Class #1 Reflection

When I first signed up for this course, I do have to admit that I was extremely apprehensive.  As much as I love technology, it has always held a bit of mystery for me and for this reason, I have always been somewhat nervous of it.  My sister encouraged me that we should take this course; it would be our last master’s course J and it would be a fun one.  So, I signed up. 

Throughout this school year, I have thought about this course and wondered- did I do the right thing?  What do I know about assistive technology?  But after the end of the first class, I was literally bouncing off the walls in excitement.  After going over the syllabus, to my surprise, I realized that I have already used several programs  in the past for students on IPPs.  For example, I have used the programs Co-Writer and Earobics and students  made great success.   

Assistive technology has become near and dear to my heart.  My nephew, whom I have helped raise since he was a baby, is on a full IPP and assistive technology plays a huge role in his programming.  It is my hope to buy him an iPad and show him and his parents different apps that they can use at home to help him achieve further success.

In February, my principal purchased an iPad for me as I am my school’s lead teacher for PowerSchool.  My Learning Centre teacher and I have since been sharing different apps that we have discovered.  After our first class, I literally ran to my colleague and shared with her some of the different apps that we talked about.  I also gave some ideas to my principal as we are hoping to create a school account to share different apps.  At the very least, we are going to develop a file of different apps that our staff can access.

I'm very excited about this class and can't wait for our next one!