Today we learned about this cool, interesting blog site for teachers, students and their parents, and according to our professor, it is completely safe (imbee.com)! This is an aspect of technology that can be used anytime throughout the year and for various reasons. Not only that, but it will have a huge effect on students' interests. They will love knowing their stuff is published, and with the option of having some of their work printed for gifts to their parents is an added bonus. Not only can the classroom community members access the blog, other teachers can see the student's work if they are added, even if they are in another state! I can already envison my future students and myself working with another pre-service teacher's future class. It could open so many doors to education. I didn't come from a technological background, but the more I learn about technology, the more excited I am about learning more so that my future class can become technologically savvy!
OK, so yet another post, but I have been walking around with these posts mentally in my head, and it is time I wrote them down.
Technology at Magruder Elementary isn't that great right now, but all that is going to change really soon! Right now, they basically have 3 computers per room, with four extra ones in the library. There is no computer lab, and the computers that are in the room are mostly used for AR quizzes because Magruder pushes them a lot. The school does have a technology person, but she doesn't fix the computers, just instructs the students on how to use them basically. They have to call the York County help line for technology help or to get someone to come and fix the computers. They have basic things such as printers, digital cameras, 1 scanner and the internet, but that is about it. However, "hopefully in Novemeber", they say, they will be "infused". I am told that nobody can touch the new equipment until the teachers are all trained on it and so forth. They won't be getting a computer lab, but they will be getting laptop carts that classes can check out, and I believe the library is getting a few more computers. They will be getting I believe what is considered multimedia materials, such as a projector to use the screens in their classrooms to display what is on a computer for the whole class to see (kind of what we have in technology class). I'm not sure to what extent their new technology is, but my cooperating teacher said they were getting programs such as Claymation and so forth.
Well, that is about it for the technology in Magruder report; though, I would like to say that I found a cool technological toy in Wal-mart the other day. I found this 20 questions ball that will ask you 20 questions to try and guess what you think, and surprisingly, it is really good. Ten dollars well spent!
I think that Miguel has a good lesson plan incorporating technology. With kids being exposed to technology, most likely of the video game type, earlier on in life, it is important to show them how they can do something fun but learn as well. That way instead of running to the playstation, they may run to the computer to make a book. However, there are one or two things I would suggest to Miguel to possibly improve his lesson plan.
The first thing I would suggest is to possibly do a rhyming poem. Depending on when in the year this technology lesson is occuring, some students may have lost some of their reading ability over the summer or still be on a first grade level. Rhyming words help with their phonological skills, and depending on if they are sharing with other second grade classes or second and first, it would be easier for the students not as literate to follow some of the poem if there was a pattern or rhyming. They may also enjoy writing it more if they can make it rhyme.
Another suggestion I have is that the outline seems kind of complex. I'm in a first grade practicum, so I do not know the extent that one grade makes on webbing, but it might be easier for them to just have a sheet of paper with columns that have the senses and have them list words and worry about the sentences after. If not a paper, maybe they could be shown how to use kidspiration to make webs to make it easier.
My final suggestion is that I can see you care about how students feel by stating that if they don't have positive comments they shouldn't speak and they should wait their turn, but in this same respect, I don't think it is fair to have the students vote on the five best poems. They are young and they are all going to want theirs to be the one you pick. If you don't have time to put all the poems on the blog or if you do pick only five, maybe you could make a class book to send to the other classrooms so that the other students who wrote their poems can have them possibly read during the other classes free time. Maybe instead of a class book, you could have them make individual books so at least their parents can see their poem (unless the parents have access to the blog site or a class webpage site).
Overall, I liked the lesson and think you did a good job. I think the kids would enjoy it.
I wanted to comment on Meg's playground experience since Proffessor Nussbaum-Beach read it in class last week. I come from a relatively small, country town, so racial tension isn't a foreign thing there, nor is it the norm either. I'm not writing this entry to suggest ideas on how to handle situations like that, but I did want to write about it because a semi-racial incident is the reason I am here at William & Mary pursuing a teaching degree. My mom told me the other day that when I was in school, it was primarily white. I never paid much attention to race because I was young, and my friends were my friends. It wasn't until I got older that I even noticed race really or my parents explained some things to me about how some people might act to kindly towards me. While my mom remembered a time in my older brother's second grade class where one of his classmates said to her on a Parent-teacher evening, "You must be Jay's mom" (not a bad assumption seeing how my brother was the only black student in the class), she never remembered any racial comments or problems with my elementary career. Anyway, back to why I am a bit racial concious today. When I was in the 11th grade, it was time to take college prepartory courses - the typical courses an accelerated, college-bound student took in 11th grade. I had all intents of going to college until that year (obviously that changed of course), but because of this one teacher, who was seemingly racist according to several people, I quit all my college and accelerated courses. At the beginning of junior year, in the running for valedictorian, I quit. I went to general ed classes for the first time in my life since i had started taking accelerated classes. The whole story behind this teacher is not important at this time, only that as normal, I was the only black student (or would have been) in his class, and it seemed from his actions that he was targeting me. Long story made short there, my father was on the verge of threatening to have the school fire him. This, as well as the incident where my brother's first daughter's grandma said that "white and black people shouldn't mix (despite the fact that her daughter already had a mix child)", made me adamant about going to college after all and becoming a teacher. Because I had straight As (yes, straight As) until 11th grade, I was accepted here even with my downgrade to general education classrooms and a scatter of Bs and Cs I got in the last years of high school. Even while I am here, I still ponder racial questions, such as you are doing Meg with your 1st grade kids, but I ponder on myself as well as my current and future kids. One of the reasons I came to William and Mary was because my guidance counselor said to me, "coming from a predominately white school, do you really want to go to a historically black school". This in itself makes me question all sorts of things. Just because I went to school where the population was mostly caucasion, does that mean I'm not black? The odd thing is that coming here has made me more aware of my race. I remember my freshman roomate (who was white) asking me why I didn't wash my hair everyday. It seemed that I had to explain to some people, probably like your little girl will Meg about being "black" apparently. I mean why don't some people shower everyday? Does it matter as long as we're healthy and don't smell. Different cultures do different things and different people do different things. The other day, one of my other friends remarked to me (and another guy) that we didn't seem black. I suppose he's right - how can you seem a color? (Though I realize I have written black and white throughout this entry, but that is for typing sake). Basically, what I'm wondering now about race is on top of what every normal pre-service teacher wonders, just to another extent. Will the students accept me (normal question)? Will they think i'm less intelligent because they are used to white teachers? Will I fit in with the rest of the staff? Will the staff see me as different, or an affirmative action hire, because of my race? How will the parents react to me as a teacher of color? It may seem trivial to worry about such things, but i do all the same. I just want to be seen as a highly-qualified, William and Mary educated teacher, and not just another face in a race to diversify a place.
