Reflective Synthesis Paper

By Velda Schneider
TTL 2002  

         I am always trying to increase my teaching knowledge and ability by furthering my education, so that I can make my classroom environment more enjoyable and the learning experience for my students more genuine.  Doing TTL has truly  enriched my learning experience and I feel that I have really sharpened my frontpage, powerpoint and excel capabilities.  I have used a lot of graphics and I have checked to make sure that they are not slowing down my web page.  I am a visual learner, so one thing I like to do in my classroom is to try to show things visually, not just through listening and speaking skills.  This is something that my students enjoy doing.   I do feel that visual aides have really enhanced my teaching. 

        I picked the area of Spanish Conversational Dialogues because I feel students that learn a foreign language are weakest in the area of speaking that language.  I wanted to take the weakest area and enhance it in my teaching to try to get my students to feel more comfortable with speaking the language. 

        TTL was all about technology and helping us as educators to use it more effectively in our classes.   Technology is a great thing and teachers need to be willing to learn about it and not be afraid about getting help from others when learning some of this technology.  I have had students help me with some technology and I am always willing to get help from them and advice from them.  The students feel proud to be able to help me and I am grateful for their help.  We learn together and I feel it makes the students realize that I am trying to do as much for my students as I can.  It also makes my students realize that if I can learn something that will benefit my class and them, it's a win-win situation for all of us.  

         One of the programs that we learned about is WebCT. I’m still getting a good grasp of using WebCT, but I feel that this could be a very helpful and organizational skill to use with my students in class.  I could post a discussion over a piece of literature and they could have a week or 2 days to respond to it.  This could be a very useful thing for my classroom.

         I feel in ending, that I must mention a little about ASCD.  I, as well as other educators, thought it was a waste of time.  This program is not that easily useable.  It gave some great ideas, but it would be hard to incorporate some of them into our lessons.

        As I consider going back to my classroom, I have learned how to troubleshoot problems in many different programs and I feel I have gained tremendous knowledge that has sharpened my skills. 

         In my classroom, I feel that TTL will really enhance my existing curriculum.  I can use my lessons, and improve my classes to intensify the overall learning of my students.  I feel my students will really gain from the experience that I have learned here at TTL.

         My thinking about teaching hasn’t really changed, but I feel that being able to teach with enhanced skills will make me teach to the best of my ability.  I have learned exciting new things and will incorporate them into my existing curriculum. Teaching after all, can impact the life of child forever!