Masters of Arts in Education: Digital Teaching and Learning The most inuential year and a half of my life!

Lindsay Connolly EDUC 526 Capstone Experience in Digital Teaching and Learning Professor Gilbreath San Diego Campus January 16th, 2014 1

Section One: Introduction: ! Growing up I always wanted to be a teacher, but never thought I would get a

master"s degree. When I came to Azusa for my credential, I learned about the opportunity to pursue a master"s degree in Digital Teaching and Learning. After some research and thought I decided to go forward with the opportunity to get my masters. Our society is surrounded by technology and I want to be able to utilize it to its max potential. As a student teacher working with an older master teacher, I am constantly showing him how to better use technology in our classroom. Earning this degree is a huge accomplishment for myself and my family, I will be the rst one to have ever earned a master"s degree. My goals are to use what I have learned in my program to enrich the students educational experience with the help of technology. Personal Growth: ! Throughout the last twenty months, I have learned a lot about myself. I have

always procrastinated on homework and assignments due to the fact that I do well under pressure and deadlines. The past twelve months I have worked hard on getting away from procrastination. I have been learning how to better manage my time along with getting my work done prior to minutes before the deadline. Along with learning how to manage my time more effectively, I have learned to really enjoy online courses. I have never taken an online class over Google Hangouts but I am loving it. I still get the face to face interaction by being able to see the professor and students, but at the convenience of my own home. Taking classes on site are difcult because they can last until 10pm, and then I would have to drive twenty minutes to get home. This wouldn"t be an issue but having to be up at 5:15am each morning made for a long day. ! Throughout my time at Azusa, I have made both personal and professional 2

connections. Both my personal and professional contacts will help me in my career as we share common interest and passion for kids and technology. I feel I can contact many of these individuals in the future for help, support and any questions I may have down the line. ! ! Before I came to Azusa I have always struggled with my spiritual side along with my faith. I did not fully believe in God because I had so many unanswered questions, but Azusa has helped me tremendously and have regained my faith. While regaining my faith and beliefs, I am inspired to continue learning more about Christianity and Jesus Christ in the future. For this, I am very proud of Azusa Pacic University for their dedication to Christianity and with the completion of my degree I am thrilled to be a Cougar. I have always wanted to earn a Masters degree but earning a degree that will help me in my career is very satisfying, rewarding and I can"t thank Azusa Pacic enough! Professional Growth: ! Throughout my time at Azusa, I have grown as a person, an educator and a

Christian. Azusa has taught me many valuable lessons I will carry with me in my life. As an educator, Azusa has taught me everything I have learned thus far on how to become the best teacher I can be. Growing up I did not attend Church or go to a private school, but was always curious about religion and Jesus Christ. At sixteen I got a job working at a yogurt shop and I worked mainly with the seventy year old owner. I spent twenty to thirty hours with her each week for the next seven years. The owner was very involved at the local Church, she sang in the choir and all of her children attended the Christian school. Spending a lot of time talking to her, I found out she would not hire anyone of a different race, she hated gays, she stereotyped each and every customer that would walk into the establishment and she was everything I thought a good Christian was not supposed to be. I spent seven years despising her and the Church because of her actions. Yes I understand this was partly my fault for letting her represent Christianity as 3

a whole, but her negativity and racism was something I could not let go. Shortly after attending Azusa I quit that job and since then, Azusa has given me hope and turned me into a rm believer, and I cannot thank them enough for that! I have met so many wonderful Christians and educators whom have far surpassed my expectations of how Christians should be and how they represent their religion. ! ! My educational vision hasn"t exactly changed, but I would say that it has evolved. Prior to attending Azusa I did not know too much about education, nor Special Education. Since attending Azusa and working in the school system, I am loving everything about education. In the short time I have been at the high school I am working at now, I have seen kids progress and learn so much in such a short period of time it brings great joy to my heart. There is no other job I would rather have than being a Special Education teacher. ! ! Since I started the Master"s program, the only change or responsibility I have taken on professionally is my student teaching. I started student teaching about the same time I started my master"s degree, and I am really enjoying being able to take these master"s courses while being in the classroom at the same time. Technology is the main instructional strategy I have incorporated into my teaching. I have learned a lot about Gardner"s Multiple Intelligences and using technology to help reach each multiple intelligence is very benecial. I have used a lot of different teaching methods from Lisa Rodriguez"s education class that I have found helpful. ! My Action Research Study has to do with eating healthy and exercising. I have

noticed a lot of my students at the moment are very obese and continue to eat poorly while at school. So what I want to focus on is the question, does exercising thirty minutes along with eating ve small meals a day help you lose weight? This is what I will be focusing on for the next month!

Technical growth: ! Before I started the Masters program, I knew that basics of technology, but today

I feel I have excelled and learned about a lot of different new programs. Not only have these programs helped me in life, but they have made my life easier and my teaching more effective in the classroom. With all the diverse courses I have taken at Azusa Pacic, I have learned to use twitter, prezi, google hangouts, EDTEC, wordle and different blogging websites. I learned many new wonderful tricks and new programs from EDUC 515 and 522.

Life Long Learning Plan: ! I have been student teaching in Math, specically Algebra I, and I feel very

condent I could teach the class on my own, without any help of my master teacher. I am learning how to plan for each day, week and the entire semester. Each morning I have a 3-6 minute warmup for the students, 30-40 minutes of lecture and the rest of the class we work on homework problems or answer any questions that need to be answered. I try to keep my classes on the same schedule therefore I will give one of my classes a few minutes each day of free time because they need less help. The cognitive abilities between two of my classes is night and day. One class is very low and they need extra instruction throughout the period, another class is so bright they seem to understand everything I teach them the rst time with very few mistakes. I strongly believe that I am ready to start my career as a teacher and inict my knowledge of education, technology and resources to my classroom in order to help students learn to their best ability. I believe I am prepared for any task that comes my way, but I am sure that will change when certain tasks arise. ! ! I have become conscious about my habit of procrastination which I have been 5

working hard to overcome. When I started Azusa I procrastinated on a lot of tasks, assignments and deadlines I was given, but throughout the last two years I have strongly worked on being more punctual with deadlines. In my student teaching I have been planning lessons weeks in advance, I have been grading homework each night and I have given students their tests back often the same class period or the next day at the latest. Azusa has helped me become more organized which is a very important skill to have as a school teacher. In order to stay up to date with new software, technology, and new developments I will be attending seminars, conferences and staying in touch with connections I have made throughout my time at Azusa. There are many different conferences I have attended online, I have made virtual connections through twitter, edcamp and blogging that keeps me informed with the latest technology. Also, I have kept in contact with multiple students I have met while at Azusa who have a lot of great ideas and tips that have helped me thus far. ! The main reason I wanted to get a master"s degree in Digital Teaching and

Learning is to learn more about technology, which is the area I want to continue focusing on and developing throughout my teaching career. Education today is integrating a great deal of technology, and I want to be able to utilize it effectively to its maximum potential. Working in a Special Education classroom I see a lot of technology that helps our students. The iPad has changed so many students" lives and has helped them in class tremendously. Nonverbal students can use iPad apps in order to communicate, students who struggle with using their motor skills effectively can speak to their iPad and it will type out what they"re saying, and many Autistic students enjoying the visuals of the iPad which motivates them to learn more as well. These technologies are very fascinating to me and I can"t wait to learn more in the future! ! In ve to ten years I see myself as an established teacher in the Grossmont

District. I will have nished all of the education I need to be a teacher, but I see myself taking graduate courses in order to stay up to date with the latest technology. Being a Special Education teacher I could be teaching English, History, Math, Geography, etc; 6

depending on what course I am teaching, I will also take courses in the subject matter to better familiarize myself with what it is I will be teaching. In ten years I would like to teach a course or two at a community college or even a college such as Azusa. I may have to further my education prior to teaching at a University, but I would love to teach education courses to beginning teachers like myself. With technology in education moving rapidly, I could see myself teaching a masters course from the comfort of my house, which is something I could have never imagined doing ve years ago. Section Two: ! My overall experience at Azusa Pacic was wonderful. I knew I would enjoy

Azusa the rst day I met with Dr.Cochrane and other staff at the San Diego Regional Center. The staff was extremely caring, passionate about their jobs and they made me feel like family, something I was not used to coming from San Diego State. I will refer people to Azusa Pacic University for as a long as I live. Azusa has taught me so many wonderful things, how to become the best teacher I can be, and they gave me a new outlook on Christianity, and religion as a whole. I cannot thank Azusa enough for giving me the amazing opportunities in life. ! Azusa Pacic has a ton of strengths starting with the staff. Each and every professor I had truly seemed as if they wanted to be there, not because they had to. Each professor took their job seriously, they would go above and beyond to help students in need and I took full advantage of picking their brains on how to be the best teacher in the near future. The facilities at Azusa Pacic in San Diego were great. Dawn, the front desk receptionist, always had a smile on her face and helped me with whatever I need throughout the night. Soul quests were something new to me, and I loved the music, singing and of course the food. For writing purposes, I really wish I had something negative to say about Azusa, but there is nothing I would change at all, I"m a cougar for life!

History of Coursework and Course Evaluation:

Course Title
Course & Instructor

Term

Name

Complete Key Skills Acquired d

Comments/Suggestions

Instructional Applications Productivity EDUC Software 512 INSTRUCTOR: Jim Sullivan

EDUC 522 INSTRUCTOR:

Learning in the 21st Century Lisa Rodriguez

EDUC 514 INSTRUCTOR:

Tory Temple

Digital Video in the Classroom

I really enjoyed Jim and EDUC512. His knowledge of used in the iPads was phenomenal and I gained a lot of skills from his classroom. class. The amount of Summer Creating iPad videos potential the iPads have to 2012 help out Special Education Teacher website students is amazing, and I cant wait to learn more in Webquests the future on how it can help my students. Gardner"s Multiple I learned a lot from Professor Rodriguez. If I only learned Intelligences about Gardners Multiple Intelligences and Blooms Wordle Taxonomy I would feel like it Bloom"s Taxonomy was a successful class, but I learned a lot more. Her iPad tips knowledge of iPad apps and how to utilize them for students with disabilities Fall 2013 was impressive, really enjoyed this class. I understand this is a masters program, but I did feel her class was very demanding. I felt neck deep the whole time trying to get all of the assignments nished, that is one drawback but I know it is for the best. Teacher website This was one of the rst technology courses I ever How to make a video took, and Professor Temple was great. If you were a iMovie beginner or programmer for Podcasts Summer Microsoft you were able to 2012 succeed in his class. I was a bit intimidated at rst, but Professor Temple pushed you to succeed but not too far out of your comfort zone. Great class!

How iPads can be

 Webquest
Evolving Educational Technologies Tim McKean

Summer 2013

EDUC 515 INSTRUCTOR:

Capstone Experience/ Digital Teaching and Learning

Fall 2013

EDUC 526 INSTRUCTOR:

Joanne Gilbreath

This was my rst class I have taken from Google Hangout. How to write a case I LOVED that if I missed a class or wanted to go back study and relearn something Video editing Professor McKean always had the video playback Prezi online. His classes were upbeat, exciting, informative Learned how to and I learned a lot about attend EDTECH upcoming technology and how to reach out to EDTECH conferences conferences or people via social media. Weebly Although it was very stressful to take our unit Creating a unit plan plan and make day to day lessons, it was extremely as a whole helpful and satisfying. Action Research Dr.Gilbreath is extremely Growth Assessment helpful and is very knowledgeable as well. I feel I am ready to become a Wesleyan teacher, make all my own Quadrilateral lessons and apply technology to each and everyday!

Lindsay Connolly San Diego Regional Center

EDUC526 Growth Assessment Fall II, 2013

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