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.

Reflection #8

What? I am learning how to work effectively with my partner on our digital story. My assignment is to continue working on our digital story.

So What? This means to me as a teacher how important it is to get along with your colleagues when working on projects, lesson plans, etc. If you do not have a good relationship with your colleagues then you may not produce and deliver great results. My partner and I get along great and work great together. We are doing this so we can have somewhat of an experience of what it will be like to work with future colleagues. This technology is great because you are able to communicate back and worth with each other by using Google docs to put together your digital story.

Now What? This technology is great for my future students because they are able to show creativity with something they feel deeply about for example, a student may have a personal interest with World War II because their great-great-grandfather was in a concentration camp. If we were doing a unit on World War II this would be a meaningful assignment for this student to do. I would hope as a future teacher to incorporate digital stories into my classroom and also try my best to get along with all colleagues when working with them. This will help me become a better teacher when working with my colleagues. At times it will not be easy and sometimes my idea might not be chosen but I will have to learn that not all the time others will like my ideas. It is important to be patient and have an open mind with working with future colleagues.

Relection #7

What? I am learning about the importance of copyrights. For this assignment we are more aware of all the copyrights out there. I am able to copyright my own work through Creative Commons.

So What? This means to me as a teacher the importance of copyrights. To know not to use something when it is not copyrighted. Also it will be beneficial for me to copyright my work so someone does not steal my creations. We are doing this to be more educated in copyrights and also to one day teach our own students about copyrights. At a very young age several students plagiarize, but if we teach them about copyright sooner the numbers will hopefully decrease. When working with colleagues copyright is essential say if you were working on a unit and you did not copyright your work and a colleague used your work. They now have all the credit for the work that you did. You need to be aware of copyright. That is why there is great information out there and websites that will help you know what you can use such as creative commons.

Now What? The technology means a lot to my future students. They need to learn at a young age what copyright is and how it works. If they learn at a young age we will have less problems with copyright, as they get older. This day in our society everyone uses everyone’s work from downloading music, images or downloading papers and more it is all accessible with one simple click. I would hope that this will change me as a future teacher by letting my students know that you cant steal from other people. An assignment we can do with copyright is doing an introduction to it for example; I could assign a topic and have the student’s research on the internet on a specific site then come back to class and share. Then I would go through and see who plagiarized and begin telling about copyright. This will help me become a better teacher by teaching my students at a young age and hopefully what I teach them will have an effect on them, as they grow older. Also I will be able to learn more about copyright myself. This will help me become a better colleague by knowing whose work is who’s as well as having my colleagues know what work I have done.

Reflection #6

What? I am learning about digital stories. This week we have to fill out the storyboard which includes an idea for an image and script for that image.

So What? This means to me as a teacher a great way to organize my digital story before it comes to life. With using the storyboard it makes it easy to see how everything will play out. The great thing is that it can be easily changed at any time such as the order of the images etc. We are doing this to organize and write our ideas down before we actually start producing our digital story. If we just started our digital story without doing a rough draft it would probably not flow correctly and we would have to spend a great amount of time editing. This technology is greatly appreciated because I am a very organized person so with using the storyboard chart it is indeed beneficial! This is great with my colleagues because we can share and compare ideas we have for our digital stories if we were doing it on the same topic etc. Then we are able to get ideas from each other and come up with one final storyboard.

Now What? The storyboard will teach my future students how to put their thoughts and ideas down in an organized manner. Assignments I can give my students are introducing a topic and having them go home and get ideas for their digital story then they can come back to class and fill out a storyboard. I would hope that this would help me become a better teacher by preparing students in the process of digital stories. There is a lot of behind the scenes that make digital stories work. It is important for me to take it step by step and not to fast as we start this process of making a digital story. I want my future students to know that the sky is the limit for digital stories as long as they meet the criteria they are able to create anything!