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Technology Learning Center
My first three years of teaching, I was the Technology Learning Center teacher at Schramm Educational Center. I was extremely out of my element. I was trying to get switch interfaces to work and had some students working on typing their personal information and others making contact with a switch on command to interact with the computer. I have 8 computers in the classroom and 2 teacher stations. I had multiple switch interfaces from hand to cheek. -
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My Evolution of Technology in Teaching
From The Oregon Trail and dial-up to trying to incorporate it today. -
First year of teaching Junior High
I began teaching junior high math. The "technology" in my classroom was a TV and cart, an overhead projector, teacher computer and about 10 calculators. My students sat in rows and didn't really interact with each other. The only time they really interacted with me was when they had a question. I spent the year trying to keep my head above water so to speak. Most of the time I was at the front of the classroom teaching and writing on the chalkboard. -
Couple of years in...
After I got my feet wet over the next couple of years, I had the students work more in groups and create projects together, with the use of the Math manipulatives I found in a closet. They created posters and Powerpoints to share with the class over different content and topics. I began to use the overhead projector more when teaching, so I could face the students and interact with them throughout the lesson. I was still creating worksheets and materials by hand. -
Statistics
There was a unit within our Statistics curriculum in which I took the classes to the Learning Center to teach them how to use Microsoft Excel, how to add formulas and create a spreadsheet. They saved their finished assignments to a floppy disk. -
Notice of more technolgy
Around this time, the district was providing student accounts (so no more floppy disks) and more and more teachers were getting iPads for use in their classrooms. It was know that you could borrow sets of IPads for use in your classroom. I was extremely hesitant and honestly scared. I did not feel that I had the knowledge base and was nervous that my student would know more than I did, or do something they were not supposed to, etc. -
Smartboards
All the classrooms in the district now have Smartboards. The district also offered Professional Development on how to use the device in the classroom. -
Getting better
At this time of my career, I had a new, young resource teacher join my classroom. She encouraged me to start incorporating more technology. We started small with wordle and different word art applications as well as began to incorporate more Powerpoint and Prezi presentations from the students into the mix. I find it very difficult to incorporate technology into Math -
Incorporating more
I began to incorporate the iPads sporadically to use QR codes in scavenger hunt type activities. I am also typing all the assignments instead of writing them by hand. I am incorporating more youtube videos on a regular basis into the curriculum. -
6th grade
This year began my two year adventure in 6th grade. I discovered Kahoot, and Prodigy, the students enjoy both of these. I was introduced to the Qball (my dad bought me one after he saw it on Shark Tank). Through my Technology courses, I created a google classroom for my students and we interacted with each other as well as peer to peer interaction through a unit of instruction. I am becoming a lot more open to learning from my students. -
Master's in Teaching and Learning
I began my Master's in Teaching and Learning degree from ISU. I am excited to see how to start incorporating more technology into my classroom. I am learning how to use various technology devices and apps to incorporate into my classroom. -
Current
The students are using Flipgrid to explain their thinking and problem solving approach to the task we are working on. They are still very adamet not to share with their peers. The Science teacher is also having the students use Flipgrid in his classroom. Our team shares two chromebook carts with 30 carts each.
