Strengths and Weaknesses

The field experience that my partner and I had with technology was great. I feel that I learned a lot from the experience. I have a Mac laptop, which I find as a strength to be able to use with technology today. That is the system that the school used as well as all of Provo School District. I have had my Mac for almost 3 years now and almost every day I am learning something new. There are endless possibilities with Macs whether it is iMovie, Garage Band, Photo Booth, and more. We did use Photo Story to create our digital story, but converted it so it could be shown on my Mac. In our classroom we had a smart board, which the board hooks up to your Mac. It was amazing to know to show the students information it was easy as 1,2,3. What I created on my Mac the students were able to see that information instantly as it was projected on the interactive board.

A weakness of mine from the UNI survey was demonstrating awareness of resources for adaptive assistive devices for students with special needs. The Apple website has a section called Apple in Education -Special Needs where it discusses the special features that Mac's have to help students with the following disabilities: Literacy and Learning Disabilities, Vision Disabilities, Hearing Disabilities and Physical and Motor Skill Disabilities. It is an online tutorial that explains things like the iChat where hearing impaired students can see others using sign language to speak to them. As a future teacher I could put my lessons into sign language so that child could engage and interact with the class. It would be important for that student to have access to a Mac computer. As a goal to help me in the future I need to be aware of assistive devices for students with special needs. Every child deserves an education regardless of their disability! For more information on the tutorial that I found: http://www.apple.com/education/special-education/

Another weakness of mine would be being able to learn how to use the technology that was available such as the smart board at the school that we were at. I have heard all about smart boards, but have not really been able to use them that much. The little that we did use them I was struggling with using the pen and when I would write on the board it would not write, as I wanted it to write. We used a graphic organizer overlay and had difficulties with that as well. In order to make my weakness a strength it will consist of me playing around with the interactive board. As a goal I need to practice more with the smart board. I am sure I will get better and be more comfortable with using this tech tool. I found a great tutorial that teaches you the basics with using the smart board such as using Math tools, communicate with others, SMART document camera, creating an assessment, and so much more. To find out more with the tutorial: http://www.smarttech.com/us/Resources/Training/Training+Search This tutorial will further my professional growth by being experienced and educated with smart boards. I will be able to know how they work and what I can be able to do with them in my classroom.

My Beliefs

I have a strong belief on the importance of integrating technology. I hope I can be educated in all the technology tools out there. Our technology is changing daily. In our society today students thrive off of technology. By being familiar with technology tools they will help me significantly in my future classroom. I know that it truly comes down to me wanting to learn and keep up to date with the new technology to incorporate it in my future classroom.

When integrating technology into my classroom I hope I will be able to have the opportunity to have an interactive board. There are several possibilities with interactive boards. It helps students on a whole other level. Interactive boards open many opportunities in the classroom. Interactive boards get the whole class engaged and involved. No more boring lectures or chalk all over you! Not only will the children enjoy the boards, but also parents, and faculty and staff. The boards can accomadate almost any age. I know with out a doubt that it will benefit students in several areas. I believe this is the future for learning!

I am excited to integrate several tech tools into my classroom. I hope that I can share with my students the endless possibilities technology has to offer. I want to teach my students how to create a podcast, vidcasts, convert YouTube videos, interactive power points, digital stories, blogs, their own website, newsletters, collages and so much more. I hope that I can create beneficial and meaningful lesson plans that will have my students engaged and interacting with technology in some way. I believe through technology my students will be better prepared for the future.

Lessons Learned

I have learned a great amount from the readings and videos. Something from the readings that I enjoyed was “Tools for Change,” by Kathy Schrock. In “Tools for Change” I learned the comparison of instructional practices for both the teacher and student. With the student instructional practices it said for the old way that they are the receiver and with the new they are the searcher. Students today are searching and exploring in the educational setting. Another thing I learned was that it talked about the new way for content and it said real-world problems. Tying real-world problems into the curriculum has increased immensely. I have seen this help students make connections on a whole other level with content.

In the “Did You Know” video it was full of powerful information. Some of the information made me speechless. This video was beyond interesting. As I watched this I learned that many things might be affected in the future. For example, it said that we are preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist. It not only discussed the United States, but also other countries such as China and India. Also using technologies that haven’t yet been invented. The video discussed that if MySpace was a country that it would be the 11^th largest in the world between Japan and Mexico. The amount of technical information is doubling every 2 years. After viewing this video I know without a doubt that technology is changing right before our eyes. Our society evolves around technology and we rely on it 24/7.

The other article that I really liked was titled "Study: Teens See Disconnect Between Personal and School Writing". I worry about our youth today because I feel that many of them are losing the ability to communicate with others. So many youth are online using Facebook or texting. Almost everything is abbreviated such as “lol” and teens say things like “U2” rather than writing you too. As teachers need to allow the students to be creative. The article stated that many of the students feel that they are not able to be creative in their school writing, but they can be creative when they are writing on Facebook, in texts or other non-school writing. We can and should allow students to be creative. We have been learning in this class how to do that by teaching students for example to blog their thoughts as a journal, create their own websites, and digital stories.

Reflection #12

7. Provide demographics of school, number of students in class and who your cooperating teacher is.

We have been observing/teaching in Rock Canyon Elementary in Provo. We are working with fifth graders and we have thirty-three students in our classroom. Rock Canyon is a smaller school consisting of around 635 students. Most of the enrollment is white, non-Hispanic. The student to teacher ratio is 43.5 compared to the national average of 15.6. There are more females enrolled than male students. We are teaching Social Studies and have been teaching from the unit on Colonial America. Our cooperating teacher is Mrs. Barnum. She has been teaching for seventeen years.

a. How is your relationship with your cooperating teacher? Explain.

Both of us get along with our cooperating teacher wonderfully. She is very flexible and welcomes our ideas openly. She has great suggestions and advice. She is fun to talk to and we have been able to get to know her as a person as well as a teacher.

b. How does he/she feel about the technology piece you created?

“I thought it was a nice summary of the content we covered and a way to reach learners of different learning styles.”

c. How does he/she feel about the lesson you completed?

“I thought the video was a great way to engage the class and also it was a great hook for the review.”

d. How did the the training session go? Explain.

Overall it went very well, she was very interested and asked a lot of questions. We were able to answer her questions easily with the knowledge that we have. It seems like she will try to integrate more technology into her classroom. She was the most impressed to learn about Zamzar and she is thinking about continuing to use our Digital Story for years to come.

e. How do you feel about this service-learning experience?

It was a positive experience and did benefit our cooperating teacher, but we wish it would have been more useful to her. She only has a Mac so it was hard to take her time and teach her something she is unable to use. Although she doesn’t have a PC, we were able to contribute by giving her ideas of converting our Digital Story through Zamzar, using the Mac program iMovie, and using similar programs. This is definitely a beneficial service-learning project because we were able to reach out and help our teacher learn something new and in turn she will be able to talk with her colleagues and show them. This well then reach throughout the school to the student body who will benefit the very most.

f. What did your cooperating teacher gain from the experience?

“It opened my eyes to more possibilities to use technology into the classroom especially when it is something you can use again. I really appreciated learning how to use Zamzar to convert files. The only downfall is that all of Provo School district uses Macs so I wouldn’t use Photo Story unless I did it from home. ”

g. What did you gain from the experience?

We gained a teacher’s perspective and were able to see how she uses technology in her classroom. This experience has made us want to integrate technology more because of how it connects with our students. We were able to see that connection and its benefits. We also want to reach out to more teachers and show them what an awesome tool Digital Stories really are! We know that many of the teachers have been teaching for a lot of years and haven’t been able to keep up with all the new technology. This is something new and exciting with endless possiblities.

h. Was it worth why or why not?

It was well worth it, but the fact that Provo School District does not have Macs was a bit of a disappointment. It was worth it because of the reaction we received from the students and the teacher. They were all engaged and participated. It was rewarding to see that they actually cared and appreciated our video. The experience was very worthwhile and we are excited for more experiences to come!

Reflection #11

What? I am learning on how to incorporate technology when I become a future teacher. I am performing/integrating technology into our lesson plans that my partner and I teach in field.

So What? This week we were able to integrate technology in both of our lessons that we taught. We used power point, YouTube videos, and our digital story. This means to me as a teacher how many different tech tools you can incorporate into a lesson plan. There are endless possibilities. We are doing this to have experience with different tech tools to see what works and what doesn’t work. Also to have a better idea of what tech tools we want to integrate into our future classroom. The technology that we used is great because there are so many ways you can use/apply it. For example, with power point you can do a review, activity, etc. At our school we are observing at they do not have PCs only Mac computers so there is a downfall with using Digital Story. I think that in a few years that most schools will be turning to Macs. This technology means to my colleagues to know that when teaching the curriculum you can use a variety of great tools to help bring a boring/difficult subject to life etc.

Now What? This technology means to my future students to help them understand that learning can be fun if integrating technology into the curriculum. Children in our society thrive off of technology it is all around them. I think by integrating, as much technology into my classroom will change the type of teacher that I will be in the future dramatically. Some assignments I could give my students such as create a power point about a famous person or about a state/country. Another assignment for a digital story would be create a digital story about World War II, different types of rocks, the weather, genres of books, and so much more. I think that with integrating technology will help me become a better teacher because our society today feeds off of technology and new and better things are created every day. I am sure within the next ten years there will be great tech tools that teachers can use as well as students.

Reflection #10

What? Again we are learning to become better teachers and learn how we can incorporate technology into the classroom. We have been able to integrate some technology into our 2 lessons we have taught so far.

So What? This means to me as a teacher what will work and what will not work when incorporating technology into the classroom. My partner and I were able to use the smartboard for some of our lesson, but it did not go as well as we thought it would. We used an overlay for a graphic organizer. When using the pen on the smartboard it was hard for some students to write up on it and also when they wrote on it the graphic organizer it got unorganized and messed up. We also have been able to use Google Docs to pull up song lyrics that we created. We had to convert a video from YouTube to be able to show it to the students. I am glad I knew how to convert a video by using Zamzar. This technology means to me that I can be able to use it in my classroom for a variety of things whether its using Google Docs or converting YouTube videos. Also it will be great to use Google Docs with my colleagues and also I can teach my colleagues about tech tools and more.

Now What? This technology means to my future students the importance of learning how to use certain tech tools. Also to teach my students that with using the smartboard there are endless possibilities for this tech tool. I hope that when I am a future teacher I can incorporate as much technology as possible into my classroom. I hope that if I have a smartboard in my classroom that things will run smoothly when using it and if not find ways to make it work. This will help me become a better teacher because today in our society children thrive on all sorts of technology. With assignments I could have my students use the smartboard or work together on a group project and collaborate back and worth using Google Docs.

Reflection #9

What? I am learning on how to become a teacher by observing in field. I am helping out my cooperating teacher and helping the students out.

So What? This means to me as a future teacher because it will help me prepare and get more experience. We are doing this to let my fellow classmates and I to have some experience in teaching and getting a feel of what it will one day be like. One technology tool that is used in my classroom is the smartboard. I have used the tool a couple times before and love it. I hope I can practice with the tool and learn new things with it. I know that there are endless possibilities with interactive boards. This tech tool is great and has so many fun features. The kids love it! This tech tool means to my colleagues a great deal because the smartboard is interactive and every student can participate and be involved.

Now What? This tech tool means to my future students to let them know learning can be fun. You can do almost anything on the smartboard. It helps students on a whole other level. Interactive boards open many opportunities in the classroom. Interactive boards get the whole class engaged and involved. No more boring lectures or chalk all over you! Not only will the children enjoy the boards, but also parents, and faculty and staff. The boards can accomadate almost any age. I am excited to hopefully be able to have the opportunity to have an interactive in my classroom or school that I teach at. I know with out a doubt that it will benefit students in several areas. This is the future for learning! Hopefully one day all schools will be able to have this great technology tool.