School Technology

As an assignment for my technology class, we were to explore all the technology found in our school. Upon exploration I found that my school offers a wealth of opportunity for students involving technology. My school previously had a partnership with the College of William and Mary which provided the school money and the means to have all of the amazing brand new technology.

The classrooms are equipt with "ELMO"'s which are computer projectors, that can display a picture of a worksheet (similar to an overhead) or can display the computer screen. My cooperating teacher uses this technology daily. It not only is an update version of the overhead, but it allows the teacher to use online resources and other computer resources in a whole class enviroment. There are computers in every classroom and the computer lab is top notch. The computer teacher truly takes advantage of modern technology as well. The lab has about 30 computers and laptops as well as a PRS system. In both the lab and library there is a "smartboard", which the students respond to very well. There is also a cart of laptops that are avaliable for general classroom use as well.

Not only is the technology at my school amazing, but it is easy to access as well. One just nees to send out an email or ask a question and it is all readily availiable. The school makes it easy for classroom teachers to use technology in their classroom and as part of the cooperation with the College the teachers were taught in seminars how to use the tools in the classroom.

I am really impressed with how the technology has been incorporated into my classroom. Although it is not perfectly integrated, I know that the use of technology in my classroom is more than at other schools. My teacher does a great job of trying to expose the students to all of the technology, daily we use the "ELMO" projector, the students use the computer for AR testing and other projects, and I have seen the classroom set of laptops used for scavenger hunts online. I hope that the use of technology continues to grow. It is great to see the results of a partnership turn out so positively, I hope that when I have my own classroom I can embrace technology in the classroom as well. The more I learn about its benefits the more I know it will have a important and large place in my classroom.

I Wish poems...

Around the Corner, highlights a second grade lesson that uses blogs to post student work.

In the lesson second graders will learn how to properly plan for the writing process and how to write a poem. I especially liked how the lesson not only truly integrated technology but the technology allowed the results to really shine.

The students were to watch a PowerPoint presentation that showed various pictures of animals, after picking one animal the students were to make a "word map" to describe the animal and how the animal feels. The the students were then told to use the "word maps" to write a poem about what it would be like to be the choosen animal.

I loved how the assignment encouraged student's imaginations to take control. I thought that posting of the 5 poems voted best in the class on the classroom blog probably encouraged the students to do their best. It would be really neat as second graders to see your work posted online for "all" to see. However, I wish that all the children's poems could have been posted so that each child could share in that excitement.

I really liked how by posting the finished poem on the classroom blog to share with other classes the student's work was really published. I can remember in my second grade class we had "writing workshop" where the final stage of the writing process, publishing, meant making pictures to go with our stories which we had written and reading them allowed to the class. By using the technology avaliable today the teacher has taken the writing process one step forward by actually publishing the poem for many to see, in a professional-like atmosphere. It would be very rewarding as a student.

It will be interesting to see how successful this lesson is. I hope it works out well because I would definitely try this lesson in my own classroom.

Inspiration

I began down the path of education not only to inspire my students but also to be inspired by them.

Today I spent some time in a Kindergarten classroom. When I set foot in the door I sensed a feeling of relief, I guess sometimes the "grind" of being in my third grade practicum even gets to me. I can't imagine how the students feel. It was great to see students free to explore the world around them and take learning into their own hands.

I took a look around and smiled when I saw a young girl on the computer playing educational games. I was happy to see that even at that young age this teacher had made sure that a computer was avaliable for student use in the classroom and by all means encouraged it. I began talking with the teacher and she mentioned that the little girl on the computer was born with severe autism and using the computer was one of the few things she did in the classroom. The teacher explained the frustration she felt when the little girl wouldn't participate in "circle time" or classwork. But she continued on to say that although she was not doing these things she was very very smart and was always reading or on the computer. I loved seeing the use of technology in such a positive way. Although the little girl would probably be best moving along with the class, it was great to see the computer and all of the education it can provide used in such a great way.

Yet, as the teacher called the students for "circle time" the little girl put her headphones down and headed to her name which was pasted to the floor. She drifted somewhat but chimed in for a few verses of "who stole the cookies from the cookie jar" and jumped up and down as we counted out the number of days we had been in school. Then as the rest of the students learned to take "bunny hops" when putting glue onto paper, she was right there with them. I was amazed, I knew that this was a big deal and when I looked at the teacher's face she glowed. She was so proud of that little girl.

Today I was inspired not only by the small but at the same time very large steps taken by this one little girl, but I was inspired by a teacher not willing to give up and who was willing to do anything necessary to make everyone in her class a part of