Week 8 Reflection (EDUC 6712)

I would say that the most striking revelation involving the new literacy skills would be from week one. Questioning, as Dr. Hartman noted in week one’s DVD program (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009), starts with the students asking a question and that this is backwards from the traditional book culture that we have grown so accustomed to. I haven’t even passed out books this year. We have only used the books twice as reference material. My supervisors are not fond of this fact, and they have made it clear to me that students “need something to take home to mom and dad to prove that work is being done in the classroom.” It is a shame that we spend over 130,000 dollars on textbooks every year.
I have learned how to properly design a curriculum using such templates as our Inquiry-based Unit Plan that we created for this course. I intend on using such practices to design a curriculum based around the many new literacy skills that we have learned in this course and from previous courses as well. In order for me to do this, I must become more proficient in creating effective lessons integrating what little technology is available to me and my students.
One of my professional goals that I have created as a result of this class is to apply for grants from local businesses to obtain more computers, preferably laptops. It is very difficult for me to get amped up about integrating technology when there is a waiting period to access the school lab and there are no computers in the classroom. The lab that I am referring to also has outdated equipment running on ridiculously slow servers (some still run Windows 95 and 98). If I can somehow access a small number of laptop computers, I feel that many of the lessons I would like to incorporate into my teaching could be more attainable. This is a reality that I must face and stop blaming others for.