Techonolgy in the Classroom: A Students View Four Years From Now

When I think of where classrooms began I think of little one room school houses. Students of every age and grade in one room and only one teacher with a black board! Moving on to today's classrooms, with SMART boards and mobile computer labs. Students of all ages using all types of computers and to think there is still more to improve when it comes to technology.

I came across a student description of what they think a classroom will look like in four years I was blown away. When I was in school I was happy if we got to the computer lab once a week! Now to think that every student could have their own computer is a wonderful thought!

Here is a link to what these students had to say.

Smart Boards

Wow who knew that a white board could do so much! Just when I thought I had seen and heard of it all I found a new way to adapt the "white board" in my classroom.

At first I thought what is the big deal! It's just a white board. Then I look at some of the sample programs you can use in your classroom. You can do almost anything from art and music to English, math and science! I found myself pulled into the different applications and loved that I could experiment with the programs. As I explored more I played the games and was having fun but at the same time I found myself seeing how these programs could help all different types of learners in my classroom!

My next thought was, yes this technology is great but how am I going to get it into my classroom. Budgets are tight and there is no way this technology is "cheap". Then I found a link on SMART website for grants and funding! I love that they have thought of everything!

Look here for a short explaination and demonstration of a SMART board.

Tony Vincent's Learning in Hand

As I explore and learn more about how to use technology in my classroom I become more amazed on what is out there. I can remember being in school and using the very first Mac computers that came out. The were big, with simple graphics and were still the coolest thing we had very seen. In my search for ideas on how to integrate new "cool" technology into my classroom I have found Tony Vincent's web site on hand held personal computers.

The first thing I thought of was how I could use something like that for me, as a teacher. I could take notes on a students progression in a certain curricular area, keep track of all my meetings, and well in general just be more together.

Then as I read more I began to see how each of my students, most in a different way from the others, would benefit from this technology! The possibilities are endless!

To see all Tony Vincent't ideas you can go to his web site!

A Shape Counting Adventure

Make A Video in Your Classroom:

As a part of the shape unit we are working on in my kindergarten classroom, I needed a video to help the children with counting shapes. I looked on different internet video sites and through the local Area Education Agency video library and could not find one that I liked. So I turned to option "B", making a video myself. This was a scary thought at first but then, with the help of the school technology staff, I found out just how easy this would be. I used Movie Maker, which is free software that comes with your computer,to create my movie. I chose to shoot my own video with just my digital camera but you can also use images you find on the internet, as long as you follow the copy right laws.

The video that I created has the students helping the narrator in the movie to count of different sets of shapes. It is this active inquiry that is hard to find in videos and one of the best parts of making your own! I designed the video to support the overall unit objective Given different amounts of set shapes (C) kindergarten students (A) will be able to form the correct number without a model (B) with 95% accuracy. To see the video I created just click the play button!


A Shape Counting Adventure

There are many different ways that you can use videos in your classroom. As a teacher you can create a video to teacher the student something, making patterns, about fruits, or names of farm animals. You can also have your students create their own videos as a part of a project.

Video can also be used to support special education students. Here is an article talking about how videos can be used to support students who use English as a second language.

Image Above from clipart.com (C) 2003-2009

Spread Sheet

Spread Sheet: Counting Shapes



As I was reading about using spread sheets in a classroom, I thought "No way that will never work for Kindergarten students!" Well I was wrong. Spread sheets can be as simple or as complex as you make them. When I thought more about it we use spread sheets all the time in the classroom, graphing hair color, how we got to school, how many boys or girls their are, etc., but these spread sheets are not on the computer.

When I started to create my spread sheet for our Shape Exploration unit I began simple. I "played" with the options on the Microsoft Excel program. Then I got brave and that's when I came up with my final product. What I created was a spread sheet to go along with classroom learning experience.

The students will first have a bag of shapes they must sort out by geometric shape, which connects to my overall unit objective Given a set of eight shapes (C) kindergarten students (A) will be able to identify basic geometric shapes (B) with 95% accuracy. The students will then count out the number of each shape and enter those numbers into the spread sheet. This step addresses two of my overall unit objectives, Given five different numbers (C) kindergarten students (A) will match them with corresponding set of objects (B) with 95% accuracy and Given different amounts of set shapes (C) kindergarten students (A) will be able to form the correct number without a model (B) with 95% accuracy. Upon completion of these steps that student will work collaboratively with another student to enter another set of numbers into a different column on the spread sheet. While the students is working on entering numbers into the correct cells, on the right a bar graph is building to visually show the students the difference between the numbers.

There are oodles of different ways that a spread sheet can be used in the class room. A spread sheet can not only be used as a lay out for a student experience but also to make the teacher's life a little eaiser. This web site show both sides to a spread sheet and gives examples on how both teachers and students can use spread sheets.