Placement 2-week 3

During my last week, I noticed more use of technology in the classroom. I did a lesson plan that involved playing a slide show for the class on the white screen from my associate's laptop as well as playing the associated music. The students were very engaged in the powerpoint I prepared for them. Many students even wanted to hear the song again. For my math lessons, I still did not use any technology. The curriculum expectations did not necessarily need any technology to get the information out to the students. Most of my lessons were hands on. This week, the grade 8 class still attended their computer class.
The last day of my placement, the school held an assembly. My associate teacher was in charge of organizing all the slide show presentations and music for the assembly. We actually had a bit of technical difficulty, as the speakers would not hook up to the laptop. So to fix the problem, my associate used a microphone against the laptop speakers. This worked fine.
Overall, this placement used more technology, when compared to my first placement at the same school. However, in my second placement, most technology use was not inside the classroom. I do believe that some more technology could have been incorporated into the classroom, especially in math using the Smartboard. This could have been done if I taught a different strand in mathematics.

Placement 2- week 2

During the second week, I noticed more use of technology. However, most was not inside the classroom. Our school had a Valentine's dance and my associate teacher was in charge of the music. So, he hooked up his laptop to the speakers in the gymnasium and played his music from itunes. The students loved this because they were able to request any song they wanted and my associate teacher had the majority of them. For my science lesson this week we watched a video as part of my lesson. The students enjoyed this because it allowed for another form of learning for them. As for my math lesson, I did not use any form of technology for this second week either.

Placement 2- week 1

I was teaching Grade 8 for my second placement. During the first week I noticed the Grade 8's attending computer class one day a week at the end of the day. I am not sure what the class did during computers because my associate teacher was the rotary teacher for physical education so I was always in the gymnasium when my grade 8 class was in computers. When i was teaching math, I never used the Smartboard or overhead. I also noticed that there were no computers in the classroom. My associate did allow his students to use his computer when they needed to. For this week, I did not notice a huge use of technology in the Grade 8 class.

placement 1- week 4

During the entire placement, the Grade 6's only went to the library to use the computers twice. One time was to type up a poem they had been working on another was to browse for information relating to a particular person (Marilyn Bell). For this task, students stayed on task all of the time because they were able to browse many websites to find the most interesting facts about this person. I was quite shocked that there isn't more time given to students to type work up or just browse online for information.
Students have been working on a theme song and everyday until the Christmas concert our class went through the song. This week they added in the music video related to the song while we sang. This was played on laptop and played on the white screen that every classroom has. This was nice for the students because it got them more involved and willing to sing along with the song.
For my last lesson, which was Science, I was able to incorporate music from a laptop. The class worked on an activity to understand the size of an atom so I played the theme song from the Addams Family. This worked nicely because the laptop was set up in the middle of the classroom so all of the students could hear the song. They really enjoyed this.
Overall, I was very pleased with the amount of technology use the students experimented with during the 4 weeks I was at the school. The students seemed to be well advanced in their use of technology. Many times, students were setting up the laptop, Smartboard or overhead for me.

placement 1- week 3

This week, students were able to use the Smartboard interactively in groups. I had an activity set up where students quizzed each other and kept score. There was always 2 students in charge off working the Smartboard. This worked very nicely. While the students were enjoying the activities, they were also reviewing concepts for an upcoming test. I was able to use the Smartboard for only the one lesson this week. The rest of the lessons were done with hands on manipulatives. The class did not go to the computers in the library this week.

placement 1- week 2

By the second week I was really comfortable in front of the classroom and was ready to enhance my use of technology during my lessons. I was informed that our class had access to the Smartboard and laptop for 2 weeks. This news excited me because there were many things I could do using the Smartboard that would be great activities or reviews for the students. Also, my associate teacher recommended that I incorporate as much use as I can, so I did. I used the Smartboard to review concepts prior to a Unit test. This was very exciting for the kids. Not only was this exciting for the kids to use this technology but I felt more confident that they were more likely to remember the information because it was in a different form than writing in their notes or on the board.
Overall, this second week was mainly using the Smartboard as much as I could. The students did not use the library computers this week. But some who did not finish their Language Center activities at the computer center were allowed to do so. I think there was only one day this week where a couple students finished their work and were able to browse and play games on the computers in the classroom.

Placement 1- week 1

My first placement was at St. John the Baptist. I was in Grade 6. My first week there was quite interesting and fun. I begain by teaching mathematics (I was lucky because this is my teachable). During the first week, I immediately noticed that every morning for Language Centres, there is always some students that do work on a computer. This gave the students an opportunity to look up terms they were unsure about. When students were finished their work, they were able to go onto a computer to browse or play games. Students loved to play on the computers. In fact, one child even had their own lap top that he was allowed to bring to school and use when needed and allowed.
As for technology for the staff, there were plenty of computers in the library and printers that could be used. There was easy access to everything as well. What I did notice was the number of internet sites that were blocked. The only one that I wish was not blocked was utube, but it makes sense why it would be. Overall, I think this first allowed me to see the availability of technology the students and staff have.