As a classroom teacher and a future educational leader, I must continue to learn new technologically innovating practices to increase my students’ engagement and foster the skills they will need to succeed in college and their careers in the 21st century. My students are accustomed to getting their information quickly through the Internet and other media, so I need to ensure that I am preparing them to become integral members of a global society that is increasingly technologically savvy.
In my third grade classroom, I regularly use technology to support and enhance instruction, engage students, and increase motivation. I currently use basic technology to support instruction in my classroom in many ways. For example, students use PowerPoint to create their presentations on freedom fighters such as Susan B. Anthony and Caesar Chavez. They also use MS Word to create original poems and publish their writing.
As for me, I use Excel for preparing spreadsheets to record and compare quarterly benchmark scores, state assessment data, and other classroom formative assessment data. These data enable me to tailor instruction according to the students’ varying needs.
Of course, I use email to keep parents informed about their children’s progress as well as classroom and school related events.
On a daily basis, students have an opportunity to practice fluency and comprehension on Raz-Kids.com at school and at home, so they can receive additional support for their literacy skils. This program allows them to read stories on their Fountas and Pinnell levels and then requires them to answer a series of text-based questions. When they score 80% or higher, they receive game points to redeem on the site. Another unique feature is that they...
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...dents who responded correctly or incorrectly. The data are useful in identifying which students require additional help or reinforcement in that area. Students enjoy using this application.
The use of technology in my classroom has unquestionably enhanced my instruction, motivated and engaged my students, and provided them with the ability of accessing resources from home to support their learning of academic concepts. It has also enabled them to receive hands-on practice in operating the latest forms of technology and applications while preparing them to become future leaders in a highly technological global society.
As an educator in the 21st Century New Literacy Age, I continue to acquaint myself with new advances and innovations in technology and embrace and implement current technological practices in the classroom to maximize student achievement and success
Where ever you live and whatever grade you teach, technology has made it into the lives of teachers and students. Whether it is an ebook, laptop, iPad, computer, or Smartboard, they all have brought teaching literacy to a new level. These tools are not going to leave our classrooms, if anything they will impact the learning at new and higher levels. There will come a day, and I think it will be soon, that every student will have access to their own technology devices at school and at home. As teachers, we need to embrace technology and try and stay ahead of our students if possible.
Formative Assessment is used in any classroom to check students understanding of a topic. The type of formative assessment used in each classroom is different, depending on the teacher and the student’s needs. Teachers should incorporate a variety of formative assessments to truly see if students are learning. Dixson and Worrell describe formative assessment as gathering data to improve student learning. They are correct but teachers also need to provide students with feedback. Feedback gives students a better idea of what concepts they need to work on in class. There are many ways to integrate formative assessment and feedback into the classroom.
Technology enables students and teachers to have a fast and easy way to acquire unlimited access to tons of information. With all of the useful technologies, the curriculum is bound to change in endless ways, creating more 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...
Assessments are an important part of teaching. Assessments are a good way for teachers to monitor students’ learning and understanding. Knowing students’ level of understanding can help teachers improve students’ learning and guide their instructions. In the future, I plan to continue assessing students in multiple ways such as, asking questions, illustrations and writing to adjust my instruction. I also plan to encourage students to assess their own work so they are involved in their own learning as well as look for ways to “employ technology to support assessment
“Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other. And we need them all” (Re-inventing 1995). These words spoken by the distinguished author, Arthur C. Clarke, bring to light where exactly the technological situation in education is and the direction it is going. The discussion and debate of introducing and improving classrooms with technology has been a relatively heated topic as of late. Many have even claimed that if schools are to survive it is imperative for us to stand back and carefully rethink our notions of intelligence, learning, instruction, and evaluate the situation in light of the new age of communication. In discussing the use of technology in education a distinction needs to be made between itself and ‘tech ed’. The common definition of technology education is that it is an action based program for all students to use resources to design, produce, use, and assess the impacts of products and services that extend human potential to improve and control the natural and human made development (Patterson 1999). While these skills and practices are integrated into using technology in education it does not fully explain or utilize what is needed to provide affective technology in the classroom. A mission of this program is to help students apply technology to effectively make decisions and contribute to a rapidly changing technological society. But more than that, the purpose is to give students the best possible education for their generation with the suppli...
...ating technology provides students with opportunities to succeed in reading and writing. As an educator, and possibly a future literacy educator it is vital to teach students that learning is not something that only happens in school. Learning will happen every day for as long as one lives. Learning happens at school, at home, at a sporting event, at the mall, or on the computer. Learning happens everywhere. It is also important to teach students reading is everywhere and it will follow them the rest of their life. As educators, we need to help students enjoy reading and develop a love for it that will last forever. It is our role to therefore provide the best instruction possible and use assessment that allows children to succeed. Most importantly, as life long learners ourselves, we need to strive to make sure that our students become and stay life long learners.
Regular use of formative assessment improves student learning as instruction can be adjusted based on students’ progress and teachers are able to modify instructions to cater to students’ individual needs (Black & Wiliam, 2010; Taylor-Cox, & Oberdorf, 2013). Various forms of informal and formal formative assessment methods are conducted as learning takes place, continuously through teacher observations, questioning through individual interactions, group discussions and open-ended tasks (McMillan, 2011). tests can tell us a lot about students and be used to inform and guide teaching, rather than simply to determine grades. Teachers can learn a lot from test results if they analyse the data generated to inform their teaching and learning programs (Perso, 2009). However, high stakes tests may result in students becoming stressed, leading to misreading questions, careless working and incomplete answers (Booker et al., 2010).
Some say that technology is a distraction and hinders the students from fully learning and developing important skills that they claim only the interactions with the teacher can provide. Teachers have said that technology is a powerful tool that allows them to introduce and demonstrate learning activities in a completely new way. It has been studied and proven that most kids are more motivated and interested in the concepts they are supposed to learn when the teaching tool of technology is used. A fifth grade teacher stated, “Technology is the ultimate carrot for students. It's somet...
In less than a decade, computer use progressed from programming classes for a few of the better students, to literacy classes for all students, to the integration of computers and technology into the curriculum. Now, there is a goal for educators to use technology as a tool in efforts to teach more effectively by using a variety of strategies to meet different needs in a diverse classroom. This will take training and commitment to keep up in an area that changes quickly, but the benefits to teachers and students are greater that the effort it will take to stay informed; computers increase productivity of students and make learning a fun experience. They help students become better problem-solvers instead of just rote learners.
As teachers, we have to monitor the progress our students make each day, week, quarter and year. Classroom assessments are one of the most crucial educational tools for teachers. When assessments are properly developed and interpreted, they can help teachers better understand their students learning progress and needs, by providing the resources to collect evidence that indicates what information their students know and what skills they can perform. Assessments help teachers to not only identify and monitor learners’ strengths, weaknesses, learning and progress but also help them to better plan and conduct instruction. For these reasons, ongoing classroom assessment is the glue that binds teaching and learning together and allows educators to monitor their efficacy and student learning.
Over the past few years technology has taken on a whole new meaning. We have moved from the days of chalkboards, to whiteboards, to interactive whiteboards. Our students seem to be more computer savvy than their teachers. Home telephones are starting to become a thing of the past, and cell phones have turned into mini-computers. Technological geniuses have even tried to eliminate books by creating electronic books, for example the Kindle and Nook. It has become pretty evident that being technologically smart is a necessity in today's world.
The education world has been greatly influenced by rapidly changing technology and the increasing availability of information. Schools have advanced by leaps and bounds when it comes to incorporating technology into the learning environment, however, many more advances need to be made. In all areas of the country, educators are trying to help students keep up with technology, but there are more changes that are essential for preparing the next generation for the future.
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.