My personal learning theory hasn't changed much in relation to how students learn. There are those who understand by hearing; those by seeing, and those my doing. I have discovered, however, through all the resources we've explored, that most students enjoy the "doing" part the most. One area that is changing for me is the rate at which students learn and how to keep up or slow down with their learning needs. I have a wide-range of needs-based students in my class, with students whose reading levels range between 1st and 6th grade. Because of this, I learned early on in the year that I could not "rush" teaching. I also discovered that I had to model assignments better while also incorporating more consistency. I believe this has enabled me to reflect about what I do each day, and come up with new ideas for differentiation.

I have been thoroughly impressed with our reading resource for this course, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, because it provides immediate implications I can use now with my students. Although this seems very elementary, locating new ways to use Microsoft Word has been very helpful for me. A state standard requirement is that students learn how to effectively summarize their written assignments. Using the Auto Summary feature as a starting acquisition lesson will engage students in understanding how they can do this well. I have already displayed this to them and received possitive comments. Plus, the Comments feature of Microsoft Word will offer my students opportunities to peer edit and self edit work without messy scribbling on paper. Another technological feature I wish to utilize soon is the note-taking feature in Inspiration. I will admit that in the past students have taken notes the boring way by writing them down as I spoke them, or they copied them from a PowerPoint I created. Understanding that time isn't always the discerning factor as to whether or not I teach something, will help me better serve my students' academic needs. I realize it will take time for students to learn how to do this; but when they've learned it, it's with them. There are many other technological features I will utilize from this resource because of its practicality.

Two long-term goals I would like to achieve with my students regarding technology integration are moving away from paper and pencil writing assignments to totally computer paper assignments, from the beginning of prewriting to the final published copy. Further, I have already begun using non-linguistic approaches to coorelate with selected reading selections. This is helping my students make connections between words and pictures. A strategy I'm already implementing with the writing assignments is having students copy and paste pictures to them. Even though this is a simple task students have already been doing, fully understanding its positive consequences makes me want to have them do this more. Also, my students rotate stations (centers) at least 3 days a week, and one station is geared toward technology where they can begin prewriting for their next writing activity. As mentioned earlier, we (I) must realize students learn by hearing, seeing, and most importantly, doing. This can only be accomplished as we give students the time to learn it.