My Beliefs

My beliefs when it comes to using technology in the classroom, is that using technology is something that will make the entire classroom a better atmosphere. There are proven studies that show that students learn better and enjoy learning as a whole when technology is involved. I really was this for myself when I was in field. The kids absolutely loved when we used technology! They even knew how to use the smartboard when we were a little unsure the first few days ourselves. One experience that was great was we used Google Earth. The kids loved it. They found it to be so interesting and later in our assessment, they remembered what we taught them when we were using Google Earth.
I think that technology in classroom is so important. We need to learn how to use technology no matter what our age because that is where everything is headed. We need to be able to teach our students, who will be the future gerneration, how to be the best possible amongst their peers and technology is a huge key in order to achieve this. I can't wait to use technology in my classroom. It really makes learning more fun, and in my experience it makes teaching more fun.

Lesson Learned

There is always so much to learn when it comes to technoloy. The video that I enjoyed the most was titled "Did You Know." I knew some of what they put in the video, but the majority of it was new information-and the video was made in early 2007! Just think of all the changes in almost 4 years! One thing that is almost mind-blowing is that our world continues to move so fast, technology is getting more and more advanced every year. If you do not stay up with it then you will get left in the dust. I also thought the video titled "Why Integrate" was very interesting. What a neat opportunity for those students to be able to go to a school that offers so much technology. I hope that all schools will be able to increase their technology and realize the benefits of it. I myself learn better with technology and I have seen evidence that students also learn better with technology. They are more engaged and excited to learn. I think some of my concerns is that I won't be able to stay on top of technology or that my students will be smarter than me when it comes to technology. I am also concered about being able to integrate technology, sometimes I think it will be pretty easy, but you also have to be in a school that has technology available. Overall though, I have learned that technology is a very valuable tool that will make learning and teaching a better experience fore all involved.

Strengths & Weaknesses

I ended up being right in the middle in almost every question in the UNI Survey. I feel like I could be able to do everything on the NET STandards. I feel like I have some good strengths. Beacuse I work with a computer everyday at my job, I feel like I have some advantages. I know that technology is a very, very important part of business and if we don't teach our students about technology we are doing them a disservice. Some of my strengths is that I am pretty computer savvy. I usually know how to fix things. I also think that technology is very valuable and so I know I will always use it and learn new technology. I am also able to operate any kind of technology. I also feel like I could teach my students how to use technology totheir benefit.

Some of my weaknesses are that I don't always remember all of the copyright laws. Sometimes they are confusing to me and I forget what exactly you have to do if something is copyrighted or what you can use it in. I also don't think I would be able to adapt technology to students with special needs. I also think I need to make sure the things I find on the internet are accurate, because sometimes it is hard to know what is credible.

Some goals that I have for my future teaching career is to make an effort to use technology in everything possible. I think kids have a lot more fun when technology is integrated into teaching. I also think I need to work on my weaknesses. I will need to study up on copyright laws so that I will be able to know what I can use. I also want to learn how to accommodate students with special needs when it comes to technology, because I will have students in my classroom with special needs and it is important to know what to do. I think one place that woule be great ti imporve my weaknesses is http://www.copyright.gov. I also think it would be great to take an online tutuorial on students with special needs or listen to a podcast.

Reflection #13

Our last week of field was this week. We ended up finishing our two lessons. We used the smart board for our final lesson when we did a review about everything they had learned in the five previous lessons. We decided we wnated to do a virtual road trip. We found a video on youtube that was a video of someone driving through Utah, it also had music to it. IT was really fun to turn that on between pictures that we reviewed. The kids really enjoyed it. We also did a slideshow through google docs and put in pictures that we used in our digital story and reminded them of what we had learned and what landroms and resources are in Utah.

All in all, I learned that if teachers do not use technology, the kids are bored. They are a different generation and in order to reach them and teach them, we must use technology. they use it everyday in their lives and they respond to it. I will definitely use technology in everything possible. If I am lucky enough to have a smartboard, well that would be wonderful because they were so great to use.

Reflection #12

This week in field we taught everyday except Monday. WE were able to show our digital story which I was pretty nervous about and wondered how it would turn out. I went in the back while we were playing it and I definitely noticed that we had the classes attention. I also thought that it went really well with our lesson. We showed it just before we taught Utah's geography. I ended up starting out by just finding lotso f pictures of utah's geography. I did it through photostory and ended up just downloading it on my computer at home. I then used a website that has free musci on it and found a few different songs that I ended up using. I feel like the digital sotry really got the kids attention and it set them up so they were ready to learn. It also made them more interested once we started talking to them about it. Technology truly is something that is so important because kids love it!

Reflection #11

Field has been pretty interesting. We had a substitute teacher for the first 3 days and it was really interesting to see how they do things. They didn't really have control of the class at all and they also didn't get much done. Now that the teacher is back, it is really fun to see him and how he teaches. He is a great teacher. The whole school is lucky enough to have smartboards in every classroom. We have used the smartboard the 3 times we have taught so far. It also works as a projector and we have used that too. Technology definitely makes things easier. I also think the kids enjoy it too rather than writing on a regular white board. The teacher uses the smart board with almost every lesson. It would be really neat to have on in my future classroom.

Reflection #10

This week was our first week of field. Yay! It is really fun to be around all of the kids and just see what the future holds. I have been really impressed so far with using the technology available. Going up and down the hallways, I can see that every class has a smart board. It really makes the school not so boring. The teachers all have Macs to use. The teacher has also used quite a bit of music. In the afternoon half of the class goes home and the other half stays. At this point they have a schedule that they follow pretty closely. When they are done something on the schedule there is a ding and then probably 15 seconds of music that lets them know they are done and supposed to move on to the next thing. It makes it really fun and the kids absolutely love it. It is really fun to be with a teacher that it seems so far uses the technology a lot in his classroom.