Ertmer & Leftwich Reading

This article talks about how important technology is in the life of a student. It also talks about how teachers need to be equipped to know and teach the technology. While I believe that technology is awesome and needs to be learned I believe in my 1^st grade classroom you have to have the building blocks of learning first. For example I believe you need to be able to add before you just use a calculator to give you the answers. With that said you can learn to read with technology and that is amazing. This past week I hung out with my three year old niece and taught her how to play on the website starfall.com. She was able to click on letters and watch a little video explaining what sound each letter makes and words that start with that letter. What is awesome about this is that she loved it and she was learning some basic reading skills, at three that will help her to learn how to read. Sadly, when I started this year I got students from three different schools. Some of my students didn’t know their letters or their sounds and they were six.  These are two very important aspects of reading that they should have learned in Kindergarten, if really not before.

            The article says that “the more content-specific the example, the more likely the teacher will see value and learn it.” This quote is very true. If I can’t see where I would use something specifically in my day-to-day routine it is kind of a waste of my time and the person trying to teach it to me. I’ve got to be able to go in the next day and plug it in or it isn’t very useful to me.

            Part of me truly thinks it depends on what grade you teach as to whether technology is all that important. I like it and use it, but I know a few teachers who don’t. Last year I was in a Pre-K class as the assistant. The morning teacher was older and didn’t like technology and rarely, if ever, used it. The afternoon teacher was younger and used it just to do the calendar and message. Both classes learned about the calendar, were able to count on it, do the days of the week, see patterns, and the months of the year. I don ‘t really think the morning class missed out on anything because they didn’t use as much technology as the afternoon class. I don’t know that I would agree had the classes been older, but for Pre-K it didn’t make a difference.

Improve my technology skills

A few ways to improve my technology skills would be to use the resources that I have. I have a lot of friends who work on computers all day long. Some edit video some write software. I could pick their brains every now and again. I have technology in my classroom that I don't know how to use. I know the district has professional development days to learn these technologies. I'm not sure how or when they are offered, but I do know they are offered every now and again. I actually would really like to go to these. I wish the district would let you know when these were offered and what all is offered through out the year. Another way would be to get on the internet and just search our information about different programs. There is a lot of information on the internet. I might as well take advantage of it. I probably could get some information about the mobi and smartboard just by googling it.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

            In this chapter there were two main themes. The first part of the chapter talks about how willing children are to help one another . They are quick learners and are able to help their peers learn new software. The second part talks about how children help their family members and older people in society to learn how to use the technology.

            When I go to computer lab with my class I use the buddy system. If I am helping a student and I know some of my students know how to log on or find what they are looking for I will ask them to help their neighbors. It is definitely a team effort. I actually enjoy the fact that some of my students know how to use technology. If I don’t know how something works every now and again someone does and can show me. This doesn’t happen often, but on certain websites, such as starfall, my students have shown me different games you can do when I only knew about the one.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

            Four starts off talking about all the concerns and complications that come with using technology in the classroom. It discusses everything that is frustrating about it. Then it talks about how the teachers adopted new technology and were able to problem solve for themselves. It helped teachers to keep children from cheating or illegally downloading material and learning to trouble shoot their technical problems. Lastly, the chapter goes over how teachers have adapted or embraced it and used it to their advantage in the classroom such as IEPs, grades, and spreadsheets.

            Teaching a younger grade I can totally relate to all the frustrations at the beginning of the chapter. When my students started school they didn’t know how to turn a computer on or off. They can barely type in their names and passcodes. This is truly frustrating because a helper or I have to go around and help them type in their usernames and passwords. Then when you are done helping with that you have to show them how to double click on the Internet icon to get to the educational games. It is one of the most frustrating forty-five minutes of my week. I don’t really have to deal with my students cheating or illegally downloading anything. They are too young to understand any of that. The computer does become a distraction in my class when one child is on it working .The others want to hoover around them and watch. For example, one of my students is ELL so the ELL teacher wants her to work on a special computer program for a certain amount of time a day. When she does this the other students think it is unfair she gets to play on the computer everyday and they don’t. They then all stand behind her and try to watch. This becomes extremely annoying when you are trying to get the rest of your class to do their work. If they were older and could understand why she has to use the computer it would be easier, but because we are young the computer becomes an annoying distraction.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Chapter three is mainly about the five stages of instructional evolution.

Bringing in technology, getting it setup, learning how to use it, applying it into

your curriculum, and then teaching it to students.

I’m pretty sure if I was one of the teachers learning this technology in

1985 I would have punched myself in the face. I now understand why my mom,

who was a teacher, would never use word or emails unless she was made to.

Growing up with technology and then having a career where I would sit and work

on it each day for forty hours a week has made me able to understand and

sometimes trouble shoot certain situations. Had I not grown up with technology it

would probably be one of the most frustrating aspects of teaching. It would be

easily discarded for good ole books. Being a Teacher’s Assistant for a year I

worked with an older teacher who didn’t like technology and did not want to learn

it. I found that very frustrating. Anytime she didn’t know how to do something she

would have me do it.

It is an interesting statement that the book mentions technology's role in schooling is not yet

obvious. I think for the older children who have to do book

reports and research papers technology is freakishly helpful. You no longer have

to rummage around a library to try and find research that you need. Almost

everyone has a computer at home or has access to one to do all they need to

do. For someone like me who teaches the younger kids, other then I like

technology and want them to be excited about it, I’m not sure there is any great

gain from it. I let them play math games and reading games on it, but I have

some of the same games in class for them to play.

Jing Project

The most frustrating or difficult thing to me about the Jing project is that Jing doesn't seem to be very user friendly. In class I was able to make a video and then figure out how to embed it into a wiki. At home I cannot get it to work! Pretty frustrating! The idea of capturing a video right from my screen is a great one! It will work great for any tutorial I might want to do. Too bad I can't get it to work.

Editing Project

I will be using Final Cut Pro for my video editing project.

Chapter 11

In eleven the main idea is the First Amendment. The fact that students “do not possess unlimited First Amendment rights in public school.” They have their full rights off campus, but the schools have a duty to intervene when necessary.

            Chapter eleven was too much law jargon for me. Students are obviously not allowed to do and say whatever they want whenever they want. When they are in school or on public school property the school has to intervene for legality reasons. Obviously, even though the students have freedom of speech they are not allowed to use vulgar, profane, or lewd language in the educational environment. At home it is the parents job to intervene and monitor their actions.

Chapter 10

            The main focus of chapter ten is cyber bulling. Different ways to prevent, deal, and hopefully stop it from happening.

            This is an interesting topic to me. I think you can prevent students from seeing certain things at school by blocking them, but if there is no parental involvement nothing can really be done outside of school. In part of the chapter it talks about how we have to take tests before we can drive. How before shop class you have to learn the rules and procedures of the equipment. I think this idea is good if you can start it in Kindergarten. It might help some, but it kind of boils down to the fact that when the students go home and don’t have anybody monitoring what they look at or do I’m not sure anything will change.

Cyber bulling is also a problem because almost everyone has a cell phone. Even elementary students have cell phones. If the students are not made to keep them off and put up they can access facebook or any other social media site where they can continue bullying. This can happen at lunchtime, recess, or while a student is sitting in class. Unless you can ban cell phones at school and make sure to block social media websites on all computers (which they do) how can you stop this?

            The chapter keeps going on about ways to prevent bullying. Most of the ways it talks about preventing it were ways they had when I was in high school. The cheesy skits are not making an impact. They are usually boring and don’t really do much. Having an older peer might work, but they would have to be a very strong willed person to be able to be a leader in high school. I still think parents make this biggest impact up to a certain age. At that point parents have to hope they raised a child with morals and compassion who will find like-minded friends.

            My personal opinion on this topic is to have cameras monitor the students with the teachers. Make sure no one is ever hidden behind a computer. Maybe no cell phones at school. Period! If you need to talk to your student call the office. I don’t really know of a way to monitor this after school hours. I don’t know for a fact, but I would say most cyber bulling happens outside of school hours.

Chapter 9

            Chapter nine is all about contract laws and protecting the school system and students. Laying out the rules for using technology in the school system.

            This chapter talks about how if you use a contract in the school system it can be changed to fit certain situations. I find this kind of a touchy situation. If you say no cell phones in school then mean no cell phones in school. If you have a parent who is overseas or in jail they can call the school and ask for the student to come to the phone. More often than not the cell phones are being used to text friends or to play games when you are bored. I would have totally been the student playing a game because I was bored. When I was in school you would get in trouble if it was seen during class. My phone was in my backpack unless I had free time. Then I pulled it out and hid it under my desk to play a game or text a friend. It is a form of communication and great piece of technology, but when ANYONE is free to have it in class it becomes a distraction. I don’t care how responsible your student is. My high school principal was basically an uncle and my mom and dad would have been called and he would have taken my phone. I was a pretty responsible student, but I was still a student.

Chapter 8

In eight the chapter talks a lot about different kinds of assessment. Such as: Parent, Teacher, Peer, Ipsative, and real-world assessment. The chapter also talks about how the world is going to have to change how we assess because of how technology is changing.

            One thing that really stuck out to me was assessing without just testing. I was, and still am, someone who is terrible at taking test. I get nervous and second-guess myself. Had I had a different kind of assessment, say the teacher was to ask me the questions, or my peers, or I was able to make a project, I would have done a lot better. The teacher would also know that I knew the information even though I just bombed the test. I thinking testing can be good on certain things, but when you put all your value into it you cannot be getting a very good account of what is going on. I know I am not the only one who stinks at taking tests.

            Another area that stuck out to me was the part about assessing parents’ progress. It talks about how you should consider making a checklist for the parents. I send home a checklist of just letting your child read to you twenty minutes a night so that we are able to get them to the reading level they need to be on for second grade. I would say fifty percent of my parents don’t read with their kids. I understand you may not be able to read with them EVERY night, but you have to work with me if you want your child to pass. I am not a miracle worker and can only do so much during the day. I don’t think parents realize how important and influential they are in their child’s life. It is really hard to motivate a first grader to want to learn to read when their parent cannot read or read well.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 talks some about how in k-12 education something is always changing. “Someone is always trying to change it-someone is always proposing a new program or a new practice.” Three also talks about adult education, how adults want to learn and what.

            First in chapter 3 when it talks about something is always changing and someone is always proposing something new. This statement is true. It is also kind of annoying. I’ve started teaching right when the school system has decided to adopt a new form of learning and a new form of evaluating. I’m glad I started when I did.  I can imagine had you gotten use to the way things were running and had to change this year it would be a big pain. From older educators, who have now retired, I’ve been told to expect this a lot. The school system always wants to try something new. Trying something new isn’t bad, but when you don’t give the people involved time to understand it and adapt to it you don’t get any benefits. You have to give the program time to work before you decide yes or no. The biggest complaint I’ve heard about the school system always changing is that you never can get use to something.

            Three talks some about how adults want to learn and how. This hit home to me. If I’m not interested in what you are teaching I clock out. I like that in graduate school, so far, I’ve been able to choose the classes I want to take. Being a working adult I feel I know what I need to learn and how it will benefit me. For this reason I pick classes that I can actually use while teaching and that I won’t be bored in. I don’t need a theory class where a teacher yaps at me for three hours. I need classes that I can actually apply to life.

Common Core

I honestly don't know very much about common core. I do know that this is the first year NPS has used it so there are a lot of people who don't know about it either. I think if I had gotten to go to new teacher training I would have gotten a massive folder that kind of outlines things about it. Nobody seems to be against it, it is just a new method of teaching. Just like the pass skills that were before this it outlines what should be taught in each grade.