Friday, December 16, 2011

'Tis That Time of Year

Gratitude, giving, receiving, reflection, and looking forward. These are the themes for this week's Learn and Earn. Below are a a few prompts to get you thinking about technology in terms of these themes. Choose either option 1 or option 2 to write about in this week's post, then also answer the final prompt.


Option 1: Teacher laptops, document cameras, projectors, ActivBoards, and netbook carts--oh, my!
This is our fifth year of life in a system where teachers and students benefit from a dramatic increase in technology tools and access thanks to the passing of two consecutive tech levys. Consider how your teaching and student learning have changed in the past five years in light of  this. What are you most thankful for, or what do you most want to celebrate? Why?

OR

Option 2: Giving and receiving
If you had to share one tip, suggestion, strategy, or tool with your staff regarding technology use in the classroom, what would it be?

Final Prompt: Looking ahead
Describe a goal you have for yourself and/or your students regarding technology use in 2012 and explain why it's important to you.

NOTE: There will be no Learn and Earn next Thursday. We will resume class on January 5, 2011. And, yes, this week's response is not due until then.

Here's to a relaxing and much deserved break. Happy holidays!
Posted by Kimberly Allison at 10:50 AM

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Marie A Page's avatar

Marie A Page · 693 weeks ago

Life before technology- I remember so much and how difficult it was. I love the netbooks, cameras, LCD projector, Laptops, document readers ...etc. I would personally cry if we had to go back to the old way of teaching. Now knowledge can be quicker, colorful, videos viewed and information gathered. Grades are available to parents and students and their is no mystery of what there grade is. I think that with technology classroom information is fun and exciting. I use all of the above mentioned technology daily. My goal for technology is to use more blogs and utilize more teacher information sites. I use swift and love it, but I would also like to use other ways to contact students. I have grown in technology so much in the past 5 years because of classes like this - so thanks!!!
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Jennifer Dunham CH's avatar

Jennifer Dunham CH · 693 weeks ago

I wasn't teaching in Tahoma when your implentation started, but I can tell you have benefited from he technology available to me. I love my activboard. It allows me to prepare lessons with active learning strategies built in and I can jsut reuse if from period to period versus recreating it every period. My parents/students appreciate that I can convert a filled out activboard lesson to an adobe document that they can access from my website (especially great for students who are absent). I also appreciate the online access to grades. In my previous district I was e-printing weekly progress reports to some of my parents and then emailing each parent with the report on a weekly basis. On of my goals, is to use Moodle (TLP) more effectively. Without a set of netbooks in my class room, I have not been very good about using Moodle as a teaching tool. I am hoping to use it more successfully second semester.
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Kathryn Strojan's avatar

Kathryn Strojan · 693 weeks ago

I am most thankful for the opportunity to show student work. Being able to put work under the document camera allows me to model my expectations as well as lets students own part of the teaching process. The ability to take a snapshot (via a phone, camera or ipad) and put it on a big screen allows the sharing of card sorts, lab work, and manipulatives.

Technology also allows my students to access big science ideas more readily by providing modeling softward and simulations so they can build understanding through constructivist experiences rather than "sit and get" lectures.

There are 2 technology wishes I have for my students this year. The first is I want to continue to model the applications technology has in the classroom. These range from online access to the Holt math curriculum to looking at cell models on an ipad to using Bing or Google to look up questions that come up in class. The second is to teach the students to use basic Excel skills. I hope to teach them to take basic data, be able to manipulate it according to their needs, and make it visual through charts and graphs.
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Hilary Ledford (CH)'s avatar

Hilary Ledford (CH) · 693 weeks ago

This is only my third year of teaching (at Tahoma and in general)- so I'm not sure how things have changed. HOWEVER, when I was student teaching the best technology we had was an overhead projector. Here, I am able to display great vocabulary powerpoints, show youtube videos of French songs, show realistic (COLOR!) photos on the document camera. I think that students have a better chance of getting authentic visuals, material, information, etc. with the help of our technology here. They are also able to create amazing materials using our tech tools.

My goal for 2012 is to explore Prezi (I think I spelled that right). I had a group project/presentation last week and half the groups chose to use Prezi over PowerPoint and I would like to learn more abou tit.
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Kimberly Allison's avatar

Kimberly Allison · 693 weeks ago

Great reflections so far, everyone! Have a great break!
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Joelle's avatar

Joelle · 693 weeks ago

I love the technology we have availalbe to us to use with our students. The document camera is great to use to show what is seen under a microscope and students see it on my activ board. Also great for when students are absent then I can take a picture of the specimen and they can see it and draw it upon returning. Also I see how much the students love to use the activboard in my algebra class. They get so excited just to come to the board and share their ideas it is funny to watch but also awesome that they are enjoying figuring out problems in front of their peers.

My goal for 2012 is to explore making more flipcharts for my students for me to use for instruction. It is not taht I mind doing it it is the time that it takes to put them together and the fear of not knowing what math class I may be teacing next year that I would have to start all over again next year with a different math class flipcharts.
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scott hagensen ch's avatar

scott hagensen ch · 692 weeks ago

Technology has made teaching that much easier. I love how much acess our students have. We are always doing projects on the laptops or using them for research. It is nice to always have a class set ready to use. The students love using the computers and seem to get more work done and learn better when on the computers.

I could not imagine what it would be like to have no technology. I use it everyday in the classroom. From the doc cam, to entering grades, to showing the students sites, or other information from the computer. It make it really easy to switch back and forth.

A goal that I have for 2012 is that I would like to have the students check my swift website more often. All of their assignments and documents are online. It very easy for the students to see what they missed and what they need to make up. I want all of my students to take advantage of this. It gets old having students ask what we did yesterday. If they check swift they can see and get what they need without wasting class time.
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Rhonda Ham CH's avatar

Rhonda Ham CH · 690 weeks ago

I really enjoy seeing the different ways teachers use technology in classrooms. I especially like to see student work displayed usig the document camera because it gives immediate feedback to not only the student but the class. I agree that posting assingments and grades helps students and parents feel more empowered.

A goal I have for 2012 is to continue to build my knowledge of technology resources and startegies in order to share this info with teachers as a way to support them in their classroom.

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