As with any good teacher, I consider myself to be a life long learner. To be the best I can be and to give my students the teacher they deserve, it is a part of my career to learn ahead of or with my students so that I can help facilitate and prepare them for their futures.
As a learner relating to technology in education, there are a few specific topics I want to stay on top of in order to achieve my best. The first is the idea of specifically integrating technology with mathematics, since that is the subject I teach. I found the website http://lpsl.coe.uga.edu/mile3/tim/index.html to help me with that, as well as all the other technology education blogs.
The second idea I want to continue to research and use is technology for assessment, both formal and informal. I really like the idea of testing each student when he or she is ready, not when a majority of the class is ready. Electronic testing would help me with this. I also absolutely LOVE the idea of formal assessments being graded for me on the spot. With ever-increasing class sizes, taking the time to grade paper and pencil tests over and over again is time consuming and often does not allow me to assess the data for remediation or enrichment as well as I would like. One particular electronic assessment I am going to fight for next school year is the Senteo Smart Response System. Two teachers have been using the two systems our school owns for the entire school year and I never could get a few days at a time to play with them before letting the students use them. I will amend that this summer.
The third topic of interest I would like to continue learning about is difficult to put in to words. I would like to present myself as a resource and instigator of change for the teachers at my school. I have really enjoyed mentoring and working with the two teachers at my school who are helping me with my practicum experience. I want to stay current in technology education and put forth more ideas to the school administration to truly begin integrating technology into every classroom in my school.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Personal Learning Network - Pro Subject Matters
Who will I learn from?
Author Chris Clementi has written a book entitled Great Ways to Integrate Technology in the Classroom. As an educator, I am always looking for ways to integrate technology in my middle school mathematics classroom. He will be someone that I will be watching for more great ideas.
In addition to Mr. Clementi, I will also be following several blog authors whose blogs were mentioned in the previous post. They include Vicki Davis, Danny Maas, Kelly Tenkely, and Scott Walker.
Author Chris Clementi has written a book entitled Great Ways to Integrate Technology in the Classroom. As an educator, I am always looking for ways to integrate technology in my middle school mathematics classroom. He will be someone that I will be watching for more great ideas.
In addition to Mr. Clementi, I will also be following several blog authors whose blogs were mentioned in the previous post. They include Vicki Davis, Danny Maas, Kelly Tenkely, and Scott Walker.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Personal Learning Network - Resources
As I continue with developing my plans for continuous learning, another aspect I will consider is what and how I would like to study and continue learning about.
Resources
Although probably not financially feasible for schools to use, I will want to learn about using iPads in the classroom. I feel like a small item that students could carry around with them wherever they go would be an amazing tool both in the classroom and for homework or distance learning. The website http://www.apple.com/education/why-apple/ even gives ideas of how to use apple products in the classroom.
An online journal I will be checking in on is the Journal, found at http://thejournal.com/home.aspx. This online journal has news specific to the use of technology in K-12 schools and how technology is being used around the country. Another online journal, though not as current online as it is if you subscribe, but the Journal of Technology Education has online links to its articles at http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/.
There are a few blogs I have found that I am now subscribing to. The first is found at http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/ because it is a clean blog and very easy to read - not to mention the information is good. The second is http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/. I like that she doesn't just believe in technology, but that she loves the actual career of teaching. There may be other blogs that had even better information, but I cannot stand blogs that have too much text on them, especially when a lot of that text is advertising. If it bothers me when I first look at it, I just close the page and do not even read the information. Another blog is found at http://tilttv.blogspot.com/.
A couple of blogs that are not necessarily personal, but more professionally run are iLearnTechnology found at http://ilearntechnology.com/ and Teacher Tech Blog found at http://teachertechblog.com/.
Resources
Although probably not financially feasible for schools to use, I will want to learn about using iPads in the classroom. I feel like a small item that students could carry around with them wherever they go would be an amazing tool both in the classroom and for homework or distance learning. The website http://www.apple.com/education/why-apple/ even gives ideas of how to use apple products in the classroom.
An online journal I will be checking in on is the Journal, found at http://thejournal.com/home.aspx. This online journal has news specific to the use of technology in K-12 schools and how technology is being used around the country. Another online journal, though not as current online as it is if you subscribe, but the Journal of Technology Education has online links to its articles at http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/.
There are a few blogs I have found that I am now subscribing to. The first is found at http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/ because it is a clean blog and very easy to read - not to mention the information is good. The second is http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/. I like that she doesn't just believe in technology, but that she loves the actual career of teaching. There may be other blogs that had even better information, but I cannot stand blogs that have too much text on them, especially when a lot of that text is advertising. If it bothers me when I first look at it, I just close the page and do not even read the information. Another blog is found at http://tilttv.blogspot.com/.
A couple of blogs that are not necessarily personal, but more professionally run are iLearnTechnology found at http://ilearntechnology.com/ and Teacher Tech Blog found at http://teachertechblog.com/.
Personal Learning Network - People
As I am about to finish my Master's degree in Instructional Technology, it is time for me to begin looking ahead to how I will continue with my education even though I am not formally in school.
Who will help me learn?
I believe that the people I surround myself with every day in my working environment play a huge role in how I will grow as an educator. There are two colleagues that I have worked with to help complete my practicum and even though I designed the lessons to bring technology into their classrooms and got the ball rolling, they have been creative and taught me things about technology in return. So, as I develop lessons that integrate technology into my classroom, Ms. Pace and Ms. Kirk will be two teachers that I will brainstorm with and bounce ideas off of.
Also in my school are three additional colleagues that I will seek guidance from are my mentor and school librarian, Ms. Maxwell; the technology contact, Ms. Wandell; and a former technology instructor, Ms. Gage. They all work with technology on a regular basis and they are the people that receive training from our district on all the technology available to teachers, so they are great resources for both ideas and help when things are not working the way they are supposed to.
The final person I will work with as I grow in the use of technology is my husband. Although he does not work in education, he works with technology for his job, which gives me a great idea of what future employers are looking for so I can use that in my classroom as well as the fact that he understands technology lingo and helps me in many ways when I struggle to understand what I am reading. He is also one of the most creative people I have ever met, which complements my left-brained thinking. His help has already gotten me through many classes.
Who will help me learn?
I believe that the people I surround myself with every day in my working environment play a huge role in how I will grow as an educator. There are two colleagues that I have worked with to help complete my practicum and even though I designed the lessons to bring technology into their classrooms and got the ball rolling, they have been creative and taught me things about technology in return. So, as I develop lessons that integrate technology into my classroom, Ms. Pace and Ms. Kirk will be two teachers that I will brainstorm with and bounce ideas off of.
Also in my school are three additional colleagues that I will seek guidance from are my mentor and school librarian, Ms. Maxwell; the technology contact, Ms. Wandell; and a former technology instructor, Ms. Gage. They all work with technology on a regular basis and they are the people that receive training from our district on all the technology available to teachers, so they are great resources for both ideas and help when things are not working the way they are supposed to.
The final person I will work with as I grow in the use of technology is my husband. Although he does not work in education, he works with technology for his job, which gives me a great idea of what future employers are looking for so I can use that in my classroom as well as the fact that he understands technology lingo and helps me in many ways when I struggle to understand what I am reading. He is also one of the most creative people I have ever met, which complements my left-brained thinking. His help has already gotten me through many classes.
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