6th Blog" Permanent Change"

I  am writing this blog to address the question, "What have you taken away from this course that will permanently change the way you teach in your classroom?" I think there are many things from this course that will impact my teaching. I will reach more to technology. Dr. Bonk has made a lasting impression on me, and I will make every effort to reach toward technology in my class to engage learners. I want to use videos in my class daily to increase student engagement, and I also intend to focus daily on incorporating technology in a variety of ways. I will use the techniques outlined in the book I read by Pickering and Marzano. I will use games daily and will plan for more competitions (low risk). I also want to use more humor in my room. I do think the biggest permanent change is the desire to use technology to increase student engagement. I'm very excited about using a blog and also Skype. I'm working on my co-teachers to Skype next year, and I don't know that this will occur daily, but it will be as often as I can arrange it. I would like to aim for a daily blog. I will also use the Smart Board to present information and now have an enormous amount of new web pages to use. I could spend endless time with the various video and songs available and will use that daily in the morning and for RTI. I also am convinced about the benefit of service learning and will work towards using that daily to give students meaningful connections to real life situations. I have discussed writing to students in other areas of our country in some type of service learning project but we don't have that all worked out yet. I am excited to email and work with the zoo and Dr. Williams this year. I think the students will have many chances to reflect on these new strategies daily in journals. I also want to use the computer lab to run the content video so students can access this daily. It has been a very busy summer, and I have worked hard to learn about new ways to improve student performance through engagement. I will definitely use these approaches daily for permanent change and more effective instruction.