School 2.0 Reflection Tool NETS-T 5

I used the School 2.0 Reflection Tool as a way to evaluate how strong my skills were for each of the 5 NETS-T standards. I answered a series of multiple choice questions, and looked over my results to see strengths and weaknesses. I could then see what areas I could work on to improve my professional practice. Below is one area that I decided to try to improve on.

 

      I decided to focus on the NETS-T regarding engaging in professional growth and leadership.  I often get comfortable with the information or techniques I know, and don't reach out as much as I could to improve my skills.  The question about being up-to-date on current research and applying the new info stood out to me because I see it as a field that I can greatly improve on.  Technology is constantly changing and improving, and I do see the importance in keeping up with the news.  A classroom of students can benefit greatly if their teacher is willing to do the research and implement the new information.  

     I researched an Education Week site that contains blogs on technology trends in schools.  One article that was interesting to read was about principals of high schools supporting online classes.  This would help students who are behind in credits, along with helping students advance in their schooling.  I think this would be a good program to have, especially for these two groups of students.  However, for the average student, I think it would be too much responsibility for them to keep up on the work.  This is coming from my high school experience.  Along with this topic of online teaching, there was another blog that had 3 parts addressing the quality of online teaching.  Surfing through these different blogs seems to be a beneficial way to learn about some of the new trends.  The site also is linked to twitter, so I can use the two sites together.