Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Second to last Post!!
Today we had an introduction to our webquest. I have to admit I was a little nervious because I have never done a webquest before but it looks like it will be really fun and easy. I think they are great because it gives a chance for the kids to really interact with technology, not just look and admire it. Hopefully we will not run into too many bumps in the road because I think that is why teachers get so turned off to technology. They struggle with what they are trying to accomplish and end up spending 20 hours on a project that should have taken 2 hours. I am confident that our group wil do well though.
Reflection on Technology lesson
Marla Morin
November 25, 2008
Reflection on Field Experience
Technology is one of those necessary evils…ok maybe that is a little harsh. Technology really is a very useful tool to have in a classroom and with the direction that this world is moving in, it is more and more important for our children to have exposure to it as early as possible.
In our field experience, we have good lessons and bad lessons with technology. Our first two experiences with technology in the classroom were not very good. Our first lesson that we did with our sixth grade class involved our digital story. As we tried out the video on our cooperating teacher’s computer, we could not get the video and the sound to work together. We could play the sound and watch the slides, so we pulled out our story board and as the cues came up we just clicked on the slide so the image would come up when we wanted it to. We made due, but it wasn’t as good as it could have been.
Our second lesson involved a PowerPoint. Again, we were having problems getting Mr. Wyatt’s computer to work with our saved documents on our flash drive, but this time we learned our lesson and Heather brought her computer. Unfortunately, it is an older computer and took a very long time to load. Then in order to get the projector to recognize the computer we had to re-start it. We started the lesson without the images, but the students I think would have come up with more ideas for that lesson plan if they had had the images first. We eventually got the PowerPoint working and the kids got the idea, but again, it would have been much better if we had been able to use the PowerPoint how we had intended.
The third time we got things down. We used another PowerPoint to again display images, but this time I brought my computer and got there with plenty of time to get everything set up and made sure that the computer connected properly to the projector. It worked out very nicely and it really helped students to understand the content of the lesson.
Our fourth lesson consisted of stations. One of the stations included writing a diamante poem on the computers that were available in the classroom. Unfortunately, there is no printer available in the classroom and we couldn’t save all of the documents between each rotation so we just had the students leave the windows open. However, one student didn’t hear the instructions and closed all the windows on his computer. I don’ think it really matters though, the programs are so old on those computers that I doubt we would have been able to open them on one of our laptops.
Our final lesson was another successful one with technology. We had students do news programs reporting from an assigned ancient civilization. Our teacher brought in his digital video camera and we recorded each of their news shows. We were able to burn it into a DVD and add a few headings and a little music in the beginning. We then watched the news shows the next day in class. The kids really enjoyed it and the DVD turned out pretty good.
As an overall observation on technology in the classroom I think I learned two major lessons. One, you always need a back-up plan. Sometimes, computers don’t work, some fuses gets blown, or one of the other million other potential disasters occur. You always need a back-up plan just in case something doesn’t work. The second lesson I learned was that you need to make sure you have plenty of set up time, especially if you are using unfamiliar equipment. You have to know the programs, computers, and whatever other kind of device you are using to make sure you know how to fix small problems, and with that you may need a little extra time.
All and all I really liked incorporating technology into our classroom. I think it made our lessons a little more interactive and gave some exposure to the children about what kinds of things they are capable of doing. I would have liked to sit in on one of their computer lab days to see exactly what they do in the computer lab, but I guess I still have a lot of field work ahead to be able to see that.
November 25, 2008
Reflection on Field Experience
Technology is one of those necessary evils…ok maybe that is a little harsh. Technology really is a very useful tool to have in a classroom and with the direction that this world is moving in, it is more and more important for our children to have exposure to it as early as possible.
In our field experience, we have good lessons and bad lessons with technology. Our first two experiences with technology in the classroom were not very good. Our first lesson that we did with our sixth grade class involved our digital story. As we tried out the video on our cooperating teacher’s computer, we could not get the video and the sound to work together. We could play the sound and watch the slides, so we pulled out our story board and as the cues came up we just clicked on the slide so the image would come up when we wanted it to. We made due, but it wasn’t as good as it could have been.
Our second lesson involved a PowerPoint. Again, we were having problems getting Mr. Wyatt’s computer to work with our saved documents on our flash drive, but this time we learned our lesson and Heather brought her computer. Unfortunately, it is an older computer and took a very long time to load. Then in order to get the projector to recognize the computer we had to re-start it. We started the lesson without the images, but the students I think would have come up with more ideas for that lesson plan if they had had the images first. We eventually got the PowerPoint working and the kids got the idea, but again, it would have been much better if we had been able to use the PowerPoint how we had intended.
The third time we got things down. We used another PowerPoint to again display images, but this time I brought my computer and got there with plenty of time to get everything set up and made sure that the computer connected properly to the projector. It worked out very nicely and it really helped students to understand the content of the lesson.
Our fourth lesson consisted of stations. One of the stations included writing a diamante poem on the computers that were available in the classroom. Unfortunately, there is no printer available in the classroom and we couldn’t save all of the documents between each rotation so we just had the students leave the windows open. However, one student didn’t hear the instructions and closed all the windows on his computer. I don’ think it really matters though, the programs are so old on those computers that I doubt we would have been able to open them on one of our laptops.
Our final lesson was another successful one with technology. We had students do news programs reporting from an assigned ancient civilization. Our teacher brought in his digital video camera and we recorded each of their news shows. We were able to burn it into a DVD and add a few headings and a little music in the beginning. We then watched the news shows the next day in class. The kids really enjoyed it and the DVD turned out pretty good.
As an overall observation on technology in the classroom I think I learned two major lessons. One, you always need a back-up plan. Sometimes, computers don’t work, some fuses gets blown, or one of the other million other potential disasters occur. You always need a back-up plan just in case something doesn’t work. The second lesson I learned was that you need to make sure you have plenty of set up time, especially if you are using unfamiliar equipment. You have to know the programs, computers, and whatever other kind of device you are using to make sure you know how to fix small problems, and with that you may need a little extra time.
All and all I really liked incorporating technology into our classroom. I think it made our lessons a little more interactive and gave some exposure to the children about what kinds of things they are capable of doing. I would have liked to sit in on one of their computer lab days to see exactly what they do in the computer lab, but I guess I still have a lot of field work ahead to be able to see that.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Technology Interview Reflections
1. What did you learn from this interview?
I learned just how much is available for teachers! It is so great that they have so much available for the whole school, that you don't need to have everything in your classroom, but that you can have access to cameras and projectors. It must be hard however to try to get as much exposure as possible to technology when there is only one lab to share between 500 students.
2. How will this experience affect you as a teacher?
I now know that technology can be a great tool, but you need a back up plan and you need to make sure everything works the day of! There were so many times that we had a great plan set up, but because of Mr. Wyatt's computer not reading our file or the change in format etc, the lessons did not move as smoothly as we had hoped.
3. How did this experience change your thinking about the use of technology?
I thought it would be a lot harder to integrate technology. The idea of a PowerPoint in the classroom just made me think of a lot of extra work, but it really is very easy to put together a quick PowerPoint of images and information and it is great because it is a way that all students can see. I do know that getting their hands on the technology is very important as well but hard to come by at times. That is why when you get to have time in the computer lab, you need to take advantage of that time because it is precious.
I learned just how much is available for teachers! It is so great that they have so much available for the whole school, that you don't need to have everything in your classroom, but that you can have access to cameras and projectors. It must be hard however to try to get as much exposure as possible to technology when there is only one lab to share between 500 students.
2. How will this experience affect you as a teacher?
I now know that technology can be a great tool, but you need a back up plan and you need to make sure everything works the day of! There were so many times that we had a great plan set up, but because of Mr. Wyatt's computer not reading our file or the change in format etc, the lessons did not move as smoothly as we had hoped.
3. How did this experience change your thinking about the use of technology?
I thought it would be a lot harder to integrate technology. The idea of a PowerPoint in the classroom just made me think of a lot of extra work, but it really is very easy to put together a quick PowerPoint of images and information and it is great because it is a way that all students can see. I do know that getting their hands on the technology is very important as well but hard to come by at times. That is why when you get to have time in the computer lab, you need to take advantage of that time because it is precious.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
final week of field
This week we did something really fun with technology. We created a news program with our class with the show taking place in ancient civilizations. The students had to come up with four stories about different topics and we recorded their news programs on a video camera. We then turned the video into a DVD with a little bit of music and some headings and watched it with them the next day. The kids really enjoyed it and it was fun to see them on camera and see them use their imaginations.
Despite all our attempts to use technology in the field we had some success and we had some failure. It definitely takes some time to plan it out and make sure that everything will work, but it is great to see students learning through technology. Our teacher was great too. He makes a lot of PowerPoint's to help the students visualize information and to make a lecture a little more interactive. It would be nice to have a projector like he does in my classroom to be able to replicate what he does, but one does have to be careful because it is very easy just to sit and lecture with a PowerPoint.
Despite all our attempts to use technology in the field we had some success and we had some failure. It definitely takes some time to plan it out and make sure that everything will work, but it is great to see students learning through technology. Our teacher was great too. He makes a lot of PowerPoint's to help the students visualize information and to make a lecture a little more interactive. It would be nice to have a projector like he does in my classroom to be able to replicate what he does, but one does have to be careful because it is very easy just to sit and lecture with a PowerPoint.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Our Technology Disasters!!!
It looks so easy to use technology in the classroom, but really it is quite difficult when the technology doesn't want to work!!! In our first lesson, we wanted to use our digital story to start talking about Mesopotamia but when we brought the digital story in on our junk drives, it wouldn't work on Mr. Wyatt's Mac! We tried and tried different things. We could get the sound and the images to come up, but it wouldn't play all together. So we just had to play the sound and click along the images. Not what we had planned, but it worked I guess.
The second lesson we wanted to use a PowerPoint of images in order to engage the students and to get some ideas generated for the activity we were going to do. Unfortunately, the PowerPoint wouldn't work on Mr. Wyatt's computer either! This time we were a little smarter though and Heather brought her computer. Unfortunately, her computer was running a little slow and then when we hooked it up to the projector, it wouldn't display her screen!! GGGRRRRR. We finally got it to work but we were half way through our lesson plan by then. Now we know that we have to use the computer that we create the work on to insure that all will work and get to class early and set things up to reduce problems
The second lesson we wanted to use a PowerPoint of images in order to engage the students and to get some ideas generated for the activity we were going to do. Unfortunately, the PowerPoint wouldn't work on Mr. Wyatt's computer either! This time we were a little smarter though and Heather brought her computer. Unfortunately, her computer was running a little slow and then when we hooked it up to the projector, it wouldn't display her screen!! GGGRRRRR. We finally got it to work but we were half way through our lesson plan by then. Now we know that we have to use the computer that we create the work on to insure that all will work and get to class early and set things up to reduce problems
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Week One Field Experience
We are actually very lucky because we were placed in a classroom with a lot of technology (OK, not a ton, but a lot more than I had growing up that is for sure). The teacher in our classroom has an overhead, a laptop, four computers for the kids, and a projector to hook up to his computer for any kind of presentation he wants to give. Mr. Wyatt is also the webmaster for the school which means he does all the website stuff for Cascade Elementary.
I have been able to see him use PowerPoint's in the classroom to help display vocabulary and definitions. I think this is a great idea but he just put the word and it's definition on the PowerPoint. I think it would be neat if he not only had the word and the definition, but also a picture of the word. For example, on this weeks vocabulary list, he has words like waders and tributaries. It would be a snap to find pictures of those words and trow them onto the PowerPoint to help our visual learners and our ELL students remember what these words mean.
I have been able to see him use PowerPoint's in the classroom to help display vocabulary and definitions. I think this is a great idea but he just put the word and it's definition on the PowerPoint. I think it would be neat if he not only had the word and the definition, but also a picture of the word. For example, on this weeks vocabulary list, he has words like waders and tributaries. It would be a snap to find pictures of those words and trow them onto the PowerPoint to help our visual learners and our ELL students remember what these words mean.
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