Student Population:
Our elementary school serves a diverse group of 587 students within the Denver metro area. 11% of our student population is English Language learners. We now have one document camera for each grade level, but have found that, with a tool so effective (especially with our English Language learners), it is difficult to accommodate all students. With the rapid population growth of both our ELA and 21st century learners, it is becoming increasingly necessary that we expand the utilization of this tool to help our students connect key vocabulary concepts with visual representation. Our school expects larger class sizes in 2010-2011. Greater access to this technology is integral to ensuring that all students experience the modeling and spontaneous, teachable moments that occur when the document camera is more readily available to all.
Integration for Student Achievement:
The document camera allows large group instruction to have advantages usually associated with smaller groups. For instance, the flexibility to have students show their writing, or demonstrate their thinking on a math problem, liberates the teacher from the front of the classroom. Single-use lesson photocopies can be eliminated. Students will be able to “show and tell” throughout the day, creating a more engaged classroom.
We are currently integrating Thinking Maps into our environment as a way for students to organize concepts and ideas. We encourage students to draw their own maps, rather than providing photocopies to each child. The document camera will allow us to model this behavior in students’ “learning log” spiral notebooks. Teachers will keep their own logs and use these to model their own thinking. Through scaffolding, student...
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...e used as a reference for students and teachers alike. This software will also allow for further integration with existing whiteboards to scan and create documents.
Once the grant funds are expended, it will be determined whether our school will continue to invest in document cameras using decentralized budget and/or PTCO funds. The original rollout and data collected from the grant opportunity will become an important part about budgetary decisions in the future. A positive conclusion to our hypothesis will persuade other teachers and decision-makers that the document camera is a valuable addition to our educational toolkit, helping us meet academic goals building-wide. Our next step would be to buy another grade-level set of document cameras to be attached to another group of classroom teachers.
Itemized Budget:
Itemized budget spreadsheet attached here.
As a first year teacher at Lowrey Middle School I really never knew how much impact the ELL student population would have on me this year and my career. Understanding our ELL population and the ways we can help them become successful is something I never really thought about until I realized that many of our students are ELL. I teach one section of 7th Grade Social Studies and four sections of Computer Applications. In this report I will describe the students, my class classroom setting, grouping, strategies used, the importance of technology, provide my lesson plan and my overall reflection.
Working as an Instructional Technology Specialist for the past seven years has provided many opportunities to observe teachers and students in a classroom setting. During this time teachers have been in the process of phasing in a new standards-based curriculum with an emphasis on student mastery of these standards. New technology tools have also been incorporated in many classrooms including studen...
The world’s technology advancements are quickly developing, thus, unquestionably, contributing to the extraordinary benefits obtained by students, parents, and educators. Students are provided an enhanced understanding of diverse subjects due to presentations, use of the Internet, and various programs, assisting them with projects, homework, tests, or merely general interest. Classroom computer use is certainly beneficial to parents as well. If a student does not have computer access at home to complete a project or essay, it could easily be completed on the classroom’s computer. This avoids any conflicts that may arise from families that do not have access to a personal computer. Teachers are able to easily compose a multimedia presentation to, not only help teach the class, but also to assist the pupils while taking notes and ensuring their understanding of the topic.
It is very hard not to realize that technology has overpowered education in many ways. “Technology integration is similar to a tidal wave, growing silently in strength, then falling with an unstoppable roar upon those who paid no attention or showed little interest” (Guhlin, 40). Nowadays, computers are almost considered a necessity in the classroom, and are the main component of technology integration. Computers are being used in more numerous ways, besides only being used for basic word processing. With a simple computer, copious availabilities of technologies can be used in the classroom. “The one thing that is so great about the computer is that it does give a lot of instruction--and you don't need to have hearing to take advantage of it” (Anderson, 12). It’s amazing how one simple screen can provide everlasting opportunity for learning.
devices in almost every classroom. Technology enhances learning, boosts confidence, and eliminates geographical limitations. Technology enriches learning by being able to come in different forms and do different things. "For lessons traditionally done with a paper and pencil, we now were able to do them in color, with animation, and with more depth and complexity"(McCollum). Teachers are now able to help stu...
The visual learners prefer to use pictures, images, maps, colors, and spatial intelligence, which assist them to arrange their information, interact with others and give them a great sense of direction. They are great at accumulating information, curious and inquisitive due to the fact that without adequate information, the portrait of what they are learning will be imperfect. They are also enthusiastic about theory and facts; system diagram helps them to visualize the connection between parts of a system; story method assists them to learn by heart the content that cannot be seen easily. (Garner, 2012)
Whenever an opportunity arises where a researched-based strategy is presented as a viable option to use to assist students in their learning, we, as future educators, should be willing to use and/or adapt the method to improve our instruction and move our students forward. This article showed me the power of associative critical thinking using visual images. When students are able to draw symbols, sketch main ideas and include captions from an expository text they are reading into the outline of the human head, they are better able to recall the main ideas and include them in their own writing using their own words. Children in elementary school for the most part, enjoy drawing and so this strategy is appealing, and as Paquette & Fello (2010) point out, it is also developmentally appropriate for elementary-aged
Today, if you enter an average elementary classroom you might find a computer cart with twenty or thirty lap tops, all with hook-up to the internet. The teacher usually has either a desk top or lap top computer, sometimes both, for keeping track of important information. Technology has, in many ways, positively impacted the educational field. Michigan has made using technology a necessity. With help from the Freedom to Learn Program, improvements in classroom technology, and special programs used to assist educators, teachers become familiar with the new technology.
By permitting the use of cellphones in school, students can increase their knowledge and complete school work by using applications and other features on their smartphones. Teachers and students are now “using their phones as clickers to answer questions, providing feedback on student progress, and also to document labs, collaborate on group projects and capture teachers’ notes” (Higgins). Students like to do things the fun way, and by using their phones as clickers, they can learn and review for tests while having fun answering them on their phones. Students can use services on their phones to turn assignments in too. During group assignments, students can work right on their phones. If a student was absent one day, all another student has to do is send them the work they did with a touch of a button. Teachers usually move very fast when presenting information to students. By taking pictures of notes, it makes it easy for students to make sure they have all the notes without the teacher moving too quickly. They will be able to go home and review everything right there on that small little screen, hence increasing their knowledge. Additionally, “Students attending a field trip can snapshot a picture and capture their ideas” just by using the camera on...
Without realizing it, I learned about what a visual learner is and methods I used in school to make sense of the knowledge I obtained. According to Judie Haynes (2009), a visual learner is able to learn best by seeing or observing and includes examples of using computer graphics, cartoons, posters, diagrams, graphic organizers, text with pictures, and maps. Pictures are essential to children’s
Spatial learners are able to visualizing things very easily. They work well with colors and pictures, and using their imagination. These learners are very artistic, but they sometimes find it hard to express themselves. For example, asking them to draw a picture will get their feelings across better than simply asking them what is wrong (Reiff, 1996). It is important to encourage any sort of creative attempt that these learners make. It might seem as though they are wasting time when in actuality they are thinking hard about something that they have not put on paper yet (Mantle, 2002).
...assroom. Sometimes there are people that it would not help learn because they need that face-to-face learning. It is just the way that they learn that it could benefit them or it could not . It should be up to the students on it they want to use the old fashion pen and paper or this new technology.
shown computers to be the future of learning. The use of a computer in place of the standard pen
students prefer technology because they believe that it makes learning more interesting and fun. They especially like laptops and tablets. Subjects that students deem challenging or boring can become more interesting with virtual lessons, through a video, or when using a tablet. Technology occupies an important place within students’ lives. When they are not in school, just about everything that they do is connected in some way to technology. By integrating technology into the classroom, teachers are changing the way they used to teach (lectures six hours a day) and providing students with the tools that will take them into the 21st century. One of the characteristics of the modern classroom is collaboration and technology helps to empower it. With classroom technology students can collaborate with other students and their teachers in and outside of the classroom quickly and easily.
Technology properly used in the classroom has many advantages to a student’s learning. Technology can help students become more involved in their own learning process, which is not seen in the traditional classroom. It allows them to master basic skills at their own rate rather than being left behind. Teachers and students alike can connect to real life situations by using technology in the classroom; this can also help to prepare students for real world situations. Technology can be used to motivate students as well as to offer more challenging opportunities. It can also be used as a visualization tool to keep students interested in the subject that is being taught. When technology is used effectively, students have the opportunity to develop skills that they may not get without the use of technology (Cleaver, 2011). Assessing and monitoring students is easier on the teacher because of the ability to use technology in the classroom. When technology is used correctly it offers limitless resources to a classroom atmosphere.