What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
I have found a lot of ways to assess student learning styles and gained more information about the ways that children in my class learn best. I’ve also learned about a lot of different virtual environments that could work for my students. I’ve also thought a lot and learned a great deal about the safety and security of my students online, especially through reviewing the i-SAFE training I completed last year.
What goals are you still working toward?
I would really like to have a class that my class could communicate with through skype, and now I just need to find a way to find that class and start talking to them!
Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?
I would like to learn more about “collaborating” with other classes through virtual environments on a first grade level. I think that it is really hard to get children that are emergent readers to use wikis and blogs, so I would like to learn how other teachers use technology with young children effectively and meaningfully.
What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?
I would try to find more blogs to give me examples of what other teachers are using in the classroom to enhance their instruction with technology and how they overcame obstacles that I might also be facing.
It is great that you will have the opportunity to teach your students about internet safety from such a young age. I think this is something that most parents do not even consider, probably because they were never taught such skills. How fortunate your students are that you will be able to expose them to technologies like Skype. Those are the kinds of learning experiences that really will stick with a student a help them remember what they have learned. That wonderful!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I teach high school students, so I can not help you with ideas about how to use technology with younger students. However, I understand your dilemma. I would imagine that so much time would be needed to instruct your students on how to use the technology, thereby decreasing the amount of time being focused on the content. I teach math, so I found a website that might be beneficial for first grade students (http://www.aaamath.com/grade1.html). Each section has a little game that tests their knowledge. It keeps track of their times, and gives a final score, so you can easily note the progress of each student. I hope this helps.
ReplyDelete- Scott Kaminski