SMART board article...

I chose to read the article titled "Interactive Whiteboards Enhance Project Based Learning" by H. Ellwood. I found this article very inspiring as a future teacher. It gave examples of quite a few teachers who are using interactive white boards in their classrooms with a lot of success.

I learned about project based learning from this article. This is something that I haven't really thought much about being that I didn't learn this way. I think this is such a great idea. It basically means that teachers use interactive tools such as the SMART board for the students to prepare and present projects on/with. This approach to teaching puts the learning in the hands of the students. Instead of a teacher standing up and lecturing, it allows the teacher to make class more interesting to students by becoming more of a teacher-facilitator.

One major way for teachers to accomplish this is to be open to incorporating these new interactive methods into their lesson plans. So as a teacher, I need to realize that though I didn't necessarily learn in this manner, it doesn't mean that I cannot teach this way. I need to keep in mind that the children that I will be teaching have grown up in a completely different world that I and that they are a lot more technological savvy than I was at their age. I have a lot to learn. One quote from the article that I will always remember is, "What will we discover today?" This is what Patricia Deibert, a teacher, asks herself every morning when she steps into her classroom. Everyday there is the opportunity for me to teach my students and for my students to teach me.

Attempt at creating a website...

I am so FRUSTRATED with Google sites! I think of myself as a technological capable person and cannot for the life of me figure out how to make a site. I think my problem is that I can see it in my head and have an idea of how I think the making it process should go, but it's not happening that way. I have all these cool ideas but I am not able to execute them.

As far as HTML, it is something that I think is neat but will never use. Well I do like the whole adding a link thing, so here goes! Click here! OK, so being able to do that is pretty cool! I just wish my Google site was something more. Oh well, I am going to keep trying.

Assignment #1

Technology is a wonderful thing that is available to us. I didn't have all of the technological things available to me like students have today. I didn't even have the Internet in my home until the end of my senior year in high school! I think it is very important to not only use technology but to use it in the correct way. I see the use of technology as only being limited by my imagination. Being somewhat of a digital immigrant, the use of technology is something that I will need to always work on. However, it is something that I see as extremely valuable to my teaching and the learning of my students so I don't think of it as something that I HAVE to learn, rather something that I WANT to learn.

Using the ERIC database on Hurst Library online, I was able to find a really interesting article, "Third-Graders Learn About Fractions Using Virtual Manipulative's: A Classroom Study" by Kelly Reimer and Patricia S. Moyer, about the use of virtual manipulative's in teaching fractions to third grade students. Math is a subject area that I never felt comfortable with as a child so I thought that math would be a good subject to look at and see how technology is impacting the teaching of it. The article reports the findings of a study that was conducted on a group of nineteen third grade students, who were diverse with their cultures and learning capabilities.

The study was focused specifically on a couple of questions:

1. What impact do virtual fraction manipulative's have on students' conceptual and procedural understandings of fractions?
2. What are students' attitudes about using virtual fraction manipulative's during the learning of fractions?

To try to figure this out, the teacher first demonstrated the use of virtual manipulative's to students using a computer connected to a television so that they could see what was possible while using the virtual manipulative's. Then they were allowed to use the virtual manipulative's individually. The students took a pre and post test about fractions.

The scores were reported to be significantly higher in the post test. The students reported that they liked the virtual manipulative's because they helped them to learn in a fun way. They also liked that they were able to receive immediate feedback and that the virtual manipulative's were much faster than paper and pencil. Overall, the students really enjoyed themselves and they learned a lot.

The researchers who conducted this study realize that these are very narrow results only focusing on one class of nineteen students. It is a proven fact that we need tools for math. Why not use virtual ones that have so much more information with them? Virtual manipulative's are able to connect abstract ideas for children. But the use of virtual manipulative's or any technology in the classroom for that matter, require the teacher to understand the technology she is using and to not be afraid of it.

This article made me really excited. As a child, I never understood fractions. Something like this would have helped me so much. I feel that as educators we have so much at our fingertips that we should use all of our resources. This particular study was so successful that the teacher of the classroom has incorporated the use of virtual manipulative's into her regular lesson plans. I have learned that for children to learn, we as teachers must think outside of the box. For me this means to teach in a completely different way that I was taught.

[Kelly Reimer, Patricia S Moyer. (2005). "Third-Graders Learn About Fractions Using Virtual Manipulative's: A Classroom Study." The Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 24(1), 5-25. Retrieved September 22, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 785060121).]

The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for children and teachers are so important because they let educators know exactly what is expected in the area of technology. Our future generations are becoming more and more technologically literate. This means that children need to be educated in the use of technology at a younger age.

The NETS for teachers are so important because they explain exactly what is expected in the area of technology. After reading the NETS I see them as something that is very helpful to me. They are easy to understand and just reading them gives me ideas of how to do the things that are required.

The NETS for students are very helpful because they are broken down into different age categories. TheNETS for students are specific to the age, grade and requirements. Not only that, but they give examples of learning activities that students might engage in during that age/grade.

I see our technology advancing every month! I am excited that I live in an era with so much at my fingertips. However this also means that I need to be responsible about learning to use technology and teach it effectively. My imagination is the only limit to the things that I can do in the classroom with technology.

My school's website...

I am observing at Sunset Elementary located in the Issaquah School District. They have a fabulous website. You can view it at http://www.sunset.issaquah.wednet.edu/. Everything that a parent or student could need to know is included on the site. They have a calendar that can be downloaded as well as a list on the main page of the current upcoming events. Several teachers have their own pages linked off of the main page. One part that I really enjoy is a page on student health. It goes through several common childhood illnesses and lets parents know when to keep students home and when they are okay to attend school. There are a couple of things that I don't understand. One is called Orchard Math and the other is the AR list. I believe the Orchard math is some sort of at home thing for students and the AR list is for accelerated readers. I am sure that once I ask questions at my school, I will understand what those are. But those are the only two things that I find confusing. I can't think of anything that is missing. The site is laid out so nice, it is user friendly, and full of useful information.

My technology goal this semester...

Being comfortable with today's technology is so important for teachers today. The school that I am observing in has a lot of technology at their fingertips. They have mounted smart boards in every classroom. There are two teacher computers and several student computers in each classroom. Being that I will be there doing my student teaching through the rest of my schooling, I want to focus on learning how to use the smart board.

There is so much that can be done with smart boards. My cooperating teacher is starting to learn how to use it as well so it will be a good learning experience for both of us to bounce ideas off of each other. I think this is a good goal and one that I am excited to work on!

Week 2

I chose the article, "Generation IM: Getting through to today's teched-out children" by Curtwood, 2008. I chose it because it was the most current article and I am curious about how things are happening right now in education.

I wasn't surprised by anything that was said in the article. The variety of electronic and media devices that children have isn't anything that I wasn't already aware of. Nor was the amount of time that children spend using these devices. I personally don't see anything wrong with today's technology and children using it. The problem is when it isn't used as a means of education by today's teachers.

My favorite part of the article was the very end. It went through seven different ways for teachers to integrate the use of technology into the classroom. They are: having students create a blog, create a social network, podcast, use wicki's for large projects, try social bookmarking, post video, and explore with Google maps.

I realize that the problem with all of these isn't that they aren't great resources. The problem is that many teachers are not aware of how to use them. So I agree with the article when it says that we need to have educate our teachers on current technology and ways to incorporate it into the classroom. Using today's media is such a great teaching opportunity.

Deciding to be a teacher...

Teaching wasn't something that I always thought I would do. When I was young I thought that I needed to be something "important." In my adolescent mind that meant being a doctor or lawyer. However, when I look back now, I see that I always played school and not doctor or lawyer.

Deciding to be a teacher was something that sort of hit me overnight. I was contemplating going to University of Washington and majoring in pre-med. But it didn't feel right. Then I thought of teaching and suddenly everything came into focus for me. It was like a huge light came on inside of me.

I was able to realize that being a teacher is something very important. I have the opportunity to educate our children, our future. If I am able to make a difference in just one child's life, then I will be satisfied and know that I have done what I feel I was made to do.