Wednesday, March 25, 2009

My Technology Enhanced Lesson

On Monday, I introduced the class story of the week, "The Plant Castle." Before reading the story to my class, I told them that the story had six words that they might not be familiar with (arboretum, cacti, succulents, orchid, papayas, and cacao). I created a PowerPoint presentation with slides for each of these words that I showed to my students. After showing my students the word slides, I had slides displaying each of the four reading strategies we use to identify unfamiliar words. Following the reading strategy slides, I had the sentence each vocabulary word was in on individual slides. When I got to a sentence with one of those words, while reading the story, I held up my computer screen with the corresponding slide displayed. Students could see the sentence text and then guess what word they thought went in the sentence. Following the sentence slide, I had a slide with the correct vocabulary word and then a slide with the definition of the word. We repeated this process six times. By the end of the lesson, the students knew how to read and correctly pronounce each vocabulary word and they also knew the definitions. I think this lesson went well. However, I originally intended to use an LCD projector to project my Powerpoint. This didn't actually work out because my mentor teacher wants the students sitting at the reading carpet when they are being read to and the only place to project the LCD screen would be on the whiteboard in the front of the room (this is because the classroom doesn't have an overhead/LCD screen). But, I used my laptop that has a 15 inch screen and held it out so all the kids could see it. I think the Powerpoint really enhanced the lesson and helped my students learn their vocabulary words. I'm glad that although I had to have a last minute change of plans, my lesson still worked out in the end.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Technology Enhanced Lesson Ideas

My classroom has access to a lot of technological resources. I taught today and used the laptop cart and speakers to project a song that introduced my lesson. One idea I have for my technology enhanced lesson is to use a Powerpoint during a guided reading group to activate their prior knowledge when introducing new information they will learn in the story. I think a Powerpoint with pictures and vocabulary words would be a creative way to introduce a new story the students will read. Another idea I had for a technology enhanced lesson would be to do a digital story to present the work students create during an interactive writing lesson. My students would be thrilled to see their work in a digital story and they would have fun watching the presentation. I am excited to put some of these ideas into place! Technology enhances teaching in a variety of ways that ultimately will benefit my students.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Classroom Technology Inventory

I am completing my practicum in a first grade classroom at Mapleton Elementary. I was very surprised by the results of my classroom technology inventory. I learned that in my classroom, technology is not a big priority. My first graders have scheduled computer time once a week, but other than that instructional period, technology is seldom used in my classroom. I found this interesting because the school has a lot of technology available. While my classroom only has one "teacher" PC, there is a technology cart that contains a laptop and projector (this cart is shared with one other teacher--there are 2 of these carts per grade level). The laptop on the cart serves many functions--it has wireless internet access, plays music, and serves as the tv/dvd player. The school also has big tv carts that teachers can check out as well as a digital camera, a video camera, and smartboards. In addition, the school has two computer labs that are available for scheduling. At my school, however, there's not a lot of extra software available. Beyond the Microsoft Office pacakage, there is a program called Youlead that is for video purposes. If and when computer problems arise, a staff member assists teachers to fix problems, if possible. If not, there is district tech support available to help.
I found it very surprising and somewhat strange that despite the all of the wonderful technology resources available, technology is not a priority in my classroom. Now that I am aware of the resources I have access to, I hope to be able to integrate technology into the classroom and show my students how fun technology can be.