Self-assessment

 Hello! My name is Sara and this is my self-assessment for our New Media and New Literacies course. At first, I was worried about taking on two classes on top of teaching. Fortunately, it was manageable and this was the course I enjoyed completing the most! A project I enjoyed working on was interviewing my cousin about her use of technology. It was interesting to read everybody's interviews as well and see similar responses. 

As the semester has gone on, I feel like my APA citation has improved. At the beginning it was brought to my attention that you need to cite the author of the chapter and the editors of the book. I was able to keep that in the back of my mind when completing other assignments. Another strength of mine was discussing how to incorporate student interests into the classroom. I work in a private school that utilizes emergent curriculum. Each topic I have taught this year in science has been based off of student interests, for example the human body, weather, animals, and land/water forms. 

Something I struggle with is incorporating my own thoughts into my writing. For example, with the research paper there were spots where I could have inserted my opinion more. I find it difficult to process things I have read at times and to dive deeper into the topics. This is something I will continue to work on throughout the rest of this program. When completing course work, I start off getting things done early but as the semester goes on I tend to procrastinate. My goal for the two summer classes I am taking is to be more organized and start assignments early so it is not a race to the finish line later in the week. 

I'm not going to lie, when I saw we had to blog at the beginning of the semester, I was annoyed because it seemed like it was going to be extra work. But I really enjoyed blogging! I think it's a great way to share thoughts and ideas with classmates in a different format. I have also somehow switched from disliking technology in the classroom to seeing it as a positive thing for students. My point of view switched while completing research but also reading the "A New literacies reader: Educational Perspectives". This book included so many different ways to incorporate technology into classrooms. I plan on using multimodal technology in science classes as well as in my future classroom. I would also like to continue working in a classroom where student interest is important to the curriculum. As I continue through this program, I hope to learn more about how technology can help students with literacy skills.