Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Mikaela Deguzman and I am a fourth-year elementary education student at the University of Regina. I am taking EDTC 300 as my last course for my undergraduate degree before going into internship in the fall. I have heard so many great things about this course, so I am so excited to dive right in!
Before moving to Regina in the fall of 2017 to pursue my Bachelor of Education degree, I obtained my diploma in Early Childhood Education (level 3 ECE) through Saskatchewan Polytechnic in my hometown, Saskatoon. Through this program, I had several opportunities to learn how to care for and teach young children through theory and practice. Some of the hands-on experiences I gained through the program included four practicums – three in early learning center (daycare) settings and one at John Dolan School, where I had the chance to work with students from ages 5-12 with diverse abilities. In addition to my experiences, I have also volunteered with Astonished! for eight months, shadowed in a grade two classroom for my ECS 100 class, and taught a grade 3/4 split during my pre-internship.
Although I have a wide range of experiences, I find that my experience with educational technology is quite limited. I have used iPads and SmartBoards as tools in my practice, however, as the use of technology in the classroom is growing, I believe that my knowledge on educational technology is falling behind. With that, I am looking forward to learning ways on how I can incorporate technology, as well as discover different resources that I can use in my future practice. I believe that technology is huge in today’s society and especially being in a pandemic, we can definitely see how much of an impact technology has on our lives.
Although I am not a blogger myself, I have come across and read several blog posts that were shared by friends on Facebook. I believe that blogging is a great way to document learning or to share thoughts and ideas. I find that blogging is similar to journal writing and is beneficial in terms of reflective practice (which is a great way to foster growth!) and storytelling. Moreover, blogging can be used as a tool to learn about yourself and to learn from others. Brian Crawford (Mixminder) lists in his own blog post five benefits of blogging as teachers which includes helping others by sharing knowledge. As educators, our blogs is not only a form of documenting our own learning and experiences, but it is also a way to communicate this learning to our students and their families, as well as educators all around the world. Moreover, blogging creates a community in which we can learn together. With that, I am so excited to enter the world of blogging through this blog, as well as through my new Twitter account (feel free to follow me!).