In Week 9, I finished my technology book review on “The Google Cardboard Book”. This book covered the possibilities of using new virtual reality technologies in classrooms. I found that the possibilities of VR technology in the classroom is very exciting. VR is a great way to engage students in a more stimulating way with subject material. Although VR is still in it’s infancy, it is very likely that in the future it may become more readily available for all, including for classrooms. If this technology is used as a tool for a teacher and not leaned on like a crutch, I think it could be very useful in engaging many different types of learners.

In Week 10, I finished my PBL project. PBL, or project based learning, is a way to engage students in subject material through projects with real world legitimacy. PBL is another thing I am excited to use in the classroom. I think it helps display to students why what they are learning is important. Students who do not feel that what they are learning is important are next to impossible to engage. Providing these projects provides legitimacy to the subject material being taught.

In weeks 7 and 8 we continued to learn about technology that could be useful in our future classrooms. I am very excited about the possibilities of Google My Maps. This is a site that I was made aware of earlier this year, and the possibilities of it have excited me ever since. As a history teacher, there is a lot you can do with this function, from mapping out conflicts in wars to mapping out some of the key highlights of an important historical figures life. This could be something I, as the teacher, could do or something I could have students do as a project to support what they have learned up to that point.

In week 8 we continued work on the flipped classrooms by creating an actual flipped classroom lecture. I really enjoy the idea of flipped classrooms and I think it is something i would like to try in my future classrooms. It gives plenty of time for students to work on projects and activities in class and leaves the lecturing outside. Students need to be self motivated to learn to work on the projects, which I enjoy. I also like the fact that this allows teachers more time to assist students on projects and activities, rather than trying to keep them awake during lectures.

The past few weeks the tools we have been learning about seem to be mainly tools that can be used to create a community of engaged learners in your classroom. Week 5 we learned about different ways to create online bulletin boards for our classrooms using a variety of websites. This is a great way for teachers to stay in touch with their students, even when they are outside the classroom. Any information students may need to access can be posted there, so that the students have that resource at any time. These bulletin boards can also be set up so that students can interact with each other. These can be used to facilitate discussions outside of the classroom to ensure that students are always thinking critically.

The other tool we learned about that helps build a community of engaged learners within the classroom are the Makerspaces that we learned about in Week 6. The purpose of Makerspaces is to encourage student creativity in the classroom. They allow students to engage with the material through engaging their own interests. Makerspaces allow for a lot of creative freedom for students, so teachers need to be flexible in what they allow their students to produce. They also encourage student collaboration, which is very important if a teacher wishes to create that engaged learning enviroment within their classroom.

In week 4 we began to learn about flipped classrooms and the benefits that can come from them. I really like the idea of a flipped classroom, mostly because I find that students benefit more from teacher and peer interaction and activities than they do from one sided lectures. Flipped classrooms give you the opportunity to provide the lectures you need, but still gives you time to perform all the activities you can with the students.

The idea of the flipped classroom is one of the benefits that new technology has provided. The advent of internet video services and the technology available for people to make videos easily made the flipped classroom possible. New technologies have been seen as threatening to education in some circles. The internet can lead to access of misinformation, and smartphones have definitely affected the attention of students in many classrooms. However benefits like the flipped classroom is exactly why these new technologies are more of a positive than a negative. The challenges that new technology has provided can be difficult to overcome, but well prepared teachers can always find a way to meet these challenges and be able to flip technology to use it to their advantage.

This week was mostly focused on the issues of modern education and what we are going to do to face these challenges. I think that reflecting on this often is important for my own personal future success as an educator. I was not preparing to be an educator during my undergraduate work, and therefore was not thinking on these problems much if at all when I first joined the La Verne credentialing problem. I know like to focus on this as much as I can. While it has only been six years since I graduated high school, so much has changed in education since then, and I can see that every time I step into a classroom.

One of the biggest changes has been through the advent and inclusion of new technology. One of the reasons I was excited for this course was because I was excited to learn about some of this technology and it’s effectiveness in usage in the classroom. Technology really does have to be used and folded into every lesson that you do in the classroom today. One of the best ways to keep students engaged is to have them engage with the technology that they know and use it for educational purposes. I have also been interested to learn that one of the most important skills that educators must teach their students today is media and technology literacy. This is something I want to get better at doing myself, and I hope to do that as we continue with this course.

Hello, my name is Collin Berens.

Something interesting about me could be the job I was working at before I decided I wanted to teach. I got my Bachelor’s degree in Criminology, and out of college I was working for a company that did background checks, exclusively for television production companies. My job was to scrub the social media accounts of people who were applying to be on reality shows, like Big Brother or America’s Next Top Model (unfortunately, I never did anyone applying for The Bachelor, which always the first show people ask me about). Some people have said that the job sounded exciting, but I did not enjoy it, which cause me to reconsider my career path and is how I ended up here.

My content area is Social Studies. I’m a big history buff, so I’m excited to teach about that, however, I really want to teach Government. I think it is a fascinating subject and very important for students to learn as they build their own political identities and become voters. I’d like to teach high school, however getting to spend time in classrooms over the past year as a substitute, I am more open than I was before to teaching in middle schools.

I think in this class I’m most interested just to learn how I can use technology tools to my advantage in my classroom. I’m no tech genius, but I would say I am fairly savvy. However, I do think there is a lot I can still learn about all these great tools, especially how it relates to it’s usefulness in a classroom.