Reflection #16: My Beliefs

I have developed many beliefs about integrating technology into the classroom. I feel that this class was a good class to help me decide where I stand with technology. I love technology! I want my students to love technology! I love learning new things about technology. I have learned to be patient with technology. In the past I have struggled with patience and technology! I am patient with everything else but technology and this class has helped me to do better with that struggle. I am really excited to include technology in my future classroom. With field experience we used some type of technology with every lesson whether it was just a projector or if it was the Smart Board or the ELMO. I really want to be able to teach my students about technology. After reading the New WWW article for this assignment I want to create a ClassAct Portal for my students, even though I don't have any right now. I want to have a good influence of technology on my students. The future generations that I am going to be teaching are going to know much more about technology than I do. If we don't do something about how much they know and use that knowledge to engage them in the classroom then we won't get through to them and they wont become the students we all know they can be. I look forward to using the skills that my students have acquired without even realizing they have done it to the best of my teaching ability! I want to have a positive influence on my students! I want them to love technology as much as I do. We as teachers need to do all we can do to make our students learn all they can, if that means letting them use their technological abilities in the classroom, why not do it? I know I will!

Reflection #15: Lessons Learned

I really enjoyed reading these articles and watching these videos! I learned a ton of valuable information from each one of them that i will try to take to heart! I really enjoyed the millennial generation video. I feel that the predictions about technology that the students came up with are pretty accurate. I also enjoyed the New WWW article. I had never realized that our world was like that. One part that I especially liked in it was the section A Better Approach for Education and A Strategy for All Teachers in All Schools. I feel that we as teachers need to develop a ClassAct Portal. I love that this article tells/shows you how to build a ClassAct Portal. I also really enjoyed reading and learning about the shorthand that we use now days and ones that the author feels we should use. I didn't like the article of PowerPoints that talks about Tools for Change. I couldn't follow it and wasn't sure what it was trying to say. If i knew what it was saying or talking about I might like it a lot better and understand it a lot more. With the High Tech Learning article i wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with it. I feel there needs to be more instruction on what to do to understand what its trying to say or what you're trying to have us learn from this website. I really liked the article about why we should integrate technology into the curriculum. I liked the part in this that said "Technology also changes the way teachers teach, offering educators effective ways to reach different types of learners and assess student understanding through multiple means." I learned many lessons and gained some beliefs about what i think about technology in the classroom. This class was very helpful in teaching me about technology and what it means to me!

Reflection #14: Strengths and Weaknesses

My scores from the UNI survey were, starting with the lowest and the one in need to work on most, not being aware of any adaptive assistive devices for students with special needs. I rated it at pre-novice. I was novice in multiple areas including: demonstrating awareness of uses of computers and computing technology in business, industry, and society; using audio/visual resources (audiotapes, videos or slides) to access information and analyze the authority, accuracy, currency, and relevance; using video conferencing such as the Iowa Communications Network (ICN) to communicate with others; using databases to collect, organize, and analyze data and produce meaningful reports to aid in problem solving; using graphic organizer software to display information graphically for brainstorming or decision-making sessions; and using instructional software to support student learning and professional review sources to match software to the needs of learners in the special education or regular classroom. The rest of the survey questions i was an apprentice. I didn't feel like i was able to put practitioner or expert because i haven't designed authentic learning activities for my students or reflected on and made educated decisions in determining the effectiveness of those activities. I feel like I didn't have many strengths with this survey. I feel like i could improve in everything that this survey described. With the NET standards I feel that my weaknesses are that i don't use technology to enhance productivity and professional practice. I also feel that i don't understand the social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the use of technology in PK-12 schools. My strengths with the NET standards would have to include demonstrating a sound understanding of technology operations and concepts as well as  planning and designing effective learning environments and experiences supported by technology. I feel that my strongest point would have to be to implement curriculum plans that include methods and strategies for applying technology to maximize student learning. The goals i want to accomplish as a beginning teacher would have to include becoming aware and using (if applicable) of any adaptive assistive devices for students with special needs. I want to have my classroom one that has all students. If I have students with special needs I want to have all the options and things to make their learning experience one they will never forget and make the most of! This website, http://www.rehabtool.com/at.html , has multiple options for assistive technology and learning about the different products and things related to special needs and adaptive assistive devices. My second goal i want to accomplish as a beginning teacher is to understand the. I want to be able to teach technology and things but I don't want to be scared that I will run into ethical or legal problems. I want to understand all that I need to so i won't have to worry! This website and video has a lot on what i want to learn for this goal! http://www.truth-it.net/ethical_issues_in_education.html  

Reflection #13: Digital Story Reflection

At Vineyard Elementary School there were a lot of students who were from low income families. We had a lot of students who moved in and out frequently. There were 33 students in the class that we taught and our cooperating teacher was Mr. Zac Eagar. Our relationship with Mr. Eagar was really good. He debriefed with us after every lesson and sincerely wanted us to succeed. He gave us goals after every lesson to do better at that thing for the next day. He really liked our digital story. He felt that the students enjoyed it as well and that it was a good change to what they were used to. He felt that the lesson, Utah’s Geography, went really well also. He thought that the students were thoroughly interested in learning about the geography of Utah. The training session went awesome. He is very technology skilled and would succeed easily in doing a digital story of his own for whatever topic he chose. He was very excited to see our digital story and to create one of his own. We feel like the service-learning experience was very good. We felt that we contributed to the community in a good way while developing a better understanding of Utah’s geography. We feel like we know much more about the geography than we did before the lesson. We think that Mr. Eagar gained a better understanding that the kids need a greater variety of lessons taught. The students get used to the same way a teacher teaches and they get bored. As a teacher you need to be full of ideas to keep the students engaged. We gained a lot of knowledge of content and what to do for classroom management. Mr. Eagar told us, “You have mastered the science of teaching, now you need to master the art of teaching.” This field experience was definitely worth it. We learned so much about teaching and what it means to be a teacher. We will take all that we learned and use it in our future classrooms.

Reflection #12: Field Experience

This week was very interesting. We finished up teaching our lesson plans and got to watch our cooperating teacher teach social studies. What an eye opening experience. During our lessons i thought the kids were pretty decent having good behavior for the most part. I mean they weren't perfect angels but they weren't perfect demons either. I felt accomplished with how things turned out and then i saw how the students behaved while our teacher taught and all of that accomplishment went down the drain. The students were horrible during our teaching compared to when he taught. I know i should still feel some sort of accomplishment in itself; i do feel accomplished in a lot of different ways but not so much in classroom management anymore. The technology that i experienced while in field work was totally awesome! I never thought that there would be that much to learn about technology that i didn't already know. I saw my cooperating teacher use the smart board for many different types of things and think that if i were to try it again i feel i would do well with it. I love learning about technology! I just brightens my day! I definitely want to continue learning about the new technologies and how they have evolved. It will be very interesting to see if in my field work next semester there will be smart boards and Elmo projectors and the different types of technologies that there were in this field experience. I also wonder if there is this technology how much i will use it with the younger grades compared to the older ones. I enjoyed every minute of my field experience! i cant believe it has come to an end. I am kind of sad that i wont be seeing the students anymore. I am also sad that i wont be learning from my cooperating teacher everyday. I definitely learned something new everyday! I will be taking so much to heart from what i learned. One thing i will always remember from this field experience is "You have mastered the science of teaching, you just need to master the art of teaching." I plan to use this saying throughout my whole teaching career because you can always learn something new and put what you have learned into play! I can't wait until i have started teaching and can put this saying into action!

Reflection #11: Field Experience

This week has been a very interesting week. Our digital story went really well. The students loved it. Our cooperating teacher did also. All of the technology we have experienced in field has been so surprising. My favorite part probably has to be seeing our teacher use the smart board. We used the smart board when doing a power point presentation and it is really neat how you can just tap the board and it will go to the next slide instead of sitting at your computer having to move to the next slide. We tried to use the smart board the way its supposed to be used but it backfired on us. Im glad to know that they actually work and can be used for great things when you know how to use them. I also love that our teacher uses a microphone. Sometimes it can be a little much but overall i have loved seeing him use it. We have an awesome cooperating teacher. I have learned so much from him about teaching as well as technology. I never knew there was that much to learn. Our lessons ended up going pretty well although i would change a few things in each one were i to teach them again. I am very grateful to have had them go that well. I am grateful that i had a great partner. I hope i was as much help to her as she was to me. Without her im not sure where i would be. After every lesson we debrief with our teacher and he helps us understand what we could do better and change and how to become better teachers. His words are always "You have mastered the science of teaching, now you just need to master the art of teaching." I think these words are so wise. I have tried to take them to heart and master the art of teaching, it hasnt been that easy, but atleast i am trying. I cant wait to become a teacher!!

Reflection #10: Field Experience

Field experience has been great so far. I have mostly observed but have taught twice so far. The elementary school i am in, Vineyard Elementary, has smart boards in each room as well as Elmo projectors. I have enjoyed watching the different technology techniques that my cooperating teacher has used. He uses a microphone everyday while teaching. He uses the Elmo multiple times a day, uses the smart board as a projecting surface everyday, and he also uses the smart board when is applicable. My first day of teaching i got to use the smart board as more than a projecting surface. I actually used the program. It was interesting. I didn't like it very much but i think that is because i am not used to it nor do i really know how to use it. In a way i suppose you could say that i am scared of it. I also used the Elmo during my lesson. I really like the Elmo projector. it is a lot more accessible than a regular projector. I love using this technology! I cant wait to use these types of technologies as a teacher and have my students benefit from it! We show our digital story tomorrow and i cant wait to see what the students think! :)