I reached out to Mrs. D of Sandown North Elementary School to
observe her first grade classroom. I was curious to see how a first grade
teacher could incorporate technology into a classroom full of six and seven
year old children. Before my visit, I wondered if shadowing a first grade
class for a morning was sufficient. My goal was to witness technology being
used in the classrooms, how much technology could Sandown have? As an
elementary student, we had a computer lab we visited to write short stories. No
interactions, just a blinking cursor in a Word type program staring back at us.
Upon arriving at the school on February 7th, the use of technology throughout the school was apparent as soon as I walked through the main entrance. Laptops were used for visitor/volunteer sign-ins, water fountains were digitized and attendance was taken with a classroom laptop. No more student volunteers to bring the daily attendance packet to Mrs. H in the main office. I immediately realized that my small town was doing alright in the technology department but what about in the classrooms?
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During morning circle Mrs. D used her
laptop to help her class
review compound words before we went to the computer lab for math. It was
amazing to watch the students manipulate the digital pen to correct the grammar
and spelling of the sentences being projected onto the white board. Even Mrs. D
commented on how impressed she was with their “penmanship” and ability to use
the tool. After a quick dance party to a verb word rap, we grabbed our
counting blocks and headed for the computer lab for math.
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| MobyMaxing It Up! |
Every Friday,
Mrs. D takes her class to Mr. M's computer lab to use a program called MobyMax. This
program is an online tool that involves math (including fact fluency),
vocabulary and grammar. Each student has their computer, login ID and password
along with a headset. This program even gives the students a pre-test, which will determine which math skill level they should start with. From there, the
program then matches future lessons to their current math level. This allows
the students to constantly be working on mastering new problems and not redoing
math lessons they've already mastered.
A green border around the window lets
Mrs. D know that it's a practice test and the students can ask for help. A blue
border is associated with an assessment and the students must complete the task
on their own. I know for a fact that if I had this learning tool as an
elementary school student, I would be much better at math! I have difficulties
with math because I'm such a visual learner. This tool allows students with
multiple learning styles to succeed. MobyMax can even adapt for students with
IEP's and send the teacher everyone's progress via email.
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| Green Border = Practice Test |
After math
class, I was able to sit down with Mrs. D and a few of her students to talk
about the use of technology in their classroom. The students unanimously agreed
that having math in the computer lab made it more fun.
"I like to bring the students to the computer lab on Friday's because it's a nice change for them. They often associate computer with play, which makes learning new math concepts a little easier, especially first graders". -Mrs. D
"I like using Moby Max because it let's me use the computer to do math. I earn badges and minutes so I can play games too! Friday is my favorite day of the week because we have pizza and math". -Cohen, grade 1
Unfortunately, Sandown North Elementary only has one computer lab
to share among four grades. Even though the teachers are
not required to have the students use Moby Max, I love that Mrs. D does.
With the short time that I was able to observe her, I saw the wonderful ideas
she implements with the limited resources she has. Mrs. D mentioned
that their school district is trying to be more technologically friendly and
offer it's students more opportunities. While the school won't be handing
our iPads to every student anytime soon, they're learning how they
can at least use tools like Workspace in each classroom. It's
definitely a start.
While I am fairly tech savvy, I will admit that before taking
Learning Through Technology, I was hesitant about using technology in
the classroom. I've learned about tools such as digital stories, wikis
and Google docs and how they can easily
be implemented into any grade level classroom. My fears were based on
not wanting technology to take the place of the teacher. However, after
learning how to personally use these tools and observe a teacher in the grade
level I want to teach, I've seen a change. I'm already thinking of how I can
keep parents updated on their students’ progress with Google docs and how I can
create that "hook" for my students when I introduce a new topic with
a digital story. Technology isn't taking the place of teachers; it's a tool to
make them a stronger resource.
Here are some resources I observed and discussed with Mrs D during our interview:
- Workspace
- MobyMax; read one bloggers review on MobyMax
- Animoto
- Google Docs
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