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Weekend 1

My thoughts... It is Sunday afternoon and I just opened up my blog to finish my thoughts on the reflections I began yesterday.  Yesterday morning I had just typed some quick notes to remind myself of different tools in technology and the way they were being used in elementary classrooms.  You can see my initial notes below (I have left them on purpose to highlight today's thought).  After reading my notes I found myself feeling a bit frantic and realized that my goal with this course (and technology in general) needs to shift.  Rather than be caught up by every single thing I read or see I really want to focus my energy on using technology well (in a sustainable manner) with my students.  After rereading Amplify! it really struck me how the authors made it very clear (multiple times) that technology does not replace good teaching.  It is easy to be caught up in the newest 'best' thing, but I feel like trying to use too much too soon is simply creating digital 'busy work' for my students.  Instead, I want to slow down enough to provide students opportunities to use technology in meaningful ways to enhance their learning experiences.

Saturday's Notes:  My journal reflections about technology may hop all over the place as what I am looking at, reading, and exploring about technology tend to quickly go from one thing to another.  So far this morning I have watched a tutorial on puppet pal, listened to a brief video about PBL (link found on syllabus) which turned into me watching and listening to a longer video on an example of how PBL can be done successfully in an elementary classroom (trout project), and have revisited our first readings in Amplify!  There are so many interesting and amazing things being done with technology across grade levels and content areas.

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