Introduction

My name is Kate Guymon, and after over a decade of putting off the completion of my degree, I am finally going to graduate at the end of this summer! Lately I spend most of my time studying and chasing my two daughters around, but when I have a few moments of free time, I enjoy reading, hiking, art, swimming and , well, chasing my daughters around.

 I have been lucky enough during my hiatus from college to, in some capacity, do what I have wanted to do my whole life, which is teach. I began working as an instructional aide soon after high school. I worked with special needs children, ESL students, and eventually got a position working with Blind/VI students as a daily living skills instructor. When my girls were toddlers I began teaching pre-K and then became the Director of a preschool. We moved to Texas about a year and a half ago and I currently work at a middle school library as the school technology aide and library assistant, which I enjoy very much. I am seeking certification as an EC-6 generalist, but I will be highly qualified to teach ELA, so I may test for secondary certification as well. In either capacity, I expect to use technology every day, both in teaching (test taking, sharing information, lecturing, quiz-games, web-quests, blogging, etc) and  in learning, in which I expect the students to use technology in their own presentations, creative collaborations and homework, demonstrating through various means their understanding of the material.

As a library/ tech-aide, I have learned so much about technology in education and I realize that it is imperative to integrate technology not only into teaching, but to allow (teach, encourage, require)  the students to utilize technology in their projects and presentations as well. Certainly like most people, I do not want traditional methods of learning to become obsolete. It is necessary that children learn the basics—every one should be able to read, write, spell and add with pencil and paper, but 21st century learners also must to know how to use and create with computers, software, spreadsheets and more. There are so many ways to use technology in creative and hands on ways in all levels of learning. I envision myself maintaining a classroom blog to keep parents informed of their children’s learning,  but I would want the class to participate in the creation of the blog, so that they are active participants.  I think the videos we watched emphasize the importance of technology being available in all classrooms, not as replacements for traditional learning, but much like in the “real” world, as an essential component to active learning. I think that as educators we need to allow students direct access to technology and utilize it in ways that support the curriculum and facilitate active, engaged, and collaborative learning environments.

As a student in ETEC 424 my goal is to further my knowledge of educational technology and to learn new and creative ways to engage my students through the use of technology. By the end of this class I anticipate having a good store of great ideas about how to integrate technology into my classroom lessons with ease and confidence.