As many of us noticed this past Wednesday, we were sad to leave some of our classes!!! Sad to leave an educational environment!!! When does that ever happen??? I have never been sad to leave class...ever!

We have all been in classes with hundreds of people where the professor lectures for the whole class period. We have been in classes with many people that we have never spoken to because we never had the opportunity, but the education program has been quite the opposite. Our classes are very small and we have the same people in most of our classes. This has helped to create a trusting network and we are able to help each other out when we need it. I have never been more engaged in my classes or more enthusiastic about the material until this semester.

From my professors and classmates, I have learned the most valuable lesson of all. This lesson cannot be found in a textbook, or an Internet site, or from a research article…it was found in the network I luckily fell into. I am certain that not many students can say that they have had as close of a network as the Undergraduate Elementary Education class of 2008. I am so blessed to have my classmates cheer me on when I am teaching a lesson, to have professors say, “You are intelligent and I believe you will change someone’s life for the better,” and to have my peers as well as professors encourage my creativity and help me flourish as an educator. If I have gained anything at all from this semester, it is a tremendous gain in confidence that comes from people truly believing in you. I look forward to having this network in the future as a constant stream of support.

Tapped In

Tapped In has been one of the most frequent tools we have used in class. We were asked to post or comment at least twice a week. Tapped In has been a great networking tool and a way to get to know the other class and the mentors. It was also great that there were so many different threads with diverse topics so we could choose what we wanted to talk about.

Although this tool had a lot of positive aspects, I personally liked this tool the least, simply because it was a constant commitment. The only Internet tools I used prior to this class were email and Facebook. I check both of those frequently and I think that I have been so used to only using those two that any other similar tool was too much to remember. Sometimes it was frustrating to read Tapped In posts because I did not find anything that sparked my interest. Other times I wanted to post a million times! I loved the folder "Must See" because the videos had important messages for not only teachers, but for everyone. I sent quite a few of the videos to my mom and she said she teared up when she saw the video "Molding Lives, One year can impact a student forever."

Overall I do see how Tapped In is a great tool and it could be a tremendous tool in the classroom. Teachers could connect with other teachers to share videos. Teahcers can also use this tool to keep in contact with other teachers and get ideas and feedback from teachers all around the world. Teachers can also use this tool when they run out of class time and they can ask students to post for homework.