21 April-My Beliefs

I believe that technology should definitely be used in the classroom. If we don't use technology in the classroom, how will our students be prepared for the future technology that is coming about? Technology is something our students are growing up with. It revolves around our lives and the lives of our students. I believe that using technology in the classroom can make a more ideal learning experience for our students because we will be using what our students are used to.

I believe that technology will continue grow in different tools we will be able to use in the classroom as teachers. As the years go by, more and more technology will be implemented into the classroom. Some things that are already invented, and somethings that are soon to be invented. I know that I will need to keep up with all the new stuff.

I believe that there are some forms of technology that do not need to be used in the classroom. This includes calculators. I know that people rely on calculators and don't use a piece of paper to figure simple math problems out, but I do believe that everyone needs to know how math operations work. Each student needs to know how to do their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems so they know how it all works.

21 April-Lessons Learned

I learned about media mobility. Media mobility is making media accessible and available anywhere at any time and how technology is getting closer to more media mobility.

I also thought the Did You Know; Shift Happens-Globalization; Information Age video was pretty cool. It brought up a lot of things I never thought of. Information such as: the 25% of China with the highest IQ's is greater than the total population of North America. I also found it interesting from that same video that the top 10 jobs for 2010 didn't even exist in 2004. It brought to my attention that we are preparing our students for jobs that don't even exist yet, preparing them for technology that hasn't been invented, and preparing them for problems that aren't problems yet. This means I need to stay up with all the new technology so I don't fall behind.

I guess I'm concerned with how fast technology is moving forward. It is growing exponentially. I am concerned with being able to keep up with the fast growth of technology. I feel like technology is supposed to make our lives easier, but as it exponentially grows, some may fall behind and then will be left doing things the hard way, or will make things more difficult trying to use the new technology.

21 April Strengths and Weaknesses

I'm not a pro at technology, but I do know the basics to some parts of technology. I have grown up with a computer and other technology so I don't feel as behind as maybe my mom might feel. I know that technology is growing though, and that I will constantly have to learn new things to keep up with the growth.

Strengths

*I use email when required for classes, check it regularly, and maintain my folders in an organized manner.

*I use a word processing program for all my written work. I feel like my work looks professional.

*I use lists of web resources and make profitable use of web search engines to explore.

Weaknesses

*I don't know any trouble-shooting techniques.

*I don't use spreadsheets

*I don't use graphic organizers

Goals:

I want to be able to use spreadsheets and graphic organizers better and to be able to use it to help make teaching easier.

The teacher that I did field with used spreadsheet to keep track of all the books she had. She organized them in different categories and recorded it all in spreadsheets. This would be cool to integrate into my own classroom.

Tutorials:

These two tutorials will help me learn the basics of spreadsheet and after learning the basics, I can eventually use it to store data and information.

Google Spreadsheets Tutorial #1

Google Spreadsheets Tutorial #2

14 April- Field Experience weeks 1,2, and 3

I did my field work at Scera Park Elementary. My cooperating teacher was Mrs. Becky Weatherly and a teacher of the 4th grade. My field experience was different than everyone else because my situation is different. Right now I am only doing the program part time so I was not assigned to any school or teacher and only had to observe a classroom for the 3 week period. Because of this I was able to choose the school and teacher. That’s when I decided to go to the elementary school I attended when I was elementary age. I volunteered in Mrs. Weatherly’s class for the time everyone was doing field work.

As I was in the classroom, I learned a lot. While being in the classroom I got to do many different things. I graded papers, helped with all the paper work of being a teacher, I got to work in small groups and with individuals, and I was also left in charge of the class at times. This class was a very social class and loved talking with their neighbors. This made it challenging when the teacher left me in charge because they knew I wasn’t “boss”. As the week went on and the following weeks came, they started to know that when the teacher left the room, I was in charge.

From this experience in the classroom, I learned a little bit about classroom management. I realized that classroom management takes a lot of practice and planning. I learned that you need to know your students and you need to know what works best for your class. From comparing my experience with this recent field experience to other previous times in the classroom, I have realized that each class is different and each teacher is different in their techniques for management. There will be different students with different personalities and from different backgrounds each year. Each class will be different to manage.

My favorite part of the field was working in the small groups of students. When I worked with the small groups it would be anywhere from 3 students to about 6 students. I think this was my favorite part of field because I got to teach these students and help them learn. Since I wasn’t doing the same thing as everyone else in this class, I didn’t get the opportunity to get up in front of the class and actually teach a lesson. Working in the small groups was my opportunity to teach just a little bit. My overall field experience was definitely a good one. I learned a lot of things and took a lot from this teacher that I can use in my own future classroom.

This classroom didn't have very much new technology in it. the technology they had included: a projector and screen, and and ELMO, they used cd players to listen to reading, and they had a computer lab at the school. The technology they had at the school wasn't much different from what I had when I was in elementary school besides the ELMO. I had never seen an ELMO and thought it was pretty cool. It had the same purpose as an overhead projector. I didn't even know it existed until coming to this class. I do know that the amount of technology is increasing at elementary schools and that I need to keep up to date on the new technology. I know that I will need to know how to use the new technology.