Technology:
The use of technology within my classroom is abundant. Students and support staff use it all day long to help facilitate learning. The students are excited to have the opportunity to use the various items. In my classroom on a regular basis we use a Smart Board, computers, digital cameras, and voice recorders. From a teacher’s perspective I use the Smart board to teach with each day, I also place information on our class website for parents to visit, and we hold parent/student activity nights. Through these abundant uses of technology students are more motivated and excited to read and write.
Each day with the Smart board the students interact and click on it to find out if the answer they thought in their head is correct. We work on letter sounds, blending of sounds, chunking of words, identification of word parts, all through clicking and dragging items on the Smart Board. On days that I have to assess students, I turn the students into teachers and they have the opportunity to move through lessons that we previously had done. The students really enjoy this opportunity and at the same time everyone is still learning while I quietly assess in the back of the classroom. The Smart board can also be used with writing activities as well, it may look a little different, but students can adjust and make corrections on the board.
Last year and this year our school received a grant to make memory books with our students. This is a terrific use of using writing skills and technology together. The students are allowed to take home digital cameras from school and photograph items from their daily lives. Then once they return to school we work on constructing various writing pieces. Each student is expected to write a piece from each of the genres of writing, expository, narrative, technical, and persuasive. Once the students have written their pieces, revised, edited with a friend, then they type their stories on the computer. Once the story is typed they find pictures that relate to their story and begin a memory book. We found last year that the students enjoyed making their books, but their writing also improved. As we finish up the project for this year, again their stories are terrific, but the students are becoming better writers as well. (Sample of student writing).
The last form of technology that students use that I am going to touch on is voice recorders. Students use voice recorders to help them learn how to read more fluently. The students record their voice while reading a passage, then after reading they determine with a friend their fluency. Of course, fluency means more than just speed, but accuracy, intonation, and automaticity. I have taught the students what each of these categories means. Once they have read they go back and listen critiquing themselves on their overall fluency. Within my classroom the student fluency rate has increased and the students enjoy using the voice recorders. This could also be done using a camera on a computer, having the students review the recording after they are done.
The possibilities that are available for students is astounding. One of my students favorite websites is tumblebooks. They are able to read along with a book and then play some games regarding what happened in the story. What a great way to make reading enjoyable and exciting. The opportunities are endless, taking the time to learn about the possibilities and then implementing them in the classroom is another situation. I learned so many new possibilities in the class I took for my graduate work, that I can’t imagine what has become available since then. (coursework). Technology changes so quickly, so being aware of the changes and being prepared to implement them will take a little more effort. The students want to use technology so providing the opportunity is up to the teacher.
