My Beliefs

I feel conflicted about my beliefs of technology in education. I feel like students need technology but not all technology all the time. Technology is supposed to be portable and doable wherever you are in the world and I don't like that. I don't like that as a world society we have become so dependent on our technology and devices and have stopped face-to-face interaction. I don't like that we don't know how to do anything if it isn't digital. I think sometimes technology makes kids think that the real world is pretend and they lose check with reality.

Technology has the power to do great things when coupled with curriculum based learning. Students are going to use technology regardless of my encouragement or teaching. I might as well learn how to keep up with students and help them in whatever they are going to do anyway. I feel that if technology is to really be integrated the principals and need to really be the leaders and encouragement of technology encouragement in classrooms. Without the budget or permission to do great things with technology I know I won't be able to integrate technology in the way I would like to. I believe technology has a place in the classroom if integrated appropriately.

When in field I saw that technology was being used in the life skills classes on a regular basis with students that were socially integrated into classrooms. Some lower functioning students with down syndrome had iPads that they personally used to learn colors, shapes, reading, writing etc. I would love to have the use of an iPad for all students that could be programmed to do all of the days activities that are tailored to every student and their needs. This kind of technology could really create a world of personal learning where maximum personal growth could take place. If we could figure out ways to personalize education for our students needs and have many resources at our fingertips for learning I would be very excited to include technology in the classroom. Now the only problem is that principals and legislators need to be convinced that this technology can change the world and make us one of the top nations again.

Lessons Learned

From reading the articles and looking at the websites I learned that I really am more involved in technology than I thought. I feel like I don't know a lot but then I go through exercises or look at different articles and come to realize that I really know what they are talking about. I feel like I could relate to some of the articles when teens say that writing in technology is not related to formal writing because I grew up experiencing the same thing. I think if my teachers had been more eager to use technology and help us relate our personal writing to formal writing maybe formal writing wouldn't be such a struggle. I was texting on a regular basis at 15 years old and had no one help me distinguish from slang writing with friends to appropriate and correct formal writing in other situations. I simply had teachers ridicule me for writing incorrectly. It makes me feel bad for them that they were so closed minded and scared of technology that they didn't attempt to bridge the gap and help us make connections to be better writers.

The video titled "Did you Know?" was very powerful to me and at the same time it terrified me because I know that the numbers have become more drastic in comparison since the video was made. I noticed that the video was created in 2007 based on numbers reported in 2006 and if it was so drastic 5-6 years ago I can't even imagine what kind of trouble this nation is in now-especially since technology integration is still not happening in so many schools. I find myself being afraid of technology integration because trying to do this to it's full capabilities will take so much time and I would have to be a forerunner in my school and in whatever I do. I know that it will be a lot of work and even more time away from my family because many teachers I will work with will not have resources like they have old paper resources. I know technology is necessary I just don't know how integration can be a reality.

Another thing I learned is that I can't get away from technology. No matter how much I want the world to slow down and go back to the simplicities of life that is never going to happen. I know I am going to have to embrace technology so that I can help facilitate my students' learning in technology rather than ignore the fact that they will use it. After reading these articles and viewing different websites in trying to help my weaknesses I have found that I am excited to see what students can really do with the help of technology. Technology has the potential to help students become better people that can be powers in the world for change. I just know that technology can also give the potential of helping our society to become even more corrupt and to go in a bad direction and helping give this knowledge that can be used for good or bad really scares me. 

Strengths and Weaknesses

After reviewing the UNI and NETS I feel like I have some great strengths but there are definitely other areas that I need to become stronger in. I feel like a great strength of mine is that I know how to do a little bit of everything and enough to actually be able to function as a teacher most of the time. Going over all the standards I think my best strength is that I can use many different software in multiple ways for meaningful educational use. I know how to use word processors, data processors and spreadsheets, I know how to help students create many different projects. I also know how to find and use many free software programs to aid students in learning that will facilitate core curriculum concepts even more than without technology. I feel like I am on the right track to being a technology involved educator that can keep up with my students world because I have been in this class. I also have a husband that stays up on technology all the time and really helps me be on top of the technology world that would be available to me at no cost and useful for my students. 

I feel my weaknesses are in creating my own programs using technology I am not familiar with to help students. I found that during my field experience I was in a classroom with a smart board and I really wanted to create an activity for my students to review the material we had learned in the unit and I found myself struggling a lot. I was surprised that I had a hard time because usually I pick up on things fairly quickly, but after about an hour of playing around on the program and getting no where I knew that I needed help in getting more familiar with smart board programs.  My goal would be to be able to find materials in aiding me to use new technologies that I may not be familiar with so I can utilize them to the best of my ability. I found this tutorial to help me learn about smart boards and I also found this tutorial to help me with the activities part of the software so I can create my own learning activities. These tutorials will help me in my goal because they can help me become more familiar with technology that is foreign to me so that I can use it to the best of my abilities.

Another goal for me would be to become even more familiar with ways I can use technology to assess student learning. Because I grew up in a paper/pencil testing world I don't think of technology when it comes to assessing my students. I know that technology can help me assess but I really have no idea how and I think it would be very useful to use technology if it can help me assess better than I am. I think assessing is one of the hardest things to do so any helps would be nice. One thing I never thought about was using electronic portfolios for assessment by letting students create their own projects and ways of presenting what they have really learned. There was so much information out there but a great website I found to help me get familiar and started can be found here. I really think this website can help me in my goal because it has so much great information and can link me to more resources for using digital portfolios in my future classroom. 

Field Experience

 To start off I will summarize my experience in general and then talk about technology in this classroom. 

  

Going into this field experience I was very nervous because the teacher I was assigned was very laid back and didn’t give much direction as to what I should really teach. I was also very nervous because out of 28 students 8 of them had special needs which was very overwhelming to me. After all was said and done though I thoroughly enjoyed this first field experience because of the fun and energetic students and amazing teacher.

  

The students I had the chance to work with were pretty great people. On the very first day they were energetic and excited to meet me. The energy in the room was electric and completely infectious, I couldn’t help but be happy and have a renewed energy for life. I soon learned that these students had a sense of humor and were very social talking non-stop most of the day. This took some adjusting to and I worked really hard to get them to listen and be respectful when necessary. Varying socioeconomic statuses existed within this classroom but to many students this didn’t matter. They were all very loving to one another and all friends which taught me a great deal about the genuine hearts of children. Their teacher taught me most of all how to accept and love all children regardless of the situation.

  

Miss S was such an amazing lady to work with for the past 3 weeks. I don’t know that I have ever known someone so outwardly appreciative of the students around her. I also haven’t known anyone quite as positive as her and loving towards her students. She was incredible with handling tough situations and stayed cool under pressure. I really admired this teacher for the way she taught her students important life lessons with firmness and love. Every student in her room knows that she loves them because she shows them every single day. This teacher is also very great with being flexible and very easy going which was refreshing. I learned so many life lessons about being a teacher and a better person. 

I really was on my own a bit as I was creating and teaching lessons. Miss S didn’t give me much to work with and I just went for it full force on my own. I learned some lessons the hard way and learned some other lessons in a great way. I came to know myself even better and what I need to improve to be the kind of teacher I want to be. Most of all I learned about how I can be a great teacher in many more ways than I knew before. Overall this was a wonderful experience that I will take with me throughout my teaching career.
   
As far as technology is concerned there was quite a bit of technology in this classroom. They had a smart board, an elmo, and projector. Miss Skinner was very involved with technology and was always trying to find out more about how she could make her room more technology rich was kind of cool. She is working to try and get a grant so all of her students can have an iPod touch to use for various assignments throughout the day and the week. I also saw Miss Skinner utilize technology in one of her lessons to help not only her students learn but to help herself learn. Students were talking about the Declaration of Independence and didn't know where the original copy was housed or what condition it was in. Using her laptop and projector she did a Google search and found a website that had all the information we needed including a digital field trip. This turned into a mini web-quest that the whole class got to do together. She also had students with special needs using school iPad's to learn shapes, colors, reading, writing, social skills etc. This was a pretty cool application of technology integration that really helped me see it's usefulness and how it could really make a difference in students' lives.

I had the opportunity to use all of her technology tools and become a little more familiar with them which was cool. I loved the smart board capabilities and the endless possibilities for instruction using it. I loved the elmo tool and thought it was so helpful especially for students with visual needs. I used my digital story in my very last lesson and the students loved it, they even applauded at the end (mostly because they knew I made it!) I also used different video clips to enhance other lessons and used the elmo many times to show pictures and various text during lessons. 

After this experience I learned I should be more open to technology use in the classroom and that it really can be used to enhance the learning process. I thought technology would be just used for fun and not really useful to students but I was mistaken. I also learned how web-quests could be very do-able even with just 1 computer. I think I will be much more open about learning how technology  can be integrated and used in my classroom in the future. This field experience really was amazing and I'm so glad I was exposed to such great teaching with technology.

March 3: Digital Story 2

Last week we learned all about the different copyright laws. There are many different laws and surprisingly some of them started in the 1800s. Although they may be confusing, following copyright laws is very important. Many laws pertain to different works and it could be very confusing to know which law covers which work. Most works are covered by copyright law though.

This is very important information for me to know as a student. When writing papers or creating any kind of project I have to indicate my source of information. Or at least give recognition to whomever had the original idea. I also need to be careful about what I use in any aspect of my life to be sure that it is credible and legal. I want to follow the law and be smart about what I use and these copyright laws will help me in that way. I also think this class session will help remind me to be more careful about copyright laws even if it feels that copyright may not be important in the situation.

Knowing about copyright laws is crucial for a teacher. I would never want to use anything that wasn't mine in the wrong way. When creating my own projects I need to be careful in finding materials that are not copyrighted or get the permission to use it. Keeping these laws in mind or at least acknowledging the existence of them will be imperative as a teacher, especially if I'm in a team where no else realizes we need to pay attention to copyright. As a colleague I can help other teachers adhere to copyright laws and teach my students the importance of working within copyright law.

February 24:Digital Story

Digital stories are an opportunity to tell a story that has directly impacted you. It is a way of telling a story in a way that is different from any other. Digital stories allow you to use narration and images with music to make a bigger impact than simply reading a book. Digital stories are not like a childrens book, they are individual, creative, make an impact, change perspectives, and enlighten those that experience them.

The digital stories you showed in class really stuck with me and some of them were more powerful than many things I have learned about those subjects previously. I think this is a daring way to teach and involve our students to make it more real to them. I think digital stories are great because they give the individual creating it voice. We have the opportunity to show our view of different things and how we feel about them. This type of sharing is so important to each individual that knowing how to create digital stories and sharing those skills with students will give them a way to express themselves even at a young age.

Digital stories will be something I would like to use in my classroom in the future, especially if I can get to a point where they aren't so hard to create. I think learners now are so visual and feel they need to be entertained to learn. Digital stories will be a way for me to reach some of my students that I might not reach otherwise. I also think digital stories would be fun to use to create a classroom community. Using digital stories as a spotlight on a student would be so much more fun than a poster. I think having this skill will be useful to me in the future to help colleagues around me learn to be more innovative in the classroom.

February 17:Vidcast Review

The name of my vidcast series would be called The Safety Sessions. I decided this could be a series of vidcast created by myself or students to help us remember important safety tips and rules. This series addresses the health core curriculum outlined by the state for second grade students. More specifically it addresses standard 1 which says: Students will develop a sense of self and it also addresses objective 1 which says: Describe and adopt behaviors for health and safety.
In my vidcast I decided to highlight seat belt safety. I was inspired to choose this topic for my vidcast because I was in a small car accident just a couple weeks ago. I was glad I had my seat belt on and that everyone was safe. Seat belts are so important to our safety especially because we spend so much time in cars throughout the day. I feel this topic would benefit children immensely. With the help of this simple video students could help other children learn how to wear their seat belt and be a big help in keeping others safe.
Some potential drawbacks of potentially using this series in my own classroom is that the series I created was made for children in younger grades. Children in 6th grade would not appreciate someone showing them how to put a seat belt on, how to wash their hands, or how to cross the street.
A future plan for this series would be to create an assignment in which students can create their own vidcast with help from a teacher. Students would be given options for the vidcast they could create and would be able to share their projects with others. I think this series could be very fun for younger children to work on to share their perspectives on what it means to live a safe life. 

This blog post can also be found as a google doc here.