#5 Final Reflection

I have used ideas, resources and information from the Cool Tools PD in my work.  I support teachers as an instructional technology resource teacher.  I have worked with KidBlog and VoiceThread with classes in the past months.  I knew about the web-based resources but the information and the time to research during this PD helped me to get started with the projects.  What I also found is that I used the Cool Tools site as a resource.  For example a teachers was interested in digital story telling and I pulled up the website to give her ideas.  Another example, I was working with students on the iPad looking for images for a VoiceThread project. Many of the images weren’t allowing us to save them.  So I checked the Cool Tools site, and we ended up using the Photos for Class website for images.  The images turned out to be much higher quality and they are cited which worked out well. 

I completed the Twitter thing in the PD which helps to increase professional connections.   If I work to check in on Twitter for resources more frequently, it would help to expand my Personal Learning Network.  I do have a great group of IT teachers that I rely on but I would like to continue to reach outside and grow my network.  This is an area that I would like to work on for next year. 

I plan to promote blogging in the beginning of the year with teachers in the schools that I support.  I started using Kidblog 4 which is very different from the last version.   It is so exciting for students to publish their work and get comments and feedback from peers and teachers.  Blogging usually is a bit overwhelming for teachers in the beginning of the year, so I hope to build it in to online PD or a collegial circle.  If it is integrated into subject areas with the goal of a weekly post by students, I think teachers will be able show growth in their students writing.

I enjoyed learning through this online PD opportunity.  Next year, I plan to be more disciplined to complete the posts earlier in the year.  Now that I know how it works, it should be easier.  I hope to continue with the PD next year.  I really learned a lot and I just completed 4 things!  Thanks for this great opportunity and resource.


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