As teachers, we are all familiar with the term reflective practice. Teachers' college prepare us very well to rethink or everyday teaching. George Couros's quote, "reflection is part of your work"--referring to teachers, is an excellent reminder that what we do today as teachers needs to be different the next time we do something similar.

There will always be many ways to reach students, but if we continue to do the same thing, we will get the same results. In a world that is ever-changing, we need to be on the verge of these changes in order to motivate, inspire, and prepare students for their future. This is where reflection helps a teacher remain effective. Many daily aspects of a classroom can be adapted even slightly to meet the needs of your class. A class discussion could come alive when the students have the opportunity to answer poll questions, using pollanywhere.com and their personal or school supplied devices; or students could make use of clickers (Senteos) to answer multiple choice questions. These examples and many more are becoming integrated more and more in to the classroom. A keen educator would reflect on how he/she could incorporate these technologies in to their practice.

Reflective practice also helps teachers move students forward in their learning. By taking the time to re-think their lessons, teachers are making themselves stronger educators.

Taking time to reflect in our own daily lives has benefits as well. As a father, I have learned a lot about myself and who I want to be because I take time throughout the day to review aspects of my day. Sometimes it`s a word someone said, an event in the day, or my own words that sparks an `aha` moment, which then stays with me until the next time something similar occurs. Having a reflective mentality ensures that you continue to grow as a person and reminds you of what is important.

While completing the most recent learning module for IICT2, it became quite apparent to me that we as teachers need to not only be prepared to integrate technology in to our practice, but we must also fully know who are our special education students. Psychologists make diagnoses and recommendations to assist students with these diagnoses, but it is a teacher who must support the student each day. In order to best help the special education student, teachers must prepare his/her students to utilize the recommended technology, and that means he/she must teach his/her student(s) the features and tools of the technology, not simply allow the software program and its capabilities to provide the support. This vital step involves knowing your student's strengths, areas for development, and needs because without first getting your student to fully utilize the technology, it then becomes another unused tool and does not provide any value to the student's education.

The teacher is not alone in this venture. He/She has support of his/her SERT and principal, who can provide some answers, guidance, and connections necessary to help make the process easier. The teacher must approach this process as one member of a team, whose ultimate goal is to support the student in his/her learning endeavours. Only as a team can the integration of technology and software programming be valuable to the special education student body.

I really enjoyed having an opportunity to explore the variety of software and technology which the OSAPAC website has to offer. When completing the software review brochure activity, I spent some time exploring many of the software titles on the OSAPAC list. It gave me a chance to see what there is to offer my students as well as an opportunity to learn more about the main features of each program. There are a few titles accessible to my students on our board's server, but up until this point, I had not the time to explore their capabilities. I found the OSAPAC website to be extremely informative, and it will be a place I will continue to visit as I continue to explore the many titles.

The discussion forum in this module provided me a space to not only express my thoughts, but also reflect on them to either change my thinking or strengthen it. One aspect of utilizing assistive technology for special education students which has concerned me is the time it takes to make the students feel comfortable and skilled enough to use some of the complex software. But through viewing some of the videos in this module and reading some of the success stories from my colleagues' experiences, I have come to the conclusion that spending time teaching these students how to use the technology, even if it is an enormous amount of time, is 'money in the bank', especially if the students are young. In this way, they can make use of the technology for the remainder of his/her educational career.

Another 'aha' moment struck me when I watched the video of a young man with Autism give a presentation to hundreds of people after having been told as a young person that he would never speak let alone be innovative. This video made me realize that we can limit or inspire our students, depending on how we approach our instruction for them. If we truly believe all students can learn and that they all have unique experiences and abilities, then integrating the tools and resources to support them becomes less of a burden in our busy lives, and more of objective. It has inspired me to be more active in seeking out technology and software which will aid all of my students in their learning.

These moments connect to our professional standards of practice as reflections on my current, personal teaching practice in order to ameliorate it. The learning I have absorbed ensures I am remaining current on learning theories and best practices. It also provides a place for ongoing professional development.

One area I am currently interested in researching is the integration of technology in the Kindergarten classroom. I know many of my students are familiar with new technology, but not in the same way as in the classroom. I would like to use Web 2.0 tools and other technologies to help my students grow as learners, but much of the application of these software tools require a moderate to high amount of competency in regards to technology. I would really like to discover a means of aiding Kindergarten students with speech difficulties, not necessarily speech impairments, through the use of technology and speech and language software.

I really enjoyed the content in the latest learning module. Part of the reason why I liked it so much was because there was some collaboration involved both with my colleagues at school and peers in the course. Through the creation of a staff survey on technology to the feedback from the my peers, I learned quite a bit about what it means to be a lead technology teacher. The position not only involves solving technical problems and troubleshooting--though I'm sure those who are currently in such a position feel as though that is all they do--but also includes forwarding thinking and planning in order to best support the students' learning. Technology moves so fast that without someone staying current, a school could quickly fall behind the latest improvements, or they could be spending their money on technology that is out of date.

One issue that really hit home emerged from David Jakes paper Strategies, Solutions and Innovations for Technology Leaders. In his paper, he mentions that when technology leaders consider which types or examples of technology to integrate, they should also consider the option that impacts the most students. This statement made me rethink my position that every classroom should have a SMARTBoard. The reason why I have changed my perspective is because though a great interactive, novel tool, it is still teacher-centred, meaning the teacher decides the content, the resources, the process. For the same amount of money, a school could purchase a number of tablets, iPads, or other similar devices that allow the students to determine the direction, the source, and the content of their learning, making the impact of technology on the students in the classroom that much greater. Having these devices in the classroom also allows the teacher to design and present lessons and units that are teacher-centred because they can broadcast the lesson through Wi-fi, and maintain student autonomy by allowing them opportunities to revisit and work at their own pace.

I am interested in learning more about how a lead technology teacher receives funding, support, and/or attention from his/her board. More specifically, what does the teacher need to do other than send encouraging emails. I would like to know the process and required information to make a pitch to the board to have a technology-focused classroom with a large amount of computer technology integrated in to the programming. This would be an interested endeavour to undertake, especially considering they are few mainstream classrooms in my board which are technology focused.

I believe that technology should support student learning and inquiry, not taught as a separate entity. Students should be using information and computer technology to in the same ways that a typical classroom uses pens, papers, and textbooks. Technology should be prevalent in every classroom and available to all students. In this way, students become the navigators of their learning, the teachers become the sails, and the technology the sea from which all possibilities emerge. Students will then become active, rather than static learners, and in the process more engaged in their education. Finally, when students use rich technology in meaningful ways, they are developing skills necessary for the 21st century professional, and they will be better suited to adapt successfully in the future if they feel confident in applying these skills.

The 3 things I have learned from this course so far are:

1. In order for schools to successfully integrate technology in to their classrooms, the school as a whole needs to approach this endeavour as a team. The principal and/or lead technology teacher will have to take on the leadership roll, but it is the individual teachers and classroom support staff that will make the integration successful.
2. Teachers who have adequate training as well as some tips and hints for troubleshooting are more likely to integrate technology in their classrooms. They are even more likely to continue to integrate it if they feel confident in adapting or readjusting lessons when things do not go as planned.
3. The best examples of technology impact the most students as possible. A SMARTBoard is a really cool piece of equipment and it has a whole host of classroon applications. However, few students can interact simultaneously on it, leaving many of the other students disengaged or lost.  For relatively the same cost, a classroom could have a class set of iPads or tablets with which to explore and develop skills.

As the lead technology teacher in my school, the 3 things that I will do to support my colleagues are:

1. Create and maintain a technology blog with lists of types of information and computer technology, examples of possible ways to integrate them, links to excellent lesson and unit plans, exemplars of others or myself using the technology, answer comments or questions about the technology, as well as tips and hints for my colleagues regarding the integration of the technology.
2. Ask my principal for some time during a staff meeting(s) or PLC(s) to demonstrate a Web 2.0 tool(s) which could be useful for many of my colleagues.
3. Ask for some time at a school assembly for my students to chow off their creations using technology, so other teachers or students may be inspired or want to inquire about how they can use it, too.

One issue that continued to reoccur as I completed the tasks in the final module was that being a leader involves more than one person. Within any leadership position lies a team working with him/her towards a common goal. If I were asked at the beginning of the course if I felt there were opportunities to get the school community (i.e., parents, community leaders) involved in technology integration, I would have responded with a no. Simply because the school community is rarely connected with the in's and out's of a classroom and would not necessarily grasp the intentions or challenges. Now, on the other hand, I am totally supportive of community involvement in technology integration. For a couple of reasons:

1. technology is a vital aspect to many job descriptions and having their involvement would strengthen the school to work connection;
2. there are many community leaders who just by the nature of their position are experts in many examples of technology;
3. the more the community supports technology integration the greater the support within the school from teachers, administration, and students; and,
4. the community's support is imperative in order for important events to take place. Teachers and administrators are sometimes bogged down by their jobs that eager parents could help support the workload.

As a teacher interested in further integrating technology in my practice as well as increasing my role as technology leader, I will seek the support of the school's community, not just from parents and community leaders, but also from the students themselves, especially those who are tech. savvy and are interested in sharing their expertise with me and other teachers.

I really enjoyed developing a 3 year plan for integrating technology. It gave me a real sense of accomplishment and it was a practical assignment because it is something I can take to my principal and/or place in my teacher's portfolio for future reference. It also made clear the necessity of having a plan in place when integrating technology, not just for accountability sake, but also for measurement of effectiveness and future goal setting.