Teacher Interview Continued...

Here's the response from Aunt's friend...

"I currently teach second grade for the Clark County School District out here in Henderson. My undergrad is in Elementary Education and I have a Masters in Technology in Education."--Julie Jones

(1) What tools are your favorite tech and web tools to use in the classroom?

The most used is the computer and now the internet. In our district students are enrolled in at least two different web based programs, EnVision math and Ticket to Read. The math one supports our current math program and Ticket to Read is a reading program that only allows students to advance as they pass the previous level. So, it is usually working on a skill they are in need of. I also use a wireless system which allows me to display my monitor onto my classroom TV

(2) What are your biggest frustrations with technology in the classroom?
One of the biggest frustrations is the lack of money spent in the area of technology, both in purchasing items and training teachers on how to use it. There are also discrepancies between what one school has compared to another. This varies because of each schools focus. We all get the same per pupil money but how it is spent varies widely. Some schools also do wonderful jobs at obtaining grants.

(3) What is the biggest misconception about using technology in the classroom?
That it will fix everything. Most of what we do is not technology driven at this point. Also, that it reduces paper consumption. Many still print off e-mails, memos, etc...

(4) What are the biggest hurdles that you face as an educator using technology in the classroom?
Having it available for my students to use. Many of the machines that we have are outdated and sometimes cannot support what we would like to do. There also does not seem to be enough computers available. I am in a pod with six other classrooms. Of those six, I would say at least four of us use the computers pretty consistently. That puts about 100 students trying to use 20 computers throughout the day. Sometimes I simply cannot get on them when I want to.

(5) What has been your biggest success with technology integration in the classroom?
I feel that I am a teacher that does integrate it into my lessons whenever possible. I am not scared to use it. It is nice to be able to not know the answer to something and be able to look it up right on the spot. That is a great example for my students that I am still always learning.

(6) Who/What has been your biggest inspiration in helping you to use technology in the classroom?
My biggest inspiration is my students. I really do want to prepare them for their future. They will probably be using technology in their everyday life when they get older more than I can even imagine.

(7) Where do you see technology integration heading in the future?

This is a difficult question to answer. I would hope it would be more prevalent than it is right now, but with the current economic situation I just don't see how that can happen. Our particular district is looking as to where they can cut funding. I cannot see them spending more money on technology when they are looking at increasing class sizes and waiting to adopt new text books.

Teacher Interview

I interviewed my Aunt Carol, who use to be a kindergarten teacher about technology. Since she has not taught for awhile now, her experience with technology is different from what a teacher would say now. I found it interesting to see the difference in technology over the years. Here is her response:

(1) What tools are your favorite tech and web tools to use in the classroom?

(2) What are your biggest frustrations with technology in the classroom?

(3) What is the biggest misconception about using technology in the classroom? It’s too advanced for children.

(4) What are the biggest hurdles that you face as an educator using technology in the classroom? Dependability on the equipment, budget cuts causing tech people to share time between schools so problems are not fixed in a timely manner, Not enough computers to go around so time with computers has to be scheduled and limited,

(5) What has been your biggest success with technology integration in the classroom?

(6) Who/What has been your biggest inspiration in helping you to use technology in the classroom?

(7) Where do you see technology integration heading in the future? Students with laptops instead of books, more virtual schools for high school especially, less emphasis put on spelling and punctuation, paperless schools,

I am waiting to hear from one more teacher to compare and get answers to the questions my Aunt could not answer.

Singing Gorilla

This is my storybird.com story. It is about a Gorilla that sings and when the gorilla sings, monkey's dance.

Critiquing Blogs

My PLN group and I made a list of what we think should be including in a quality blog...

--Inviting tone

--Interesting topic

--Your opinion

--Needs to be spell checked and no use of "text lingo"

--Use proper grammar

--Pictures

Class 2

On our 2nd class day we played around with several other websites to help us figure out visually stimulating ways to present information and projects. Once again, all of the different sites were overwhelming and hard to follow, however, after sitting down and taking in each assignment at my own paste, I found the sites to be interesting. For example, there was a word site where you type in a phrase, saying or just a list of words and then it would be set up in new fonts, styles and positioning to show an artistic poster. It put more meaning behind the words and was visually pleasing.

I am still having trouble figuring some of the assignments out (especially on how to post them on my blog) but I am slowly understanding how to use them all separately and expanding on how to incorporate them within a classroom.

Digital Story Telling

1. What is Digital Story Telling?

-Digital Story Telling is a home made movie constructed of your own photos. These movies can be made to explain any story. All you need to do is add captions and music and it becomes visually stimulating. It also can be used to make a project for the students to present.

2. How would you use it in a classroom?

-You can either use it to explain a new subject in class (ie history) or put together an end of the year video to show the parents what their children have done the whole year.

3. How would you need to scaffold this activity for the classroom?

-I would make sure the videos are short and clear enough to understand.

4. What are the challenges of using this technology in a classroom setting with different age groups?

-What makes someone more technology savvy is experience with technology. The younger the student, the less experience they will have making it harder for them to be able to work with.

Tech 221 First day of class

On our first day of Tech 221, we joined a blog and surfed different sites. The process was a little overwhelming but after taking it one by one at our own pace the assignments seemed to go at ease.

My past technology use has been researching with the internet, putting together powerpoint slide shows, typing up essays, graphs and charts using word, along with social uses such as facebook, email and for school, blackboard. Unfortunately, even with these experiences, I till struggled with our assignments. I am still having problems understanding what to do with each site, but after going through it once, I have been able to figure out how to navigate myself online.