Mostly Goals, Consideration, Consoltations, Advice
For Goals and Assessments,
One of the goals that I focused on this year was that "I would like to continue to get better with technology in the classroom."
I felt that as I tried new programs and tools as provided by CTI, I was able to familiarize myself and integrate technology much easier. This action(s) helped out tremendously in the classroom as, a lot of time I was able to use these new tools for further learning, and, most importantly for FUN AND ENGAGEMENT! Keeping the kids wanting to be in my class helped out tremendously in teaching and helped to build a virtual classroom culture in which everyone felt welcome. The technology helped to facilitate this bond but it was just one part not the whole solution to distance learning.
The next goal I had was that, "I would like to continue to get better at facilitating for my student and their families needs."
For my initial assessment, I believe when I started this I was optimistic of my ignorance, and now I know that I am ignorant to some matters but there has been continual growth, For one thing I was able to get faster at doing my job through repitition and application, I was able to get rid of things that did not work and was able to improve on other things, while I do not claim to know anything better than anyone else I am much better I find at my job and my Final assessment v. Initial has proven as much. But that is not to say that It is where I want to be yet and growth will continue to extend beyond this program into my whole career.
Other Considerations
For this part I believe that reliance on technology has had a plus and minus. I believe this goal was met as I was able to make meetings and answer questions still and take care of my families and their needs using technology, however, having in person contact at a meeting still cannot be beat. Ways technology helped, a student was still able to do work, was still able to get help on problems in academics by having multiple avenues to contact me if they needed help, a way in which I can answer parent questions and keep them engaged in their child's learning. Drawbacks, If they were here in person it would be easier to get immediate feedback in some cases. I could physicially show them and answer question immediately if they had a question during a parent teacher meeting, instead of relying on technology that may not cooperate.
In ways that I have suprised myself, I wouldnt say I was suprised, I tried to adapt as quickly to a problem or situation as I could, and while I wasnt fully prepared for this whole lockdown situation, I believe that I was able to stay quite well in the detached mindset in order to look at a problem and situation from an analytical point of view to get to the root of a problem that might be occuring for a family so that their problem can be fixed as efficiently as possible. I believe that I acted no different from any other professional.
A professional goal I will maintain, is looking into furthering my depth of knowledge in my field and experimenting with new learning tools to keep engagement, The reason I think both are important is because you should continually pursue learning in your field so you know what new things are on the horizon or are being talked about. For engagement, I believe that the more you can connect something to a child in a manner that grabs them, the more tolerance they will have for you and what you are teaching, even if they dont care for X,Y,Z thing.
Things to Maintain, and Observations
For actions that I will take to keep interest, The continuing researching in topics of your field will help you to stay in the know of current findings, and to measure this will be easily done by application of said knowledge in said field once as many consideration will be considered when looking into new ideas or old ones revisited, For engagement well I will just have to try out something that looks fun and then try it and see what the children think of it. They will tell you what works and what doesnt very plainly.
Actions that I can take to remain a connected educator would be to, Research and exploration of new techniques that work, there is no one size fits all to teaching.
For Professional sustainability and passion, that is something you must maintain on an individual basis, some things that I have found that work are
Good eating, Exercise, Keeping active in mind and body, no compromising on that.
Advice that I can give to someone brand new
Teaching is not easy, you have to want it and work at it. More in the video.