This week I have really tried to immerse as much technology into my teaching as much as possible. I feel as the more I utilize and expose kids to various activities the more routine using technology will become. I found some great interactive websites created for friendly letter writing and used it with my kids. Let me tell you these sites engaged my kids and kept them interested in the topic. It was exciting to see all the hands up to try and answer questions. Here are a few of the sites I used with my kids.
edujourney.net/Classroom/PowerPoint/FriendlyLetter.ppt
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/letter_generator/
http://www.billybear4kids.com/post/office.htm
http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/ecards/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/writing/letters/play.shtml

After reading the articles regarding social networking sites I have mixed reviews about using such sites. Teachers need to be responsible in insuring that there is an educational purpose and goal in regards to the way that students are using these social networking sites. If these goals or expectations are not conveyed then yes there will be issues of misuse. I feel if teachers are educating students about the dangers of the internet such as sexual predators and teach students about technology etiquette and anti-bullying (trolling) then social networking can be an effective educational tool for increasing student achievement, can provide a link to the community/world, and can increase student engagement.

Also, a how do I create a wiki page to use with my students/staff to access sites I find to use.
Hope that's not a silly question.

Post-its (because I didn't know what else to call it)

This past week's activities were so much fun! As a teacher, you get busy with meeting standards and assessments and don't have enough time to see what resources are out there. This class has allowed me to get a taste of what technology has to offer. The only problem I struggle with as a teacher is having the time to research more activities/resources that are available. I hope that once my life of graduate school/teaching/mommy slows down then I will have the time, but I have a good start with the activities that Dr. S has provided for us thus far.

From the readings, I am interested in learning more about the literature circles and the virtual books using powerpoint. These two activities I think would beneficial for kids and fun to do. For me it may be a time consuming process as we have limited time in the computer lab each week.

Which poses another issue. The accessibility and the willingness for districts to provide techonology to support such great ideas and expose kids to more activities utilizing technology.

This week in technology.....

This week, was a pretty successful week as far as learning/teaching/and using technology. I organized a VERY successful staff development with colleagues. Some of my skepticism towards some of my staff members and using technology was eased. I have learned that with LOTS of organization and reassurance you can teach an old dog new tricks. This thinking can also be relevant with students who are learning to use technology. Although there may be times you and your students may get frustrated, but you have to patient and know that new technologies take time to work out kinks. This week made it very exciting for me to want to do further trainings with my staff and to incorporate more technology into my classroom as they were very appreciative and were more at ease with the “scary” computer.

This week’s reading by Dr. Schmidt was filled with a variety of technological tools that I could use and introduce to my staff. This week’s in-class activity gave me a deeper understanding of what TPACK is and allowed me to distinguishing the various components needed to teach literacy, the technologies that are available, and how we can teach those skills. It really helped me to “refresh” my bag of tricks.

TPACK readings

These two articles riterated my feelings about the fact that teachers need to be preparing students to not only be literate in text but literate using technology to increase skills. It made me feel good as a teacher to know that I have incorporated some of the ideas suggested in the articles. My students love researching on the internet and I find their writing and reading skills improved the more we spent time using computers. However, with the experience that I have had teaching not many teachers are comfortable in venturing off and using something other than paper and pencil. Several limitations I forsee is the lack of funding and lack of time devoted to provide teachers professional development or training in using such technologies such as digital storybooks, movie maker, etc. Many districts have not yet raised the bar when it comes to writing district goals that includes creating technological literate students. Until school districts see this as a viable need then teachers will continue to do the same paper and pencil tasks.

Can veteran teachers be taught new tricks?

Being the technology person at my school (because no one else wanted to do this...surprise surprise) I find it very disturbing how many teachers (who have had atleast 10 years of using technology for grading purposes) want you to hold their hands. No matter how many hand outs or professional development is given these teachers still rely upon others to set up their elmos, in-focus machines, and help with grades. This disturbs me because I wonder how those same teachers are helping students be literate in the area of technology.

This week's class inspired me to go to the principal and ask if I could do more professional development for helping teachers integrate technology in their instruction with programs such as Wordle, Comic Life, and blogging...so wish me luck! I am really excited to learn more each week if my principal supports this idea!

From my educational administration program one of the key components that was strongly emphasized was ensuring that students are techonologically literate. Yet, schools are not being equipped or funded with the tools necessary to provide these opportunities for students. It's really interesting to see that when I was a special education teacher I had a SMART board to use and money to spend on technology with my students. Other sped teachers had them as well, but they were tucked in a corner collecting dust. But as a general education teacher, I have a good old fashioned blackboard (not even a wipe board). Don't get me wrong I have tools such as the elmo and in focus machine, but the SMART boards are awesome and the kids are so motivated when you are able to utilize them!