Strength and Weakness

Ultimately my major weakness is that I have little experience instructing with media. I love the idea of using technology in the classroom, but I feel that it is outside my realm of comfort. Through the UNI and NET I felt that I had little strengths in the context of technology, in fact, the only thing I felt that I would adequately use was word processing (obviously, I better be good at that because I am an English major!). Really I have a difficult time reading all the articles about technology in the classroom because I do feel it is important, but no one has shown me examples of how I CAN use it. I get frustrated because I want to be a great teacher that leaves no leaf unturned in learning... I want to be the all knowing and ever guiding teacher that students learn a whole new world from, but I feel very unprepared.

A lot of the competencies that UNI discusses are all things I have done or could do.... but show me! Show me how I can apply this stuff to daily lessons, show me how I can help students see the connections of technology in life by using it in the classroom. I have ideas, but I feel they are so small in comparison to the possibilities. Considering my slight panic to this subject (realizing I am student teaching in 2 months and I am not as prepared as I want to be) my first goal would be to buy the updated Microsoft Office. Actually, buy any of the Offices because I don't have nor use any.... at all. Really, English is an amazing subject and offers so much flexibility in learning, and I would love to incorporate great visual aids such as PowerPoint to stimulate their interests. I know there is so much more to offer my students than the typical and "done it already" English curriculum, and I know I can be a great teacher if I continue to keep an open mind about NEW instructing ideas.

Looking at possible mini-courses on UEN I found two I would really like to attend:
1. PowerPoint 2007 for Teachers:
I know, I know... we just finished PowerPoints in class, but really it's not know how to use it, but helping me develop further ideas for my core curriculum. The class sounds promising and I feel it could potentially give me great examples of how to apply PowerPoint ideas in English that aren't elementary in design.
2. PowerPoint 2007 for Teachers:
This is probably my worst weakness. I have really very little clue about spreadsheets. How I got to be 25 without knowing how to create a decent spreadsheet is beyond me (I blame that on teachers who need to refresh their own technology skills). I feel that knowing how to run a spreadsheet will really help me organize, atleast that's what I hear they are suppose to do. Either way, nothing is wrong with exploring something I know almost abosoluetly nothing about.
(Oh, I actaully would attend the Podcast class aswell... sound fun and interesting!)