Morning Reflection

Again, I was amazed this morning at the extent of possibilities for incorporating technology into my classroom.  I struggled a little with trying to apply it to the primary level, the K-2 band, as the examples we discussed felt more secondary.  I know there are ways out there and am interested in researching further.  
I found the fishbowl exercise to be a fun, yet challenging, experience in that I found it difficult to listen to the discussion as well as attend to the online chat.  Because of this I felt I was missing content on both sides.  I can see how this would be a useful tool in my classroom to encourage participation from my quieter and ELL students by giving them the opportunity to join the discussion on their own terms.
The SAMR discussion helped me to make more sense of technology in the classroom and how to utilize it in a more efficient and creative way.  It made me realize that I had previously only considered technology in the classroom on a substitute basis, not realizing how much is out there and the potential it has to deepen students learning.

I really resonated with this picture as it has a great pictorial representation of the SAMR concept in a manner that makes sense to me.  As teachers we need to provide opportunities for our students to learn at the redefinition level.  By utilizing technology in our classrooms we can help them start thinking globally and open their eyes to a great big world of knowledge they never might have known existed.