This is the first class I took through Mizzou Direct. I had been thinking and talking about working on my Master’s degree through an online program for years, and I finally took the plunge!

 

My goals for this class were to start working on my Master’s degree, to see if I would be comfortable in the online class environment, to learn new ways of utilizing technology in the classroom, and to become more up-to-date with technological issues in the school setting.

 

This class was everything and more than I expected. I knew there would be thought-provoking work and deadlines to deal with. I didn’t realize how much I would gain from the online discussions and the collaborative work. I’ve learned so much from my fellow classmates, both from other experienced teachers and from the enthusiastic young beginning teachers. Everyone has had ideas to share and problems to discuss. I gained a wealth of new ideas to use in my classroom, just from the discussion board alone.

 

When I began this class, I thought to myself “this will be easy, I already know this!” Then I soon found that I didn’t know it all yet. While some of the theories and recommended websites were familiar to me, I soon found many new concepts and links to websites that I hadn’t seen before.

 

This class helped me realize that I need to stay current with technology, and continue to move my classroom forward from the traditional teacher as lecturer focus to a student centered, teacher as facilitator focus.  If I want to be the best teacher I can be, I must continue to improve my technological skills and make current technology available to students in my classroom. I am aided in this process by being part of our tech grant and by taking classes like this one where I am encouraged to push myself as I learn new technology skills and ways to integrate those skills in my classroom.