With the everchanging world of technology, it seems to be the mentality to “go big or go home.” I say that with the realization that the future of education is becoming more technology centered with students using ipods, ipads, computers and cell phones. Students are motivated and technologically unafraid to take a risk and try new things.
Technology has been a difficult process for me, as I am always afraid of hitting the wrong key or becoming frustrated when I try to show my students something new and can’t find it, or even the frustration of being unable to find information that is useful to me. I feel this class has motivated me to try new websites, using a blog more, and making different posters and so forth. It felt great to make that safety poster and the power point presentation. These are things I can use in my classroom daily, and were motivating for me, so I know I will have my students take a chance.
I am looking forward to the next year as I am constantly looking at new websites that will help me to use technology in my classroom. Some that have really stood our are the http://www.abcya.com and www.prometheanplanet.com. The first website is one that I will use in the classroom during literacy and math centers in order to extend the lesson taught. The promethean planet will be a great resource for making lesson plans and flipcharts for my classroom and calendar time.
Our district recently bought 30 ipads to share between each grade in our building. I am trying to learn more about them and I am looking into new apps daily in order to have a good technological knowledge before introducing them to my students. This will be a new adventure for me so I am looking forward to it.
Unfortunately, I am losing my document camera, projector and white board since I am switching grades this year. I will not get this technology until possibly winter this school year. This will be a huge transition because most of my lessons are technology based, so finding new ways to incorporate it into my classroom is going to take some work. I feel that maybe this time will allow me to use the TIP model and work on better quality lessons that I didn’t really have before. This is kind of what I think will be a fresh start so to speak. Two of the websites I have looked into that will help me in the search for ipad knowledge are the following https://sites.google.com/site/schrockipad and http://www.tipb.com/2010/07/04/ipad-work-elementary-school-teacher .
Again, I see myself continuing to grow as not only a teacher but also a technology educator. Most importantly this class has showed me how to effectively use technology in a purposeful manner in my classroom.
Hi Tami,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you gained a lot from your experiences in this class! The best thing is that you are ready to tackle the challenge of using new technology in your classroom. It is disappointing that you will be losing your doc cam, projector, and whiteboard; however, I commend you for using this opportunity to use the TIP model to revise the quality of your lessons. Good luck using the iPads! I’m sure that you will find multiple apps that will help support student learning!