Reflection Letter

Last year I began my Masters program at The College Of Staten Island. It was a normal college class, normal environment. Although many of the behavioral management courses I took proved to be useful and educational, I found myself quite bored and unmotivated to go to class everyday after teaching. During the Spring semester of 2002 I enrolled in two of Dr. Gersh’s classes, Teaching with Technology and Creating Electronic Portfolios. Not really knowing what to expect, I figured, I would read a few books have some discussion groups, write some papers, all the usual graduate course work. To my surprise, I walked into something totally different. Class became an interactive plethora of hands-on creative learning where the systems, applications and programs that we were learning about were directly applicable towards my teaching. I went into class everyday excited, even on Saturdays! And upon completion of the class I would run home and adjust all my lessons to what I had just learned!

I came into this class knowing the minimal computer knowledge. Beginning with word processing skills, and knowing how to briefly search the Internet. By the end of the first class with Dr. G, I had already learned a complete overhaul in how to search the proper way for information on the

Internet. I knew at that point that this class was going to be well worth every minute of my time. I decided then, that I was going to give 150% into this class because I knew the return factor would be extremely prosperous.

During the entire semester, I learned so many applications: Adobe Photoshop, How to create a web page in Go Live and Microsoft word. Filamentality, Inspiration, I-movie, Digital video cameras and snapshots, how to create and edit an I-movie on a MAC, How to upload and download documents onto a server using FTP and how to use the Internet as the basis of the lesson as compared to using it as a teaching tool. Things that I deemed nearly impossible for me to create became so easy, fun and exciting. The class began working as a team and we all surprised ourselves and created such excellent work. Through teacher and class support we formed our own unit and inspired each other!

Dr. Gersh’s wealth of knowledge allowed me to expand my personal knowledge and bring it directly into my classroom. This was one of the biggest assets of the class. It gave me the confidence and knowledge to teach my students what I have learned. It gave my old boring classroom technique of chalk and talk a step up to technology based classroom learning. Coincidentally, I felt an immediate interest from the students. As I taught them, they in turn taught me and it became a wealth of educational exchanging. Some of the projects that both my students and I dabbled in this year were of course the good old Filamentality. We did a treasure hunt on France. One of my classes also got involved in an E-pals project, which was introduced to me by Dr. G. I contacted a school in Normandy and her class and my class began exchanging letters in both French and English. The students became aware of cultures and people other than the ones that they live with here in the United States. I did this project with my 8^th grade special ed class. I also instituted many Powerpoint Projects intertwined with the Internet.

Though I have learned so much from these classes, technology wise, and how to work certain programs which was a definite asset, the one thing that I truly value from these courses, was all the resources that Dr. Gersh has given us. There is so much out there for teachers. All you need to do is know the right way to search, where to look and poof it is all at your fingertips. Dr. Gersch’s website which I live by now, has so much information that I intend to use in my classroom next year.

At the present time the school year has come to an end. And at the end of my first year teaching, I have gained so much through the mentor program at my school, as well as from Dr. Gersh’s classes, I can confidently say that I have become better educated in the education field and therefore, have become a better educator. I have been given the opportunity to apply for many programs through the teachers network to institute more technology into my classroom, which I am very excited about. At this point in my teaching career, I feel that I have already been given so much help and knowledge and it makes me eager to begin my second year which will be filled with much new and improved innovative technological curriculum.

I feel so grateful that I was lucky enough to take advantage of these great graduate courses. I think every teacher new or old should get involved in a course with Dr. Gersh. She allows you to see the future, the children and what the best or most effective way to educate them . Then she gives you all the resources, and makes you produce beautiful work that you never knew you were capable of. I would greatly welcome taking more seminars, classes, or lectures with Dr. Gersh. She has been a wonderful source of education to all of the teachers here at Ditmas IS 62. She has definitely had an impact on myself both personally as well as a teacher, and I value everything that I have learned in this past semester. Thank You Dr. G you have given me the tools to be all I can be…… which is a wonderful teacher