Technology in the Classroom

Takeaway Teach Tool

Chapter 4: Instructional use of technology

After reading Hamilton’s textbook, I thought the information in this chapter was very useful for teachers beginning to explore technology in their classroom and how to implement it. This chapter covered what types of tools teachers can use to begin to integrate technology into their classroom such as having a computer, projector, and camera. Hamilton does mention that it is far more important how a teacher uses technology, than the actual equipment being used. I think as any new learner, using technology can be stressful and a little scary at first, but I think if teachers step out of their comfort zones and use technology tools, they will offer their student another form of learning. I found myself thinking of ways I could use technology tools in my preschool class, and I could use tools such as Prezi, PowerPoint, digital story for my parent meeting presentations. I could also use symbaloo and wiki to collaborate with my colleagues to complete upcoming lesson plan themes. As far as tools I currently use in my classroom, I use a tablet with learning games on it and I use YouTube videos during music and group time sing-alongs. This chapter did give examples of how you can use technology such as a projector to enlarge the print of a book and read together as a class, digital recorder during reading assessment, and a computer for group exploration. This chapter offered great ideas and tools to use as a teacher exploring and beginning to use technology in your class.

Hamilton, B. (2015). Integrating Technology in the Classroom Tools to Meet the Needs of Every Student. Portland, Oregon: International Society for Technology in Education.

21st Century

I love teaching and have used several of the links I have placed in my resources page to help me in my teaching experience. I think that today, we have access to so much technology that we could use to our advantage, and give our students a different and fun learning experience. I personally use YouTube, tablet and computer in my preschool classroom and feel that using these tools gives my students various forms of learning a concept, which helps them understand and process the concept. I enjoy trying new technology tools and introducing it into my classroom.

MAT 671 assignment 3A

One event during my education where I was inspired to perform was as a fourth grader during an oral language competition. I memorized a poem titled “My father’s hands” it was a long poem. I love poems so It was easy for me to memorize and I did ok reciting it, but I was nervous in front of a crowd. I still like the opportunity I had to recite the poem and take steps in overcoming my stage freight. After that experience, I was at ease in assignments that required me to present in front of the class.  

One event during my education that completely deflated me was in college when I had to create a power point and present in class. During my beginning years of college, I had no idea about technology or how to even begin to create a power point. The assignment was stressful and overwhelming. Once I completed and presented my assignment, I was glad that I did not allow the assignment to defeat me. I completed the assignment well and was grateful that my professor had us complete an assignment using this tool that I currently use frequently.

From my experiences as a student, I think I will encourage, guide and offer learning opportunities that will help my students take educational risk. I want to provide learning experiences that are new to my students and help them feel confident in completing the assignment.

                    

Learning style surveys

Hello, my name is Ana Nunez, I love being part of a child's learning experience and I hope that my teaching strategies and learning opportunities offer fun and engaging experiences for my students. I try to make my lessons appropriate, and take into consideration the different learning styles of my students. To meet the needs of diverse learners, I get to know my students and learn their strengths and areas of need and create lessons that are engaging and that my students can relate to and be active participants.

After taking the several surveys, I discovered that my personality was of a facilitator, my teaching style was of a facilitator and my learning style was collaborative. I think my personality and my relationship with my students will be one of open communication and problem solving. I like to get to know my students and find solutions to help them better understand a concept and master a goal. I think my teaching and learning styles will help my students feel confident in asking questions, using their critical thinking skills and communicating with their peers in group learning. The different teaching strategies I will use, will help diverse learners and help my students be successful.

Annotated Bibliography

MAT 670 Assignment 4.B

Book choice: Gregory, G. Kaufeldt, M. Mattos, M.  (2016). Best Practices at Tier 1 Daily  Differentiation for Effective Instruction. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

After reviewing my classmates book, I noticed that I was the only one who chose this book, as a course book choice. There are many books out on the market that cover best practice strategies, but I chose this book for the variety of strategies. There are three authors that contribute to this book, with education backgrounds. There are 7 points that are covered in this book; collaborative core instruction, creating brain friendly environments, finding each student’s learning sweet spot, developing a powerful core curriculum, differentiating instruction, using data to inform instruction and the last is building cognitive rigor, depth & complexity. Each of these topics is thoroughly covered and emphasize on good teaching practices. Each topics offers tools and strategies that teachers can use to help in their teaching and to help students be successful in learning.

I enjoyed reading the information in this book and using it as a course book throughout this class, I would highly recommend reading this book for the useful information that it contains and how it pertains to education and teaching practices. 

5 Project based learning strategies

1. Create PBL content lessons that meet the different learning modalities of students. Provide a variety of experiences that address learning styles such as; sensory, visual, auditory, tactile, and indoor/outdoor experiences.

2.Individual (PBL)- Allow students to individually explore, investigate, record and communicate results. Allowing individual experiences helps students to use their problem solving and critical thinking skills.

3. Peer Pair (PBL)-  Allowing two students to work on a learning experience together, helps students improve their communication, interaction and problem solving skills. Peer pair also encourages constructive feedback within peers.

4. Small groups (PBL)- Create small groups to complete project learning. Groups of 4 students, allows students to collaborate and interact. Small groups give students the opportunity to communicate and delegate portions of the group work.

5.  Create PBL  content lessons to the interest of the students. Proving lessons that pertain to the interest of the students helps students to retain the information and relate to it. Students will use their knowledge of their interest to complete the learning experience.

 Reading Comprehension strategies.

1.      Read Aloud - reading a book to a group of students and discussing characters, events, or new words in book. Giving students the opportunity to listen and discuss the book will help students comprehend the reading material. Having a discussion and asking open ended questions helps students use their critical thinking skills.

2.      Computer/headphones- Allowing students to listen and follow along on a computer read aloud, allows students to get a visual of events happening in book and the opportunity to hear the pronunciation of new words. Computer read-aloud allows students to read independently.

3.      Small group- Allow students to communicate about the book just read. Give students a large post it poster paper to write down about characters, events, new vocabulary, the plot of story, and their thoughts or opinions of book. Small groups allow students to participate in cooperative learning, peer communication and interaction.

4.      Dictations- Allow students to write down, draw or talk about what they have read.  Allowing students, the opportunity to independently recall, retell and describe events in a book will help them to comprehend the reading material.