Technology is becoming more and more intwined with education. Ever since I can remember and since I had access to a computer, my teachers have had websites online. This online engagement transitioned from pages on the school website to classes on Canvas and Blackboard. One example that I found from my elementary school is from my 2rd grade teacher. She teaches at James H. Cox Elementary School which runs from Kindergarten through Fifth grade. Other schools in the district go up to Sixth grade as well. She now teaches 3rd grade as clarified in her bio on the website. She includes things like weekly homework assignments and announcements online so that if a student loses any papers or a parent wants to check what work their student has for the week, it is easily accessible online. She also includes school supplies that are needed for the class, academic resources, the vocabulary for the unit they are on, and more. Each page of her website has a cute graphic that is visually pleasing and worded for her 3rd grade students to understand. You can visit her website here.
Up until now, I have not really explored tools online and other technology that could help make my life so much easier. Before college, I utilized a paper planner for the first maybe month of school every year. Now, I have notes on my phone to make weekly To-Do lists to organize and distribute my time for the week. I also plan to start using Google Calendars more often. I attempted to start using a Google Calendar last year with a student organization I was working with and with my TV Production class, however, without a collective cooperation, it didn’t work out. I think a personal Google Calendar paired with my To-Do lists will be the way I work professionally and personally until the next big technological advancement arises. Maybe one day they’ll be able to implant a chip in our brains to organize our schedules and to-do lists automatically.
This past week, my class visited the Technology Sandbox in our College of Education building. I missed class the day my group was scheduled to go due to a personal conflict, however, upon seeing tweets from my classmates and exploring their Canvas page, I was able to find some technology available in the sandbox that I found quite interesting. My classmates, Tristan and Javier, posted photos on Twitter of robots and 3D printed objects they saw at the Technology Sandbox. While really fun tools to explore new uses with, they aren’t really things I would see myself using in my classroom. The Sandbox’s Canvas site shows that they have things like SmartBoards and touch-screen monitors. I would love to use these tools in my classroom. For younger students, a SmartBoard would be a fun and interactive way for them to learn new content. I remember using a SmartBoard in my Algebra 1 class and it was almost a reward to go up and use the board to answer a question. For older classes, I could use the board to show proper annotation techniques for different pieces of literature as well as make fun and interactive ways to enhance their vocabulary and comprehension skills for big exams like the SAT and ACT or just real life.
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