My Beliefs

I watched a video last year in my Intro to Education class. It showed a very poor school with leaky pipes and access to only one computer. They then showed a wealthy school that had a laptop for every student, a science lab, and many more accessories. They interviewed students from both schools. The student from the poor school had never used a computer. He asked how he would ever get a job; even McDonalds uses computers. A student from the other school had a full-ride scholarship, and had already taken some college classes. What was the main difference between the schools? Technology.

If you would have asked me my beliefs about using technology in the classroom three days ago , I would have said that it can be used when it is convenient. It is simply there to help you, the teacher. Today I say don‘t only use it whenever you can, show your students how to use it. Technology can help you to show examples in any subject, and help to make your job easier. Most of all, it can help a student to learn more for their future. I didn’t realize how that video last year was tied to technology until I started reading articles and watching videos for this assignment. We are preparing students for jobs that are not even around today. They need as much of a head-start with technology as we can give them.

Lessons Learned

There were two things that stuck out to me the most from watching and reading the information. The first thing was that it is a teacher’s responsibility to be teaching about technology. The article talked about there being technology everywhere, and a lot of kids are left on their own to figure it out. Of course that is not the best option. As teachers, we should take on the responsibility to become familiar with technologies. This way we can teach the students the best way to utilize it. On one of the Youtube videos the guy talked about how most parents are afraid of technology. I think it’s important not to let our fears keep us from a valuable skill.

The other thing that stuck out to me was that we are preparing students for jobs that probably don’t even exist yet. That was a great point to make. We are advancing so much, and so quickly. Things are only going to get more technical as time goes by. Again, we should be prepared and educated so that we can pass that on to our students. Everything I read made me realize the need for me to learn more about using technology.

Strengths and Weaknesses

When I looked at the NET standards I saw areas that I would consider strengths, and some that I would call weaknesses. The areas that I think I do well in are; basic understanding of concepts and continual growth in technology, identify and locate technology resources, and I use technology in a legal, ethical way. I usually do not have problems with basic technology tasks. I can also figure out a way to make something work if my first choice goes wrong.

I think that my biggest weakness is that I don’t know the best way to incorporate technology in teaching. I will also avoid technology sometimes because I know it can be complicated. With the NET standards my weaknesses are; plan strategy to manage student learning, apply technology to maximize student learning, apply technology to evaluate, and teachers us technology to enhance productivity. There have been times when I have had issues with technology. I couldn’t get something to work right, and I have no idea how to fix it. I’m so worried about something going wrong, that I figured I would just avoid it all together. That is also a weakness. Students today need exposure to different technologies.

My goals for first year teaching are to learn the best ways to use technology in curriculum, and to not let my fear of failure keep me from using technology in my future classroom. I found one workshop on UEN called, “The Integrating Technology and Curriculum, Parts 1&2”. This workshop will help by teaching me the best ways to use technology in the classroom. The other conference I found is called, “Using Technology to Teach”. The description of this one even asks, “Are you nervous about computers?” It goes through the basics when using a computer and then also tells you how to incorporate technology in your classroom.

Reflection

Edel 3250 Field Experience Service Learning Project

Our cooperating teacher was Mrs. Peterson at Foothills Elementary School in Salem. There were 32 students in her class. The school community has students from Elk Ridge, Salem, and Woodland Hills. There are 608 total students; 590 of the 608 are classified as white students. 18 are classified as being a minority; 2 Asian, 4 Black, 8 Hispanic, 3 Indian, and 1 Islander.

We had a very good relationship with our teacher. She helped us in anyway that she could. She was very flexible with what we needed to do and made sure that we had time to fulfill our school requirements. We also helped her with grading, putting posters on the walls, and helping the students in her classroom. We would honestly consider her a friend at this point.

Mrs. Peterson said that she really liked our digital story that we created. She said that it looked like we took a lot of time to do it, and that it might also be a fun thing for her students to learn how to do.
She also thought we did a pretty good job on this lesson. She loved that one of us dressed up, and showed exactly how the Ancient Greeks used to pray and worship their Gods and Goddesses. She also like the added touch of the digital story that we created. She did have a few tips to help with classroom management, and to help the students stay engaged.

The training session went well. We had popcorn and dried apricots while we went through instructions on how to make a digital story using iMovie. Mrs. Peterson seemed to catch on pretty quickly to the process. She said that she thought it would be useful, and liked the different options that the iMovie program offered.
This assignment caused us some mixed emotions. We were worried about encroaching on our cooperating teacher’s personal time. It seemed like it could easily be viewed as an imposition rather than a help to her. It is kind of hard because it does not seem like there’s a way for the teacher to politely decline without leaving us in the lurch in terms of completing the assignment. It would be helpful if there was an alternative option in the event the teacher did not want the training.

As it turned out, our cooperating teacher was open to the idea and was very clear about what would be helpful to her. She had us write up instructions, so we could move quickly through the process while leaving a reference sheet for her to refer back to if she forgot how to do it. She was well acquainted with computers and caught on really quickly. She said she was glad to have gained the knowledge on a new possible teaching forum and would likely make a digital story of her own at some point.
In our particular situation, the experience seemed to be worth it to the teacher. She did mention that other teachers might not feel the same. She was happy for the 20 minute exposure we gave her but would have been frustrated if it had taken a lot of time.

Creating, sharing, and teaching the digital story had its benefits for us as students. It gave us a chance to gain a more thorough understanding of the topic we taught as well as giving us exposure to iMovie and all its fun possibilities. Through the experience we also gained an opportunity to give back to our cooperating teacher. The down side of the experience was the amount of time the assignment took. With teachers’ demanding schedule, it’s hard to imagine that this particular skill will be widely used.

Last week of Field

Well, this week was our last full week in our 6^th grade classroom. It has been such a valuable time, and I already feel attached to the kids. It has been so wonderful getting to know about their personalities.

Monday we taught our final Social Studies lesson. We told them about temples the Ancient Greeks made to worship their Gods/Goddesses. They then had a time limit to build a temple to a specific Greek God/Goddess. It was a really fun day. I definitely would repeat the activity in the future. The only thing different that I would do is give them planning time on a previous day. Some of the students were so excited about the plans, that they didn’t actually get to make their temple.

We mostly just observed the teacher and class the rest of the time. She continued the Greek mythology subject and let the students divide into groups to make life-size God or Goddess. I will be using this idea. They get so into it, and I couldn’t believe what amazing artists were in the class.

The other highlight of the week was when the 6^th graders got to go help the Kindergartners with learning their numbers. It was the cutest thing that I have ever seen! It honestly made me really want to teach Kindergarten.

It has been a great learning experience. I can’t wait to get into my own classroom. Honestly, I am a little bit sad to be leaving Foothills Elementary, but I’m happy to be that much closer to finally graduating.

Week 2 of Field

This week was by far the most fun, and most stressful. We taught our Social Studies lessons on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Our supervisor also came to watch us on both Monday and Friday.

Monday we did a lesson introducing mythology. My partner dressed up as a seven-year-old Grecian girl to tell the students a little bit about worshiping Greek gods. I think she did an amazing job. We also showed our digital stories, and read them a story about Athena and Aracknee. Overall the lesson went really well. I think that the students like it, and they learned a lot.

Tuesday we did kind of a concept attainment lesson first where the students were given pictures and then told what group to go in. Then we did a fill in the black on the projector together as we read stories of Athena and Poseidon. The only problem was while we were sorting the children by their pictures. First I had decided to have them stand by their pictures, then it was getting kind of noisy, so I told them to go sit down when they were done. I forgot that the reason that I wanted them to stay standing was so that if they got something wrong, then I could re-direct them. It worked out ok, but in the future I would have them stand, and not tape their pictures to the wall until they were “approved”.

Thursday we did a Synectics lesson that compared life in Sparta to a Bulldozer. Overall I think it is a fun idea to get the students critically thinking, but I decided that I would modify it in my own classroom. There are just too many confusing steps. By the end of it, the children were getting really restless.

Friday we read a few quick stories about Hephaestus and Dionysus. Then we gave the students foldables to compare the similarities and differences. We then played a game where the different teams had to pull a name of a God/Goddess out of the bag and act it out. The team then had to guess who they were trying to be. I think this day went pretty well.

I have learned so much this week. We do our last lesson on Monday, and I’m excited to see how it goes. I think the biggest thing that this field experience has done is made me really impatient to become a teacher. I can’t wait to have my own classroom.

First Week in the Field

This first few days of field has been really great. We are so lucky! We were put in a wonderful classroom, with a wonderful teacher. She is so patient with us and really helps where she can. We worked it out with her so that we go all day on Wednesdays and then for three hours on the rest of the days. So our first day was kind of long, but exciting. We tried quickly to learn all of the kids names. We did also get to help during math time a little bit.

On Thursday, the kids were learning a bit about world hunger. They divided up the desks and students to make it proportionate to the way the world is. Then she handed out money and cookies in ratio to what the world is like. We got to help handout money and cookies it was awesome. The other really cool part of the day was P.E. They played a game where there were cards in the middle of the gym. They had divided up into five different teams. One student per team would run and grab a card from the stack. It would say something like, “Sing Jingle Bells while hoping on one foot” and other fun things that like that. The whole team had to do it, and then the next member would run and grab another card. At the end, the team who completed the most cards won. It was so fun!

Today, Friday, we got to help pump up the footballs for P.E. The teacher hooked up a projector thing that showed a book about world hunger. It was a good day, and what a great group of kids!