Importance of Technology in Education

One of this semester's projects includes the beginning stages of a project that we will undertake next semester: a movie that demonstrates the importance of using technology in the classroom. This movie will be comprised of several compiled and edited interviews of all levels of people involved in education (students, pre-service teachers, classroom teachers, tech coaches, tech coordinators, principals, district level people) discussing the importance of technology in education.

As a team, we need to come up with some questions that would be useful in the interview process. Please add to this discussion (by adding a comment) and include at least one question that you think might be useful.

Thanks,
Ryan

Technology in Kindergarten

I am constantly impressed by the kindergarteners in my class and their ability to successfully use the technology. Every morning when I conduct our morning meeting it is done almost completely on the promethian board. It is completely interactive. The students are able to move a mouse to the number of days we have been in school, they are able to choose which counting song they want to hear, move the weather for the day to our chart, play songs to help them in spelling color words, play songs about the days of the week and the months of the year, and count down from ten. I love how smoothly this helps the morning meeting to run and how engaged the students are. I am currently working with my teacher to add in interactive slides that deal with money and time. I think this will be a great way to improve the morning meeting and keep the students involved. I am also working with my teacher to find different ways to use the board during centers. I am excited to experiment with new ideas with this class because they are very interested in using technology.

Technology in First Grade

Well, so far student teaching in first grade has been going really well! I have attempted to bring in some extra technology by using the Promethean Board daily and attempting to let the students use the board more often. My cooperating teacher is completely open to this so I am trying my best to incorporate more and more technology into my daily lessons as I take over more of the day. In a few weeks we are having technology night at our school to educate parents about the technology used in the classroom with their students and about Internet safety at home and school. I will be preparing a Photo Story to display in the classroom as parents come in before the presentation begins. My cooperating teacher is really excited to show this to parents and thinks that they will be very impressed by it. I am looking forward to seeing thier reactions. I am also trying to create a virtual museum for my students to work with during their "Promethean Board Center". So I will let everyone know how it goes and hopefully I will have some pictures to show everyone of my students working with technology.

Virtual Museums

After having my socks blown off by how easy and impressive the virtual museums are, I decided to use it with my 2nd graders this week. We are studying the regions of the United States (tied in with tall tales). I figured, "If you can't be there in person, what better way to see New England than to take a virtual tour of it, right?!" I was so pumped...

And then the lesson crashed and burned.

The students were so bored. It really felt like I was taking highschool students through a museum that they had no desire to tour. It didn't matter that there were cool links throughout the powerpoint. It didn't matter that I had spent over an hour looking for interesting photos that captured the essence of New England.

Come to find out, some of my second graders have never even been to a museum in their lives.

Why would they be interested to tour a virtual museum when they have never even seen a been in a real museum before. I'm realizing that 2nd graders need hands-on activities along with photos, but what activities exactly?

I'm not going to give up on using the virtual museums though. Our next region is the southeast. Does anyone have any suggestions how I can help the children take ownership of these museums as we tour them?

We have been using technology more and more! The picture on the right shows a student answering a question on the Promethean Board by moving the answer. The picture on the left shows us using the Activotes as a review. I will be teaching a lesson on Tuesday that will use the Promethean Board and a movie I make :)

Club 2:45 Spring 08

This is where we will document our time spent at Code Elementary working in their after school program. We will keep you up to date on all of our latest adventures as we go through the spring semester.

Fifth Grade Student Teaching

I am a student teacher in the fifth grade this semester. It is very different from the second grade class I was in as a practicum student in countless ways. Each grade comes with exciting and unique challenges and rewards.

The use of technology is currently used in the classroom but we are only scratching the surface of the endless possibilities of how to integrate technology into education. For example, the Promethean board serves as a projector instead of an interactive white board. Projects are video taped, and fragments of the tapes are watched. However, my cooperating teacher is open to new ideas. We have brainstormed various ideas. I will let you know more specifics when I know more.

Picture: 2nd Grade lesson using Google Earth

Second Visit to Club 245

November 2, 2007

Today I went to Club 2:45 again and this time I had a very different experience than last time. I was placed in a second grade classroom and I was in there the whole time. There were seven students in the class and I was told before I went in there that they were a wild group. Well that was not an understatement. These kids yelled at each other, threw things, and they would not settle down or listen to their teacher at all. It was very frustrating for me to be in there because I felt like I might be able to do something to help the situation, but at the same time I did not want to be stepping on the toes of the teacher that was already in there. I am hoping that the experience I had in there that was just a class having a bad day, because that classroom was very out of control. I will be asking to go back to the same grade this week so that I can compare this experience to the last one and see if it is a consistent thing, or something that goes on all the time. I will be curious to go back see what it is like next time.

First Visit to Club 245

October 19, 2007

I was a little nervous before I went into Club 2:45 the first time. I was not sure what to expect or what kind of situation I would be put in when I got there. At the same time though I was really excited about getting to work with the kids and see what the program was like. I was disappointed to get there and find out that I was asked to work in the office the whole first day I was there. I did not get to be around any of the children and I did not get a feeling for the program at all. I was just standing by the office for three hours and then I went home. I am hoping for a better experience next time.

The Technology Center

Here are some pictures of the technology center at Club 2:45 on Monday, November 12th. Each student created a PowerPoint presentation on an assigned state. See comments for more information.

Adding Images

Directions for adding images from your visits to Club 245:

1) Add New Post

2) Click on the photo icon next to the Spellcheck icon on the

toolbar at the top.

3) Upload an image much like you do when adding

attachments to email.

Follow the prompts on the screen; you can choose the size and layout for your image. Once the photo is uploaded into the textbox, you can enter text telling us a little about the picture. Good luck, and feel free to email me with any questions you may have!

*Bridget*