May 2, 2011 at 10:34 pm The main site used in my previous classes is http://www.discoveryeducation.com. Some of the educational videos were somewhat interesting and always followed by a lesson and an art project. I plan to use this degree to it’s fullest when I go back to a regular classroom, which includes videos, music and games. I have yet to use any technology at the school I am presently working at other than to show examples and pictures on the desktop computer.
Stuart Dailey says:
@Judy at first my district encouraged all teachers to use “Discovery Education”. I love some of the videos about music, like sound waves and Beethoven…I was not using an updated computer but it did worked when I needed to present that part of the lesson. I haven’t been successful logging in to Discovery Education lately but I still use the lessons I created. I now use books, pictures and audio samples.
Kristi Swartz says: May 1, 2011 at 4:17 pm Topic #1 I would like to share an experience with using technology in the classroom last year as I was completing a long-term substitute job. 5th grade students were using computers to create preposition examples through visual images. Students were to go online and find 10 images relating to a main image of their choice, and create sentences with prepositions to go along with the positioning of the visuals on the page in relation to the main image, to show understanding of prepositions. During work time, students found images, and cut and pasted them onto a word document surrounding one main image of their choice. For example, one student had an image of a horse in the middle. They found an image of a cloud, pasted it above the horse, and wrote, “The cloud is above the horse.”, underlining the preposition “above” in the sentence. Once students found 10 images, and used them along with the images on the page, they were to show me, and print the paper. This is where technology went terribly wrong. Students were pressing the print button, and when the page did not print immediately, they kept hitting the print button time and again. Students expressed frustration, and I soon found that the printer was out of paper; when I added paper, I saw that many, many copies of their documents were coming and coming with no end in sight! We were inundated with preposition papers! Upon noticing this, I instructed students to only use the print button once! I now, never, have students print documents without first reminding them of the importance of pressing the print button only once- I share this experience, and students connect to examples of this happening in their own home, or in another class with giggles. My solution to the many, many extra pages of preposition examples you ask- I saved the preposition papers and used them as a pre-assessment for preposition understanding in my class this year. This is just one of many technology mishaps in the classroom. I anticipate many more as I do more and more technology for and with my students! Technology, gotta love it!
@Kristi
I have a PC that was issued by my district. I can do many of the duties like Microsoft Office but when I want to go online thank you MAC BOOK PRO. There is no comparison. But I have to use the PC in order for them to identify it and laboriously update it :-)
