If I could have any one piece of hardware or software in my classroom, the most vital would be an ELMO with projector. The ELMO is a overhead document camera that you can place anything under it and the image is projected onto the whiteboard or pull-down screen. The projector can also be used with electronic devices to project word documents, pictures, or presentations. I think this is a vital Language arts tool because it is a great way for students to be able to interact with the text and illustrations in books without ruining them or marking up the books. Students can practice finding parts of speech in the story, or circling information only given through the illustrations. I could also save a lot of paper by working on the whiteboard with a paper projected there. It would also be better for group reading where everyone gets a better, enlarged view of the text and illustrations.
I am a huge proponent of making learning fun and easy! I love finding songs that help students remember important things in education, and the following video is one such song...beware, it is VERY CATCHY, and is bound to be stuck in your head all day! LISTEN AT YOUR OWN RISK! The song helps students remember what is a noun and gives specific examples. I would try and find one song for every part of speech I was focusing on, but do them separately in mini lessons spread out over time. There are also songs to use when teaching parts of a story (beginning=characters & setting, middle=problem, end=solution), different genres of writing (persuasive, poetry, compare/contrast, summary...etc.) I think my students would really be able to remember what is a noun I really liked all of the ABC interactive activities for K-2 at http://www.uen.org/k-2interactives/abc.shtml I would like to use the whole group as a way to individualize the education of my students based on their current level of proficiency. The great things about the games offered there are that they vary in difficulty and scope. I could list the individual activities each student could choose for their own personal computer time. This would give my student the opportunity to choose the activity that most appeals to them so they will be able to progress in their learning in a fun way. For example, if I had a student who was struggling with the identification of letters in either uppercase or lower case, I could let them choose between any of the following activities:
Identifying Letters with Alpha Pig Kangaroo Confusion Undersea ABC In Identifying Letters with Alpha Pig, I can assign the student to Easy=all uppercase, Medium=all lowercase, or Hard=mix of upper and lowercase, depending on where their struggle lies. In Kangaroo Confusion, the student must match the uppercase to its lowercase version, so I would assign this one if the student was struggling with that correlation. In Undersea ABC, I can assign upper or lowercase identification based on the need of the student. This group of activities also reminded me that I need to be very aware of the validity of each activity. For example, there were 2 broken links in the games listed, A-Z Highway Game and ABC Matchup. If I assigned these to students who were already struggling, they would become frustrated and possibly give up because they think it is their fault and they are too stupid to even get to the right page for the activity. There was also a game that had little academic merit. It was fun, but it did not really serve an educational purpose in my mind. It was called Bembo's Zoo. Overall, I think these were good resources just because it does cover a wide variety of learning opportunities. I liked that one page held several games that various students could all utilize. I would consider having it as a station for Language Arts activities. I think it would also be a motivator for students to progress because then they would get to play There are a few ways I know I will integrate technology in my classroom, and some that I am not yet sure of, and some I have a wish-list for. The things I know I will use in my future classroom are a website and WebQuests. I want to have a website set up where parents can check in and see what is coming up, what we are working on, pictures of projects and class fun, and contact me with any issues they may have. I would like to have my curriculum scheduled on a calendar so parents could see what we are learning and help their children make the best use of their time on homework. I would also like to have documents posted such as class rules, permission slips, release forms, and maybe even copies of homework files. In my previous Integrating Technology class at Salt Lake Community College, I had to design a WebQuest as one of the assignments. I really liked how students could learn to use technology and the internet in a safe, responsible, and educational way. I am unsure if I will use educational apps or even have access to tablet devices, I would have to really research the app and decide if it is just a time filler or if it is truly beneficial to learning in some unique way. My wishlist for classroom technology is definitely more than 1 computer, a smart board, an ELMO, and my own printer. Most of these things are pretty standard now, but the smart boards are in a strange place right now. Smart boards are dropping in popularity, and I think it is part sue to the advancements with iPads and other tablets. I am not sure if they will be extinct by the time I graduate and get to teach, but I still like the ability to record notes of what was put on the board for the day, especially so I could post it to my website or print it off for a student who missed class that day. All in all, I think technology is here to stay in the classroom, but I know it is an ever changing beast that I will need to research and decide what will be the most beneficial in the fture
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November 2013
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