Week 3 blog

For the NETS-2 standards, I rated my self as "proficient". As I have been in my student teaching classroom this week, I am realizing that I have a lot to learn about the technology that is in classrooms. It is completely different than when I was in Elementary School! What helped me realize this is they have a projector that is connected to a system that is at their desk, and they can use this as a document camera, or show the class something on their computer. I went to take it off the computer mode, and I did not know how to! My mentor teacher has been trained on the system and uses it with ease.  I am focusing this blog on NETS 2-a.

The "In Your Experience" question was this: " Describe management strategies, if any, that your former or present teachers use that you wish to adopt in your teaching practice"

To answer this question, I am going to talk about my mentor teacher, Mrs. Johnson's techniques that she has used this week so far in the classroom that I have observed. When she wants to get the student's attention, she asks them to "give her five" and they all raise one hand and quiet down.  She even says it in different languages! When it is almost time to finish up with a task, she announces "you have this many minutes to finish up!" and she holds up the amount of time on her fingers. On the first day of school, she talked to the students about how to sit on the carpet and be good listeners. There is a poster at the front of the classroom which illustrates how they are to be good listeners and how to sit on the carpet. If a student is not doing these things correctly, she reminds them to look at the poster to jog their memory on what she expects while sitting on the carpet. I have determined these to be effective and will probably use them in my own classroom. 

For the section 2a Explorations, I decided to answer number 5, which asks us to "locate a calendar or time management tool that you might use to help in your own teaching practice"

I have already been using iCalendar, which I can use on my laptop and my iPhone. It allows me to enter an event, and set up reminders leading up to that specific event. It is connected to my Facebook as well, and helps remind me when I have birthdays or events that people have created on Facebook and invited me to. The advantage is that I can see this calendar on my phone and computer. The disadvantage is if I want to use this for listing when all my school assignments are due, it would take a considerable amount of time to enter them all. I have a non-digital planner that I purchased specifically for school.  

Here is the link to see more about the calendar app: http://www.apple.com/osx/apps/#calendar

My final thoughts for this blog is on the following reflection question: "Do you see a benefit to using technology to support content learning, while at the same time helping students to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS-S? How can designing, developing, and evaluating authentic learning experiences and assessments that incorporate contemporary tools and resources support student success? What challenges might using technology in this way create for teachers?"

I see the benefits to using contemporary technology in the classroom. I think that when used correctly, it can be used as a research tool for finding out additional information that was not given in class, and as an assessment tool to see what students have learned, and what they are struggling with. It can also be used to allow students to have more creativity when doing a school project. The challenges are that technology is expensive, and not every school can afford to have modern technology in every classroom. In the same respect, many families cannot afford to have computers for students to use at home as well. We also have to make sure that technology is being used in a way that is beneficial, and not distracting to the learning of students. Another challenge is that we as teachers may not be aware of all the technology that are students are using, and we have to make sure that every student is able to use the technology that is available to us.