Throughout this semester, I feel like I have really grown. I have learned that it is important to listen and communicate with students as well as facilty and to not be offended or opposed to a little critisism. Most of it is to help me out and offer me insight where I might not be seeing it. I have learned so much from the students I have had the oppurtunity to work with this semester. Each has had their own stories to share and their own needs to be met. It also helped to get together after our work with the students to talk about how it went each day, what was tried, what worked and what didn't.

     During our chautauqua study, it was fun doing the research on our character to get more in depth with them and learn a little bit more about ourselves in the process. I believe it was also a form a research talking to the children, finding out about them, their interests, and what they needed to be successful learners. As teachers, I believe it is our duty to in a sense research our students and various methods to help our students enjoy school, succeed in school, and become life long learners. By doing this, we too are life long learners as we continously research new methods, new ideas, and new ways to teach. This in turn betters ourselves as teachers.

    I have really enjoyed working with technology in this class. Although I have not kept up with it as I should have, my personal learning website will be something I visit often. I really enjoyed putting it together and learned a lot while doing it. I have made several different websites since establishing this one for educational and personal use. With the technology advancing so much, it is necessary to have a grasp on how to use it. Most schools have a website. Many teachers also have individual websites through the school to keep parents informed of what is going on in their classroom. It is a good way to let parents know what is going on in the classroom, any announcements, and general information about content for each week.

     It has been enjoyable working with the students, trying things my own way, and making adjustments for their learning as needed. Each student contributed to our group and the performences of their classmates in some way. Coordinating with other groups and doing the peer groups worked really well. Each student got some kind of feedback and it seemed to help. This was an enjoyable project to work on with the students. It allowed me a chance to practice some teaching skills I had learned and observed in this class and others. Even though my focus is with early elementary students, I found I really enjoyed working with this age group as well. They still have those ah-ha moments which is so fun to see.

    This class is well worth it. There is so much interaction with students as well as peers and the instructor. THere is so much opportunity for feedback and suggestions as well as discussion. The guest speakers were also wonderful and offered such rich materials that can be useful for students and the classroom.