My Technology Education Expectations

My name is Lauren Owsley and I am so passionate about becoming a teacher. I am going through classes to fulfill my dream at the University of Tennessee in the Elementary Education Program. I am in the Urban/Multicultural cohort so there is a big passion for equal opportunity and enriching lessons. I am always looking for innovative ways to liven up the classroom, which is why I really love technology. I can remember using all sorts of programs when I first started to dabble into advanced technology of the time like Paint, Word, PowerPoint, and others to make my school projects creative. As I have progressed in my education through college I am excited to see that there are so many more resources out there! I have used web design in my own student organizations, I have used an exciting presentation tool called Prezi, created fliers and brochures with pages, and I have even tried to create shared documents in the cloud for classmates and study groups. So I have had my fair share of introductions to technology, but after choosing to take Theory and Practice in Teacher Education 486 (Integrating Technology Curriculum) I started to really explore all my possibilities when it came to avenues for children to learn with! I have learned to use several tools thus far that are going to be so useful to me. They include this blog, a website, and a wiki. I am really excited to see what other tools are out there that I can take advantage of. 

My expectations for this class align with my excitement. I really want to learn how to use these and other tools in a basic way, but also in a way that allows me to help my students get excited about what we are learning and can teach them in creative ways. As the world progresses in it's scavenger hunt for technology, being a teacher means that today you will have to understand those tools that students use and be able to implement them into your own classroom. You also have to find ways to connect your students with the material in a way that is fun, useful, and enriching. I would also like TPTE 486 to guide me into using more collaborative tools so students can help each other and we can work as a cohesive unit, but also educate me on ways to connect my students to me and useful materials that can help them succeed on subjects they may be struggling on. I hope that this class will provide me with not only instruction on how, but the confidence to come up with a few neat ideas of my own!