Week Four Journal Three

The beginning of the year at an elementary school can be very hectic, my school is no exception. The teachers begin testing all of their students using the baseline test for the Reading Street Curriculum during the first couple weeks of school. They also test students to find their reading level using the Star test through the Accelerated Reader program. Next, my team tests all of the students in the school for reading fluency using DIBELS testing. And finally, near the end of September all of the students are tested on all reading and English skills through MAP testing.

After all of the testing was complete, my team and the third grade teachers noticed a need within the third grade; the need was phonics. During our monthly data meeting, at the end of last month, we were looking over our students' recent scores. Through this process we came up with quite a few students that needed at least some support in phonics. My team volunteered to start some pull-out groups to meet this need.

Before we could start pulling students, we needed to do further testing. This testing would show us how much and what kind of phonics support these students would need. We chose our curriculum, and used their placement test to find out what level each child was at.

After we finished our testing we looked at the students scores again. This time we were able to divide the students up according to their level. We created three phonics classes low, medium and high. We also created a Lexia group and a Read Naturally group. The Read Naturally and Lexia groups would need further testing to place them; this was taken on by their teacher.

Looking back on this process, I have to admit that it was a long and tedious one, but it was effective. I was asked how I thought that technology might have enhanced the gathering and use of the data. To answer that question, first I need to tell you that half of these tests did use technology to test and collect data. We as a staff have also started a system where we input all of our students scores in the same place so that we can see them side-by-side. However, the collection of data for both the DIBELS test and the Placement test for the curriculum we use has to be done by a person. We have to listen to the students read for these tests; using a computer to check for reading fluency and accuracy would not be a good idea.

The only way that I see the computer being an effective tool is if the DIBELS had testing on the computer and that we were able to test the readers using a program similar to Read Naturally's. Read Naturally is set up to time the students while they read for one minute. While they read, when they miss as word you click on it so that it counts against the students score. Later you can access the students' scores under their teacher's account. This process would definitely speed up the data entry step, but it wouldn't speed up the testing portion, in fact, it would probably slow it down considerably.

Week Three Journal Two: Technology Integration

This week I had the opportunity to examine the Technology Integration Matrix. This matrix shows how students and teachers being comfortable with technology can change the way we use it in education.

As of right now I am both a student and a teacher/teacher in training. I am working on my degree in Library Science and Media at Ashford University. I also work as a LAP paraeducator in the school district near where I live. As a student at Ashford I am continually preparing to teach my own lessons using technology. As a paraeducator, I am constantly looking for new ways that technology can supplement the things that my students are learning.

The Technology Integration Matrix looks like this:

As a student I would say that my learning environment reflects a authentic characteristic "Students use technology tools to solve real-world problems meaningful to them rather than working on artificial assignments." In my classes I am consistently creating and finding lesson plans and tools to use in my future library classroom.

As a paraeducator I feel that I fall somewhere between Adoption and Adaption. The main difference between the two is the independence level of the students. At the beginning of the year I have to direct my 3rd grade students in the use of technology. Many of my students have not had much access to a computer beforehand. By the end of the year however, my students become more independent and are sometimes able to choose the tool by which they will learn a skill.

As a teacher in training however, I have found so many resources that I a dying to start using in my future classroom. Many of these resources will make it possible for me to Transform my curriculum into a fully technology integrated curriculum. The students will be encouraged to use the technology available to them in many creative ways. I will also be able to teach many lessons that I may not have previously had access to before the use of technology. Visit my Pinterest page for many ways to use technology in education.

Week One Journal One: Educational Technology

After reviewing the many technological developments used in education through the ages, I think that the most significant key developments are computers, document cameras, projectors and interactive whiteboards. I know, I know, I just listed the things that we use the most in the classrooms today. There is a reason we use them though, they are amazing tools! These tools make for an easier classroom. You can save documents from previous lessons and reuse them later. These gadgets help cut down the time the teacher spends creating lessons. The teacher's time is valuable, if it can be used in other ways, it should be.

Looking back on my experience with technology in the classroom as a student, I'd have to say that the overhead projector and Apple computers (starting in 5th grade) were used the most. Both of these tools were very helpful in increasing my learning. I created so many PowerPoints and book reports on those computers.

Later in middle and high school I was introduced to document cameras and projectors, something I use in my own classroom today. These are fantastic because they aren't messy and you can show things from your laptop over the projector as well. Another useful tool that I have recently started learning how to use are Promethean boards. These boards are very interactive. The students are able to use them too! You can use them for all sorts of things the best of which have the students coming up to the front and participating in games and experiments.

Technology can be a good thing and a bad thing. When I started thinking about how technology has increased or decreased my learning I couldn't think of a single way that technology has decreased it at first. Then I took a little bit longer to reflect and realized that there are many ways that technology has decreased my learning. These things however have only decreased my learning because of my attachment to them. Here are a just a few ways that technology decreases my learning:

All of these types of technology can be very distracting from learning. I spend way too much of my time on all of these things. Earlier today, I purposely let my kindle die so that I would stop letting myself get distracted by all of the fun features on it. Facebook, Sims and Pinterest are time consuming. I could watch shows and videos on Netflix, Hulu+ and YouTube all day long. Pandora and Spotify have unexpected audio ads that like to interrupt my thought process, and if I don't choose my channels corrects, the music I listen to can be very distracting by itself. None of these things are necessarily bad things, they are distracting though.

Returning to Pinterest, YouTube, Pandora and Spotify though, these wonderful things can be fantastic tools when used in the right way. Pandora and Spotify allows you to choose the type of music you listen to. I have a couple different stations (depending on my mood) that help me focus much better that silence will. YouTube has a wealth of educational and instructional videos and Pinterest, oh my lovely Pinterest. Pinterest, if you let yourself find them, has a seemingly unlimited supply of lesson plans, and other educational material just waiting for you to find and devour.