There were two weeks left of school when the Principal asked me what I thought about being the yearbook adviser at my school. My immediate response was, "well, I've never really thought about that before." Although it was a position I had never seen myself taking, I applied for the job and got it... surprise surprise because I was the only person who applied for it! Nonetheless, I am officially the yearbook adviser for the upcoming year and have already jumped into the role with excitement.
I hope to continue to teach Algebra AB sections and will have a period of yearbook. I will continue to incorporate technology into my math lessons and daily routines, including powerpoint and a smart slate. In addition, I am really looking forward to using technological strategies that I have learned about in our ED 240 class with my yearbook class. The students and I will use an online program called StudioWorks to create the yearbook, and so we will definitely have access to computers in the classroom. This will foster an environment that is conducive to helping students learn with technology. Of course the students will be required to use StudioWorks, but I would like to extend the students use of technology to other aspects. I plan to have the students use photography programs such as photoshop to edit pictures. In addition, it would be great if I could use google docs to have the students work on stories. They students could share the stories with one another and with myself. This would be a great way for the students to collaborate outside of the classroom and for me to assess and read what they are working on. I have truly realized the epic features of google this summer as a way to work together without having to be together! This will be very useful when trying to meet deadlines and it will help to spread out the workload and keep students accountable.
After learning about the research on technology's influence on learning in the classroom, I will be aware of how the students on using technology to enhance learning. Also, I will be sure that the students are properly trained on how to use the programs so that we are able to maximize the program's capabilities in order to create an awesome yearbook. I will be learning about the program with my students so it will be important that we collaborate often. It would also be helpful to have a representative from our yearbook publisher to come in and highlight important features of the program with all of the students. Again, as I have learned, it is not what you use, it's how you use it. With that said, I'm excited to get techy with my yearbook class and incorporate strategies that I have learned thus far to create a collaborative learning experience for the students, in and outside of the classroom.
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
POWERpoint.
After completing UCI's credential program, I was eager to land my dream teaching position at Los Alamitos high school and incorporate the skills and tools I learned throughout the year in my own classroom. My schedule consisted of 3 periods of Algebra AB, which is the first semester of Algebra 1 over a year time span. I quickly realized that my focus for the year would be classroom management. The students were talkative, distracting, and many of them demonstrated oppositional behaviors. Not only were the students acting in ways that were inappropriate for the classroom, we were not maximizing instructional learning time, and formative and summative assessments demonstrated their lack of mathematical understanding. So what was I to do with these classes that were loud, off-task, and didn't understand algebra?
My answer was PowerPoint. I began making PowerPoint lessons daily to provide structure and routine to the class. My hope was that by using this technology, the students would become more engaged, on-task, and gain a better understanding of the algebra concepts. I used a projector and smart slate to control the PowerPoint lessons and they actually turned out to be a huge success. Transition time between tasks was significantly decreased because I was able to switch the slides much quicker than my use of the overhead projector in the past. I was also able to spice up the lessons with color, images, sounds, and animation, which also helped to engage the students. Furthermore, since I was able to control the lesson with a smart slate, I was not trapped at the front of the room. Rather, I was able to walk freely around the room to monitor the students' note taking and behavior. I was able to strategically place myself by certain students who had a more difficult time focusing on the lesson. The routine of the PowerPoints also enabled the students to make predictions of what the schedule would be and be more prepared for class. They could anticipate the warmups, notetaking, "try on your own problems" and homework time.
PowerPoints certainly allowed me to gain more power and control over my class. I soon found that the students would much rather engage in a PowerPoint lesson when compared to watching me drag on with the overhead projector. I hope to get a document camera this upcomming year also because I think it would really help these students follow along as I give directions. Most of my students are visual learners, and most (if not all) of them prefer to use technology when possible, so any way I can incorporate these two learning styles in the classroom would benefit my students learning.
I would certainly recommend using technology as much as possible in the classroom to enhance student engagement and learning! Also, it turned out to be an amazing classroom management for my Algebra AB classes. Thank you POWERpoint.
My answer was PowerPoint. I began making PowerPoint lessons daily to provide structure and routine to the class. My hope was that by using this technology, the students would become more engaged, on-task, and gain a better understanding of the algebra concepts. I used a projector and smart slate to control the PowerPoint lessons and they actually turned out to be a huge success. Transition time between tasks was significantly decreased because I was able to switch the slides much quicker than my use of the overhead projector in the past. I was also able to spice up the lessons with color, images, sounds, and animation, which also helped to engage the students. Furthermore, since I was able to control the lesson with a smart slate, I was not trapped at the front of the room. Rather, I was able to walk freely around the room to monitor the students' note taking and behavior. I was able to strategically place myself by certain students who had a more difficult time focusing on the lesson. The routine of the PowerPoints also enabled the students to make predictions of what the schedule would be and be more prepared for class. They could anticipate the warmups, notetaking, "try on your own problems" and homework time.
PowerPoints certainly allowed me to gain more power and control over my class. I soon found that the students would much rather engage in a PowerPoint lesson when compared to watching me drag on with the overhead projector. I hope to get a document camera this upcomming year also because I think it would really help these students follow along as I give directions. Most of my students are visual learners, and most (if not all) of them prefer to use technology when possible, so any way I can incorporate these two learning styles in the classroom would benefit my students learning.
I would certainly recommend using technology as much as possible in the classroom to enhance student engagement and learning! Also, it turned out to be an amazing classroom management for my Algebra AB classes. Thank you POWERpoint.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)