Technology Implementation

I recently taught my lesson for my Teaching with Technology class. I designed the lesson with a partner and had a hard time nailing down what to teach. We had problems coordinating with our cooperating teachers on what to teach. We finally decided on a lesson on characters, setting, and important events in a Thanksgiving book. For the technology aspect, we designed a Kidspriration activity which had the students drag pictures into the appropriate boxes. I was much more relaxed about this lesson than the first lesson that I taught. The experience of one lesson under my belt made it much easier.
The lesson went fairly well. It was a rainy day so the kids had not had recess and I taught the lesson at 3:00, so the kids were pretty antsy. Also, I taught the lesson in the school's computer lab and the students were so excited to be in the lab that I had to fight for control. I finally got it, however, and the lesson went well after that. The students loved the book and seemed to grasp the concepts of setting, characters, and important events. They did the Kidspiration worksheet with no problem and finished much faster than I thought they would. Earlier in the day, the computer teacher at my elementary school had seen the worksheet and suggested that I add a part for the students to do once they finished. I added a box where they could drag in pictures of their favorite foods to eat on Thanksgiving (you would not believe the number of children who wished they ate tacos on Thanksgiving). That was a life-saving suggestion because the students did turn out to be much faster workers than I guessed.
I was surprised at how excited the students were to go to the computer lab. You would have thought I told them we were going to Disney World. They worked very well at the computers and had no problems typing their names or using the mouse for the activity. Just watching them and wondering what technology they will see in their lifetimes was astounding. I know I am only 15 years older than them, but in the technological world, that is a lifetime.
I enjoyed this project and it made me see how easy it is to integrate technology into a lesson, even with first-graders.

WebQuest is not for Dummies!

I have recently heard how easy WebQuests are to make and how anyone can do it...even a dummy. Let me tell you, that is not true. It is very hard to make a WebQuest. From a technological point of view-piece of cake. I (and my partner for the assignment) have been using QuestGarden and it is so easy to put the WebQuest together. Everything is mapped out for you. All you have to do is follow the directions and you are done. The HARD part is figuring out what to put in the WebQuest.
We are having a terrible time trying to figure out what to say, how to say it, and how to make it fun for the students. We know what the task is going to be and the general skills we want the students to learn and use. It is just hard getting it all down on the keyboard. It is harder than regular lesson planning because the computer lesson should probably take longer and everything you do on the computer seems to take less time than if you were just writing it. That makes it like writing three lesson plans in one. For the time that I am working on this WebQuest I hate the convenience and speed of technology. I know that the finished product will be great and the students will love using it, but it is hard work. Whoever said WebQuests can be accomplished by dummies was just talking about the technology part. They have no idea how hard it is to come up with a GOOD one.

How to Rule

I taught my first lesson this past week and had so much fun. I was scared to death beforehand, but my teacher gave me two pieces of advice: 6 year-olds will not know when you mess up and you do not need a 6 year-old best friend. The first tip was to calm my nerves about teaching; the second tip was to help with classroom management. I thought both helped. I was sharing these tips with my mother-in-law who used to be a teacher. Her cooperating teacher for her practicums had the best advice I have heard yet. She said that elementary school teachers need to rule with an iron fist....in a velvet glove.
From what I have seen so far, this is very true. You cannot let the students walk all over you and rule the classroom, but at the same time, they look up to you and call you 'mom' on occasion. I have no problem with the velvet glove part, I just need to work on the iron fist part. I need to not look at the students as cute kids, but as the students that I need to teach. The great teachers that I have had the pleasure of observing have found the thin line between two. They have the iron fist with order in the classroom, and they have the velvet glove which will make their students look back on first or second grade and smile. I don't think that balance is taught in any college class; I think this is one thing that we are all going to have to figure out for ourselves.

Even Great Teachers Get Blocked

I was reading Will Richardson's blog and came across an excerpt he had taken from another blog or email from Andy Losik. It was about how Andy was teaching in his technology class when he was shocked to learn that all of his blogs and similar programs that he teaches the students from had been blocked by the school district. The school had added "Weblogs and Personal webpages" to the blocked list, so none of his materials for the lesson could be accessed by the student's computers. He got the problem fixed after a few hours, but in the meantime he was stranded.
I thought this was a great story to read because it shows just how much we can rely on technology in our classrooms. This can be a great thing, because there are so many ways that technology can enhance the classroom and the learning that happens there. It also shows how different a classroom that uses technology is from a classroom that doesn't. In a technology-limited classroom, there is no need to back up the textbooks or have an alternate plan in case the books just are working or the network is down. You know that the books will be there and the kids will be able to use them. The same guarantees are not always present in a technology-enhanced classroom. The network could be down, your blog could be blocked, the power could go out, etc. This means that not only does this teacher have to go the extra mile to plan a lesson with technology, they also have to have a back-up plan in place, just in case. That makes me appreciate them all the more.

Lesson Planning

For our technology class, we have to do a technology implementation project, which basically means that we have to teach a lesson enhanced with technology. Before we started planning, our idea was to use a WebQuest. We have learned so much about them and we have to create one for the class anyway, so why not? That plan changed, however, after talking to the computer teacher at our elementary school. He showed us what technological level our first-graders are on, and it was not at a level where a WebQuest would be very instructional. They could do it if we guided them through every step and showed them what to click, but that wasn't the type of lesson we were envisioning.
We have decided to hold off on using the WebQuest we will create until the spring. My partner and I's social studies unit is the same, so we will use technology in a lesson or two in the spring, even when we won't be graded on it. Instead, we will be using Kidspiration to teach and assess some map skills this fall.
I chose to blog about this because I was amazed when the teacher showed us what work they can do and the baffled look on his face when we told him we wanted to use a WebQuest. I would have thought that first-graders would have no problem with a WebQuest, if it relied heavily on pictures and was easily navigable. I think that still might even be true, but plain pictures aren't very instructional. We will hold off until the spring....maybe they will be ready by then.

A question of value....

We recently had to complete two different assignments for the Education School which were totally unrelated, but the results were shocking when put together. The first was a technology inventory of my elementary school. I found out that my school has an amazing amount of technological resources for the students. There are countless NEW computers for the students to use, there are whiteboards, projection screens in the classrooms, wireless laptops, and the list goes on. There is a large variety of software programs for the students and teachers to use. In short, my elementary school is very well-connected. The second assignment was to interview a Social Studies lead teacher in my school. Through this interview I discovered that there is a disturbing lack of tangible resources in my school. Not having enough maps or globes doesn't seem too bad, but there are not enough TEXTBOOKS for all the students!! I was completely shocked at this. How does a school that obviously has enough money, funding, grants, whatever for all the technology not have enough money for textbooks?

I starting reflecting on the situation and decided that maybe the teachers could use the abundance of technology to make up for the lack of other resources (as I do understand that technology is a valuable resource). I do not see this occurring, however. I see the high-tech projection screen in my classroom just sitting there, not being used at all. I have heard some stories about teachers using technology, but those stories are few and far between.

My point is that if you aren't going to spend money on the low-tech resources (textbooks), then you really need to use the high-tech resources to their full potential. I am afraid that the students are suffering because of budget cuts and their teachers lack of technological knowledge.

Class Blogging

For my Teaching with Technology class, we recently had to read an article by a second grade teacher named Miguel. The article was a blog entry he made that described a new lesson plan his class was using. The basic premise of the assignment is for the class to write a poem as a model, then each student writes his or her own poem. All the poems are then posted on a blog that only their partner class can see. Limitless assignments follow: voting on each others poems, ranking them, etc. Before commenting on the technology aspect of the lesson, I would like to say that I really enjoyed the webbing method and pictures Miguel used to get the students started on their poems. I thought the instructional method was wonderful.
As far as technology goes, I think the lesson was a good start. It would be fun for the students to feel the ownership that goes with publishing on a blog. I would also be a good composition and editing exercise for the students to read, rank, and vote on others' poems. I like that the students get to read others' work the moment it is finished and to be able to comment on that work just as quickly. This activity could be done through letters as well, but the immediacy of the blog makes the assignment more interactive. It would also be a good typing lesson for the students to enter their own poems.
I do wish that the poems could be seen by more people so that the students could feel that 'limitless' feeling that goes with the whole internet. I also think that the students should be able to reach more classrooms and children than just one other. I wish classes could read a variety of classrooms' blogs from a variety of places. I think that would make the assignment much more fun.