This morning my 5th students entered class ready to complete their usual morning Brain Booster (a.k.a. "morning work"). However, today's Brain Booster was slightly different than their normal mixed review of concepts and topics from the week. As I mentioned in my first entry, my students and I are currently in a classroom sans technology, but we expect to have access to a computer lab once we move to our permanent building. For this morning's Brain Booster, I had my students complete a Student Technology Survey. I explained to my students that when we moved to the new school that we would have access to a computer lab, and this survey would help me understand their learning needs better as well as their knowledge of technology.
I learned that all 19 of my students have computers at home and use them just about everyday. However, their use of the computer mostly consists of surfing the web and visiting their favorite sites (some educational and some entertainment). Some of these sites include funbrain.com, Kids College, Study Island, funschool.com, and YouTube. Only one student had used a computer for productivity purposes such as to type a report or document, create a presentation, or do research. Despite this, the majority my students felt that using computers would make schoolwork more fun and interesting and would rather use the computer over pencil and paper. Many also voiced that they would like to learn more about how to use computers. Being able to gather some insight from my students is going to help me so much when it comes to integrating technology into the classroom. Now that I have an idea of their skill level and their familiarity with technology, this will be a great opportunity to refine my students' skills, teach them about digital citizenship, and introduce them to new software! :)
Thanks for reading,
Zena
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Starting from the Ground Up
Projector? Smartboard? Computers? As I glanced around my empty classroom during pre-planning week I knew that I would have to exercise my creativity to compose engaging lesson plans for my 5th grade students.
This school year I began teaching 5th grade at a brand new charter school in Orange County. In the weeks before school started, we met some challenges which included the renovations to our building being incomplete. For now, we are at a temporary site at an older school building that is no longer being used. However, I do not have any technology resources in my classroom such as Internet access, a multimedia projector, or computers. As a teacher who is comfortable with integrating technology in the classroom on a daily basis, having limited access to these resources has definitely presented me with the challenge of developing activities and lesson plans that engage students sans technology. For example, I enjoy creating PowerPoint slide shows for my students as well as having students create them and present them to the class. I have also used blogs in the past to help students keep track of assignments in class. I have brought my MacBook to class on a few occassions and the students were enthralled by it. They all wanted to use it!
Despite these challenges, this experience has definitely given me some perspective. Without the advantage of the technologies I have had access to, it has helped me grow as a teacher by adapting to my environment and maximizing my use of the tools and resources that are available to me.
We hope to move to our new school at the end of the week where we will have a computer lab. The students and I are looking forward to it!
Thanks for reading,
Zena
This school year I began teaching 5th grade at a brand new charter school in Orange County. In the weeks before school started, we met some challenges which included the renovations to our building being incomplete. For now, we are at a temporary site at an older school building that is no longer being used. However, I do not have any technology resources in my classroom such as Internet access, a multimedia projector, or computers. As a teacher who is comfortable with integrating technology in the classroom on a daily basis, having limited access to these resources has definitely presented me with the challenge of developing activities and lesson plans that engage students sans technology. For example, I enjoy creating PowerPoint slide shows for my students as well as having students create them and present them to the class. I have also used blogs in the past to help students keep track of assignments in class. I have brought my MacBook to class on a few occassions and the students were enthralled by it. They all wanted to use it!
Despite these challenges, this experience has definitely given me some perspective. Without the advantage of the technologies I have had access to, it has helped me grow as a teacher by adapting to my environment and maximizing my use of the tools and resources that are available to me.
We hope to move to our new school at the end of the week where we will have a computer lab. The students and I are looking forward to it!
Thanks for reading,
Zena
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