Tech. at my Internship

I am doing my field internship with the famous "Guy in a Tie." I have visited his classroom now on three separate occasions, and I must say that I am impressed. Not only is Jeff a great teacher (organized, enthusiastic, approachable), he truly engages his students by using technology.

Many of you may be aware of some of the tools he uses, but I will name the two that I have witnessed and am most impressed with. Podcasts. I have seen Jeff's students record podcasts on two occasions. The most notable is he had his 6th graders write papers about evolution as if it was a sporting event. For example, one student described the progression from single-celled organisms to humans as a soccer match, complete with fights and goals. The kids read these stories into a microphone, hooked up to a computer, and recorded their podcast in Garage Band. It was extra credit this time, but this kids really got into it.

The second cool use of technology that Jeff uses is that he has his students take quizzes on-line. Wait, didn't I do that in college? The students, at the tender age of 11, are responsible for getting on a computer, taking the quiz, and doing all of this before the website closes at an established time. I like this because it is something the kids will likely have to do in the future, and it teaches them to be responsible.

I am excited to see the other ways the students use technology in Jeff's classroom!

Cell Phones Save the Day!!!

I am pretty critical of cell phones and how they are used. There is nothing that infuriates me more than hearing a phone ring in class or listening to people talk on their phone in the bathroom. Furthermore, I usually do not find cell phones to be appropriate in schools, but I have had to warm up to their presence as my placement school has pretty lax rules on cell phone use.
I can't stand it when I see students text messaging in class, taking pictures instead of doing work, or leaving the room to make a phone call. However, today in class, cell phones saved my lesson. I had to teach a lesson where students had to do simple calculations that required the use of calculators, but no one had calculators. I had that panic moment where I thought - oh holy s--t, what am I going to do? A student must have noticed my panic stricken face because he said "why don't we use our cell phones? They have calculators." Brilliant. Most of the kids, or at least one in every pair, had cell phone and were able to make the calculations. Maybe cell phones aren't so bad after all?!

Block Scheduling and Technology

I have been in my student teaching placement for about 6 weeks now, and my mentor teacher includes the use of technology in nearly every lesson. We are always using laptops and going to the computer lab to work on projects and reports. As many of you know, getting 30 Ninth graders to move to the computer lab, turn on the computer, and then actually get to work can take up to half of a 50 minute class period. However, my placement school has block scheduling, and I have observed that this structure facilitates the use of technology.

Our block schedule allots 90 minutes for each class, which can be a lot of instruction time (especially in English and History classes), but I think this amount of time enables students to sit down with technology and really take the time to get involved. It promotes using technology such as blogs and podcasts because the students have the time to familiarize themselves with what they are working on and to ask the teacher questions in class.

This is not to say that using technology only works in blocks schedules, but it does seem to be more efficient for the teacher and students.

Calculator Scare

I heard a story on NPR today about how Texas Instruments invented the electronic calculator 40 years ago. I looked at my husband and asked "how did my parents do math when they were in their twenties?" I imagined my mom sitting in a mustard colored room trying to use an abacus to solve division problems. I could not believe that the calculator is so new! I would never be able to maneuver my way through my math or physics homework without my graphing calculator. Were my parents not subjected to math problems of the same caliber? This may sound naive, but I really never thought about life without a calculator. I remember life without computers, but a calculator seemed so basic.

This shock made me think of how dependent we become on technology, which is something we read about in Neal Postman's work and something we often debate in the MAC program. Is technology a crutch or a catalyst? I noticed today how heavily I rely on auto-spell check when typing papers, and I became afraid that I do not know how to spell anything correctly on my own. What is going to happen to me when I cannot write words correctly on the blackboard when I am a teacher? Can smart boards fix this problem?

Technology has so many great benefits. During the NPR story today, the inventor of the calculator was asked whether he thought that people were dependent on calculators. He said something along the lines of "cars replace the need for walking, but people can go so much father." I guess that could be true of calculators. All I know is that when it came time to figure out how much rent I owe this month, I resisted the urge to get out the calculator and added the numbers up by hand....

Cell Phone Etiquette?

I was out at a restaurant with a few friends the other day, having nice conversation and unwinding after a long week. It is great to have that experience, but the entire time I was there I kept feeling that the people I was with were waiting for something else to happen. The reason: Everyone kept checking their cell phone to see if they got a new text message or call.

I am guilty of checking my phone every now and then, but I think it becomes a problem when it is continually done in a social setting or in class. After noticing this, I started wondering if we should teach cell phone etiquette in schools. Then I started thinking about expanding it to cell phone and computer etiquette as well. Kids are bombarded with this new technology that many of their parents do not understand, and as a result, they are not taught when and how to use it properly.

Is it really the schools job to teach students about manners, or is that the parents job? I know that I will not tolerate the use of cell phones or i-pods in my class unless we are doing an activity that requires them. If we encourage our students to say please and thank you, maybe we should teach them manners regarding technology.

Technology in my Mentors Class

I have been in my mentor's classroom observing her teaching practices for just over two weeks now. I must say, I am amazed by her use of technology. Granted, the school is pretty well funded compared to other schools in this state....

In just these last two weeks, my mentor has presented material to the students using technology ranging to the simple over head projector to showing DVDs on a big screen with the new speaker systems that the school installed in every classroom. The school also has laptop carts holding roughly 20 computers, a printer and a wireless air port hub. This cart can be checked out from the media center, and my mentor take frequent advantage of that.

Laptops are used in my classroom mostly for searching the web for science information. The students go to the EPA website to find out data on benthic macroinvertebrates, look at sections of the human body, and look at practice quizzes from their textbook website. My mentor emphasizes that the students learn from a variety of media - books, handouts, and the internet.

My mentor also has a website with links to the three classes she teaches. On these sites, the students can find a weekly calendar, syllabus, and pdf versions of handouts in case they miss class.

My teacher incorporates technology into her classroom far more than other teachers in the same building and in other schools. However, there is so much more than can be done - blogging, listening to podcasts, creating wikis. These are things I would like to include in my class, but I now realize that time is the number one constraint that prevents most teachers from introducing technology in the class. There are so many great ideas and projects to develop for students, but it doesn't always seem feasible when there are so many other considerations and demands.

Use of Technology in 695 Presentations

Whew! We just finished a grueling week of presentations, and I think we all did a great job. One thing that I noticed was how the groups differed in their use of technology. Some presentations relied on powerpoint, video interviews, U-tube segments, clips from movies, etc, and other groups chose to engage us through group work and handouts. The use of different media and texts was really impressive, and all of the techniques were effective.

I have been thinking a lot about the appropriate use of technology in schools, and not using it for the sake of using it. There needs to be a purpose and benefit to using technology in a classroom as a learning tool. While I recognize this, one question continually pops into my head. Is it worth using technology in the classroom for the sole purpose of engaging the students? If students enjoy using computers and blogging more than writing and keeping a paper journal, does that justify using technology? Do we always have to make school fun, and is technology the way to do that?