Final Thoughts

Link to my final thoughts present.me blog

Over the course of the semester I've learned a lot about the importance of technology in the classroom. Technology is an integral part of our every day lives, so much that it is redefining the term "literacy." We often think that being literate means you can read, write and comprehend, but now things are changing. It focuses more on how we create, build and use our resources to in a functional way. Society, people and technology is moving forward, and so should the classroom. This class has taught me that we don't live in an age where we learn our curriculum through worksheets, but projects and creativity.Using technology in this sense is great. Students are left to explore different means of expressing their thoughts and ideas in a creative way that they can call their own. They need to know how to use all of these different sources on the internet just to know whats good and bad, and more importantly what is credible. With exploration comes discovery. It's important for the teacher to use technology for themselves. Professional development has never been easier with tools like pinterest and blogs. Teachers from all around the world collaborate and share what has worked for them and what hasn't All of these resources are great for an upcoming teacher. Education is moving forward and it is important for teachers to be at the front of that curve.

Using Audacity

As a musician, I am always trying to incorporate music into the classroom. Music and literacy go hand and hand, and gives students the chance to express themselves in an artistic way. Audacity is a great audio recording platform that I have used in a variety of ways. I had some very creative English teachers in high school that liked to study lyric and poem structure through song. Audacity was an easy tool for them to use to show us examples of things they created and was simple enough so the whole class to learn.It has been a while since I have used this free program so I had to do some exploring again to familiarize myself with it again. I found it easy to use and in no time I was able to record simple audio tracks. Audacity is a great recording tool that can be used creatively in the English and Literacy settings. It takes some planning on how to incorporate it in a meaningful way, but has a great impact in the classroom when it is used properly.

Literacy SMART Board Lesson

  I did some exploring with SMART Notebook 11 and made a short Literacy activity using a Shel Silverstein poem "Jimmy Jet and His TV Set." I have the poem broken up into different slides with questions and activities spread throughout. I thought this would be a good way to work on comprehension skills in the lower reading levels. SMART Notebook 11 allows for the whole class to see the same thing and have their own input into the lesson. Since this is a silly story, I added in some silly pictures and the animations help keep everything visually appealing.
  Overall I like the Notebook 11 program. It took me a little while getting use to it, but it is very similar to using powerpoint. I like that during the presentation you can have students go up to the board and edit text and draw. I used different animations to keep the slides a little more interesting. I feel with time I can really get a good grasp on this program and make some fun and interesting lessons/activities. Using Notebook in the classroom gives the teacher freedom to move around and has the ability to keep the students moving and attentive which I find to be vital in the classroom setting. This tool gives me, as an educator, a new way to keep students engaged and make lesson plans that appeal to all types of leaners, visual, auditory and kinesthetic.

SMART Boards in the Classroom

After watching the videos and reading the articles this week, I support the use of SMART Boards in the classroom. From my personal experience as a student and an educator, SMART boards help with student's engagement, participation and relates to many different learning styles. As a student I always enjoyed using a SMART boards. It made getting up in front of the classroom fun and a good experience. It gave me the courage to get up in font of a large group of people and be an active participant in the classroom.

As an educator there are many benefits to using SMART boards as a resource. I have the ability to show videos, articles, and my own examples so that everyone could clearly see. SMART boards allow the teacher to make a comprehensive, interactive lesson plan that students can enjoy. Teachers have the opportunity to use multiple resources instead of translucent pages on an over head projector. It's important for the teacher to reach every students personal interests. In the upcoming generations, the use of technology is a huge interest. Students have such a strong grasp in new technology and there are many benefits when they get to explore these resources in the classroom.

Using technology such as SMART boards in the classroom is essential to many different subject areas. As a music teacher I can use it for videos, recordings, transcribing, writing programs and so many more. As a literacy major, I can use it to show multiple examples of writing forms, comprehension games, spelling programs, it goes on. SMART boards push lessons and curriculums to be progressive and are easy to incorporate into the classroom. I have many reasons to use one and want to use it as a tool to help my future students and to push me to make creative and original lessons.

SMART Boards!

This week I read some great articles on the use of SMART boards in the classroom. There are so many benefits to using this technology that there is no reason not to use one. They appeal to every learning style and provide a great way to make lessons more interactive.

Article One Interactive Whiteboards and Learning:

Article one focus mainly on student engagement and motivation. The uses of SMART boards in the classroom are beneficial for many reasons. Since SMART boards are so interactive, they have the ability to appeal to every learning style, kinesthetic, visual and auditory. The article talks about how SMART boards area the key to keeping students engaged and motivated. Students have the ability to manipulate texts, draw pictures and take quick and easy notes all with their fingers. It is a great and fun way for students to get up in front of the class and express themselves extrinsically or intrinsically.

Article Two Creating Classrooms for Everyone:

Since the emergence of UDL, education has grown tremendously. Programs and new ways of teaching are designed to be used in every setting, while being versatile enough to reach every kind of student. SMART boards are directly linked with UDL. Students of any ability, physically or mentally can benefit from the uses of a SMART board. Students with disabilities are able to use the same technology as any other student and have just as much fun learning with it. The SMART boards are adaptive enough to be used by people with vision and hearing disabilities and a variety of IED’s because of it’s interactivity. Students with fine motor issues have the ability to use any object to write on the board keeping them engaged and boosting self-esteem. This article supports the idea that SMAR boards truly are universal in teaching every type of student.

Article Three Interactive Whiteboards Workbook:

This article has a lot of great ways to integrate SMART boards in to every classroom setting. It provides different lesson ideas and plans for math, science, English, music, and history. It provides some great examples of games that can be used, these would be great for the younger grades and keeping them engaged and having fun while learning. I really liked the idea of virtual field trips. With proper teacher preparation, this could be a great way to teach a variety of subjects and make some great lesson plans. Students could travel the world, learn about composers and research different cultures all in a virtual fieldwork setting. This method would be great for the higher grade and research projects. The fine arts section was nice as well.  Teaching music isn’t easy and having all of these sites to help teach reading music is great for the younger students. This article is really great and has a lot of interesting ways to incorporate the use of SMART boards into classrooms.

The First Week...Changes

Week one has been interesting for me. I have been exposed to a lot of new programs that I didn't know existed and still have a lot of exploration to do. Technology changes so fast and is very difficult to keep up with. You really have jump in and incorporate as much technology into the classroom, this really appeals to the students and is great with keeping them on track. My biggest concern is how quickly technology changes. Everyday programs and websites are being created, updated and changed to stay compatible with the all of the technology and computer advancements. How can an educator be expected to keep up with this fast flow of new information? If a teacher is use to using one program that is considered obsolete and is forced to change, how will that effect their curriculum and teaching style?