip kind of an assignment for a novel. Being “forced” to actually delve into making and recording a tour, helped me understand again how remarkable this tool is. These two particular examples made me rely on my own resourcefulness; however, there were a couple other times I had to go to someone else to help me. One of our tech teachers coached me through WeVideo when I made my public service announcement, and even a couple students helped me out with using Animoto, as well as figuring out camera angles and room lighting- especially for my white board presentation, (which still ended up hard on the eyes). 

 Asking questions, whether it be through searching Google or viewing other classmate’s blogs or questioning face-to-face, has been a significant part of the successes I’ve had this semester. There were so many frustrations along the way, but overall, I feel like those confounding moments were the times I learned the most. I also know that with the necessity of librarians to be “Future Ready,” this course has made me tackle technology I can actually use to improve our school’s library.