Thinking Tech

Technology is everywhere we look. I think back on my first years of college and how every assignment was on paper. Now, only 6 years later, the majority of our assignment can be turned in electronically, are more technological in content and require us to have a comfortability with the use of technology. It is truly amazing how technology has grown in such a short time span and how it continues to grow every second.

This picture made me think about some past teachers I have had. Their reluctance to give technology a try was very clear. They didn't know how to use it, didn't want to learn and didn't care what others thought about their stance. I believe this stubborness to technology is due to fear. Using this stuff can sometimes be like swimming through quicksand. It can be scary, but I don't think that this is a reason to shy away from it. In fact, I don't know that teachers now really have an option to say no to technology. Our students are so in tuned with this resource and we must use this engagement to benefit their learning. Technology can be frightening, but it doesn't have to be impossible. It is all based on the perspective we as teachers choose to take.

The Need for Tech in our CLassrooms

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!

Helpful Technology

After Chelsea's and Leah's Blogs on being unsure about using technology in the classroom, I think of my (mostly) positive experiences with technology right now at Room 9.  I agree with a lot of points made in the earlier posts, like that tech is always changing and that it is hard to keep up with, that older teachers seem weary about trying it, and that sometimes it does not work.

I have seen that technology can be a wonderful asset in the classroom... when used properly!  All the 6th-8th graders have their own laptops, except 2 because their parents:

A: won't sign the permission form or

 

B: don't have the the $ to pay for a case and the $50 deposit & they won't fill out the scholarship

form. 

These two students have a hard time keeping up with the other students because, although they have a laptop at school to use, they don't have one at home to do their homework on.  The other issue is that the laptops do not always come to school charged and students often forget their chargers at home.  These two problems are really the only issues I have with using laptops in middle school.  How can we ensure that all students have access to laptops and that they come to school fully charged?

Beyond those minimal setbacks I have seen wonderful use of laptops in school.  The students use laptops in every subject: science (national geographic online), art (research), literature (TeenBiz), and  math (online math games).  I feel that the use of laptops enhances the learning and the students love to use them!

My master teacher told me that he spends A LOT of time in the beginning of the year investing on teaching the students to use computer programs, but that it pays off later when he can do really cool projects.  He also uses the the digital projector for more than just projecting.  He takes pictures of the students and saves his work to make changes on.

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?

Cool Middle School Tech Project

Check out this link from Room 9:

http://schools.shorelineschools.org/room9/Ballard/Poems/A-R/Alessandro.html

The 6th-8th grade students wrote a preposition poem, then using GarageBand, PowerPoint, and iMovie they put it all together and published thier work!!