PLE Week 12

My mentor teacher did not use a whole lot of technology but she was good with using the things that she had. She could have done more with PowerPoint presentations or videos. It would have been fun for the students to see their own work projected on a slideshow of some sort. But she made great use of her document camera. She used it more than anything and it was very useful in helping the students to see the things she was demonstrating. She also used the internet to find a lot of cool astronomy pictures to show the students. It was fun for them to see those and talk about them. It would have been fun for the students to go to the computer lab every so often to do projects but I can see how that would have been hard for a second grade class. My mentor teacher used the internet to find the daily weather for the students to graph. That was a useful tool. She would also type things on the computer and project them up on the screen. The technology that she used was always very helpful.

PLE Week 11

Bookends of War http://etec.hawaii.edu/etecvideos/videos/bow/?page=ft_small
Inside Kapunahala http://etec.hawaii.edu/etecvideos/videos/kap/?page=ft_large

In the first video, the children were so excited to see their actual work on the computer. They think their website looks really cool. The technology got them excited about what they were doing in class. The students seem to understand what the website is all about. It seems like they understand the content more when they are displaying it in a fun way on the website. The children are eager to come to class and can’t wait to get down to the computer room. They think it is fun, not just busywork. The technology allowed the children to collaborate with each other and it allowed the children to problem solve. The students felt a great sense of accomplishment as they completed something that was a challenge. In the second video students were just as enthusiastic about technology. Students get the opportunity to be on a news program. It made students feel like it was a privilege to work with technology and to work on school projects.

Lesson Plans

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg58m5bb_6dzrww5cr
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg58m5bb_5hm65tfj2
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dg58m5bb_4hpgqrmfx

PLE Week 10

In the spider lesson, the teacher uses a video to teach her students about spiders. She also has the students use cameras to take picture of spiders. I watched as the students became engaged during the camera activity. This same teacher also uses internet communications to correspond with people from different states. Technology is the only quick way you would be able to exchange pictures. This is a great way to engage the students. Technology is the only effective way to accomplish this type of task. Technology provides students with experiences that they could not otherwise have. In another classroom they used technology to put together final products. Using the computer to make the finished product allowed the teacher to be able to send the student’s work home in a more exciting way. It gets old sending books and papers home. It is so much more exciting for the students to go home and show their parents something on the computer than a worksheet that they filled out. The computer also allowed the students to be able to easily draw and erase without too much trouble. This can be especially important for younger children. In the last classroom had the students make their own PowerPoint presentations to show to the class. The slideshows gave the students many tools that they could use to demonstrate what they were learning. So many things could not be provided without technology.

PLE Week 9

I was was pleasantly surprised with the technology that we have available to us in my classroom. We have 1 computer and some other simple technolgy. The technology that I find the most useful is the document camera. It works as a projector and it makes it some things can be viewed on the board. This is a very useful tool. I have already used it in a lesson. There are two seperate compter labs that can be scheduled at the school. They have various programs available to the students.

I completed parts 1 and 2 of the PLE.