Activotes!!!

I was wondering if any of you saw anything cool in your dyads to help our students understand how voting works?

In a class I observed in, the teacher had activotes on each desk. They used these all week to make decisions in the class and talk about how the election works. I thought that this was a great tool to help 2nd graders understand what a poll is, how they contribute to their classroom by voting on different class topics. What a great use of TECHNOLOGY!

Tech necessity

In looking up different technology teacher sources, I am realizing that we have an ocean at our fingertips. There are so many sources out there with explanations and ideas of different for teachers to adapt and utilize in their classrooms. I have been thinking a lot about how I will ever gain so much knowledge about technology that I feel confident in presenting it to students. I am coming to accept the fact that I will not always have the answers and that it is a smart move to learn with (and sometimes from) my students.

As teachers we need to utilize all of our sources and go out on a limb to incorporate technology in our classrooms. I believe this because technology is a relevant part of our youths' lives. Cell phones, texting, computer networking, video and the music technology are all valuable to our youth. Whether students have access to technology or not, most students do have an interest in what technology is and what it can offer them. In many of our classes we have discussed the need to connect our instruction to our students; technology is one way to incorporate their interests. Furthermore, I think it is vitally important to teach students to navigate technology responsibly and safely. School, in theory is a safe environment. If we can education students to use technology properly we are preparing them for the future.

Technology can be extremely daunting and yet we live in a world that is increasingly proficient in it. As such, I believe it is important to find a way to incorporate technology with the purpose of teach students how to be comfortable with and use technology properly.

Really Cool Political Website!!

Check out this political website: 270 To Win 

We used this website at Room 9 to learn about the US voting system, electoral votes vs. popular votes, and the history of major events as they relate to voting.

You can go through the history of voting and every 4 years a map of the US pops up and shows the layout of the US in red and blue states.

You can change the states (undecided, republican, democrat) and see how many states it takes to win an election with electoral votes.

The kids (and myself) learned that it only takes 11 states for a President to win!

The next time someone asks "why do you want to be a teacher"...

Gretchen Wilson's Hero

Even though the focus is on adult learners, the message is the same. It is never too late to learn and succeed.

Dormant Technology

I have been thinking this week and pondering how little I have seen technology used in the classroom. Every classroom I have been in has had an active board, but I have yet to see it taken advantage of. In talking to these teachers about their active boards, I found that they didn't feel comfortable with all of the different attributes of the board to use it with their classes. They also expressed frustration over the fact that when they have tried incorporating the boards, something went wrong and resetting the machine didn't work. My thoughts lie in trying to think about how to educate myself so that I have the knowledge to integrate the active board on a regular basis and am able to resolve unexpected issues that may arise.

I realize that technology is an everchanging tool that we have to better instruction and provide students with challenging learning opportunities. How can we not use these valuable tools? As an education student, what steps can I take to ensure that I will be prepared? I feel slightly overwhelmed by all of the options available in the technology world. I can see where the teachers I mentioned earlier reach a point of frustration that causes them to neglect the use of technology. I also can see that we are asking our students to constantly be challenging themselves. Is technology my constant challenge?