Looking Back....

I enjoyed the Elementary School to the Middle School because it was more hands on.

I feel like the Middle School has a lot of potential with the technology they have, but the teachers are not using it in the classroom.

At the Elementary School, I feel like the iPad classrooms could be doing a lot more with the iPads. The fifth grade class that I observed barely used the iPads.

What is the point in having the technology if you are not going to use it?

Observation Day 3

Today is my last observation day at the Elementary School. Today I went to Ms. G, my assigned 3rd Grade teacher.

Ms. G - 3rd Grade
Technology:
Once again the students did a math rotation using the smartboard, computers, iPods, and me. After the math rotation the students watched a read-aloud book video from the internet. After the read-aloud book, Ms. G showed the students a streamline video as a review for their math quiz.

General Observations:
It must have been the student teacher that made the students more well behaved. Once again the class was chaotic. Students were unable to stay in their seats, often getting laps to walk at recess. Today was also Friday, which meant that it was assessment day. The students were so unaware of what was going on, one student even completely forgot that they had already taken their math quiz. I am amazed that the students in this class learn anything. Ms. G seems like a nice person, but I am unsure if she should be teaching children at this level. I think that the students would benefit from more structure.

Observation Day 2

Today was my second observation day at the Elementary School. Today I visited two iPad classrooms (4th and 5th grade) along with Ms. G (my assigned teacher).

Ms. G - 3rd Grade
Technology:
The students used the smartboard, computers, iPods, and me for their math rotations. After math rotations the students watched a read-aloud story from the internet. Next, Ms. G used a microphone device to read a chapter aloud from the book that the kids are reading as a class. During the classes media center time, they took an accelerated reader quiz on the book they listened to on the internet.

General Observations:
The class was much less chaotic today. The students were able to transition from one activity to another more quickly. There was a student teacher in the class today, so that might have had something to do with it.

Ms. J - 5th Grade iPad classroom
Technology:
The students used their iPads to watch political speeches. The speeches are from United Streaming. Ms. J downloaded the speeches, converted them to iTunes format, and synced all of the iPads.

General Observations:
I learned that all of the iPads are synced to one iTunes account. However, each iPad has a profile number taped to the cover, which allows each iPad to have its own profile in iTunes. This makes it so that a students work is not lost every time the iPad is synced to iTunes.

Ms. T - 4th Grade iPad Classroom
Technology:
Since the class was helping set up the auditorium for an assembly, a group of students showed me what they liked about the iPads. I liked this format because I could "interview" the students about the iPads.

Observation Day 1

Today is my first observation day at the Elementary School. The teacher that I have been assigned is Ms. G and she is a 3rd Grade teacher.

Ms. G - 3rd Grade
Technology:
The students used the smartboard, classic iPods, computers, and an iTouch during their Math Rotations. The classic iPod has flash card videos that Ms. G created to go along with what they are learning in math. The kids played an online math game at the smartboard. The students logged into their IXL.com accounts at the computer station. And the last station was math bingo with me.

Activities:
Friday is assessment day for Ms. G's class.

General Observations:
The classroom is a little chaotic. Ms. G seems to know where everything is located, but the room screams dirty to me. There was also a huge transition time from one activity to another. It is obvious that Ms. G is not very strict with the students which makes the students less likely to do what she tells them to do. While I played math bingo with the students during math rotation, I had to frequently call my groups attention back to the bingo game. They were more worried about what was going on at different stations. The class was also not very structured. Ms. G still had one student doing his social studies test a full hour after everyone else had finished. Ms. G just continued on with her lessons while that student was moved to the back of the classroom. I asked if the student was a resource student (and therefore would warrant the extra time), but she told me that he was not.

Getting Oriented....

Today was the orientation at the Elementary School.

This school actually looks like a school. When I entered the school I saw that the hallway walls had very kid-friendly murals painted on them. The corners of the walls (where two halls crossed) had painted on street signs. This made me wonder if this school does what I did in elementary school, which was write letters to other students in the school using street names for the hallways. Well, even if they don't it was very cute.

We arrived at 10 at the middle school and headed to the media center. The media center is rather small, but so is the school.

We met with the VP and she told us an overview of the school. The VP did tell us that they school has iTouch carts that teachers can check out, two iPad classrooms, and an iPad cart that teachers can check out. perked up when I heard about the iPads because I am doing my research paper on iPads.

Observation Day 4

Today is my 4th and final day of observation at the Middle School. The following is what I observed:

Ms. L - Social Studies 7th Grade
Technology:
After the students took a quiz, Ms. L went over the answers using the document camera. The document camera is not the best in the world, but it did what she needed it to do. Ms. L projected the image of her worksheet/quiz and wrote in the correct answers. The last 10 minutes of class the students watch a video on the Korean War that is streaming from Netflix.

Activities:
The class took a quiz. After the quiz Ms. L went over the quiz using the document camera. After the quiz, students work on packets from the book. While the students are doing their packets. Ms. L is handing back classroom work from the day before. The students are allowed to work in groups on the packets. The last 10 minutes of class are for a documentary video on the Korean War.

General Observations:
Every student in the school gets breakfast provided to them by the school for free because of a grant. So, the first ten minutes of each day is devoted to eating breakfast.

Ms. M (Student Teacher) - Advanced Science 7th Grade
Technology:
The students come in and do "bellwork" from the smartboard. The lecture is on the smartboard as well. Ms. M uses the document camera to show questions that the students turned in from the class before. These questions are just slips of paper where the groups wrote down a question that they were confused or needed more clarification on.

Activities:
Today was just a typical lecture day.

General Observations:
The students are grouped into tables. Tables earn points, and the table with the most points from the day before gets to sit on a couch that is positioned in front of the smartboard. If the table decides to sit in front of the smartboard it costs them points from their total.

Mr. S - Science 8th Grade
Technology:
Mr. S uses different types of technology very seamlessly. He flows from the document camera, back to the smartboard, to videos very naturally. Mr. S uses real-life examples during his lecture, which is why he switches back and forth from his PowerPoint to his document camera. Mr. S also used a streaming YouTube video that went along with his lecture. The video was a precursor for the lab that they were going to do the next day.

Activities:
The students did "bellwork" and a lecture on the human eye.

General Observations:
Mr. S made the lesson fun. He entertained the students with personal anecdotes which made the students more interested in what he was discussing.

Observation Day 3

Today was my third visit to the Middle School. My observations are as follows:

Ms. L - Social Studies 7th Grade
Technology:
Today was a perfect day to visit this class to see how students are using technology. Today students are presenting their World War II projects that they created in PowerPoint. The projects are projected onto the smartboard, and the students use the touch features of the smartboard to navigate their presentations. I also learned that each student has a personal folder on the school's server. The student can only access their folder; however, the teachers can access any students folder. This was useful because the students worked on the PowerPoint presentations in the computer lab. The students did not need a flash drive to carry their work (and potentially forget to bring back to school on presentation day).

Activities:
The students presented their World War II projects.

General Observations:
Some of the resource students were allowed to do their projects by hand. They used the computer for the research, but created a poster for their presentation. The second class that came in had more resource students. This class was allowed to do group projects where one of the students in the group was a resource student. Because this class had more resource students, it was a little louder.

Ms. F-M - Algebra I
Technology:
Ms. F-M uses the smartboard for the lecture. She uses the pen to draw/write on the PowerPoint to help the students through the lecture. The students use classroom calculators that are wired into a "pod/navigator". By being wired into this "pod/navigator" the teacher is able to do screen captures of each students calculator from the smartboard. Each student logs into the pod, this allows the teacher to see the students name next to their graph. This allows the teacher to determine if certain students are not following along in class. Ms. F-M can also see if a student is having any difficulties with the equation, etc.

Activities:
The class did a regular days lecture.

General Observations:
I thought the calculator capture was very interesting. It cut down on the teacher having to walk around the room to see if everyone was following along.

Observation Day 2

Today was my second day of observation at the Middle School. The following is what I observed:

Ms. S - English I
Technology:
I was in this class for over an hour, and I did not see Ms. S use any technology. The students were allowed to listen to their iPods and other mp3 devices while they "read" To Kill a Mockingbird.

Activities:
The class was supposed to be doing make-up work for assignments that they did not do during the 9 weeks. The assignments were to help them get a better grade in the class, since interim grades have to be in next Monday. If the student did not have any make-up work, they were allowed to continue reading To Kill a Mockingbird. All of the students were allowed to listen to their mp3 players while they "worked".

General Observations:
The students did not read while the listened to their mp3 players. One student was playing his PSP. Ms. S had no control over her class. Students were extremely disrespectful by talking over the teacher, getting up and walking around while she was speaking, and interrupting her. Ms. S had to frequently tell two girls that they were not in a beauty shop and to stop doing each others hair. As soon as Ms. S turned around, the two girls would be back to doing each others hair. This entire class seemed to be a waste of time.

Ms. H - Advanced Science 6th Grade
Technology:
Ms. H begins every class with "bellwork" on the smartboard. The students come in and do the short activity. Ms. H uses her smartboard a lot in the instruction of her class. At the end of class she showed a "Brain Pop" video. After the video the students interacted with the smartboard by taking a quiz on he video.

Activities:
12:10 - 12:15: Warm-up projected onto the smartboard.
12:16: Ms. H goes directly from one activity to another via the smartboard.
Today the class went to the lab. The students walked quietly to the lab in single file line. After the lab the students went back to the room for a video.

General Observations:
Ms. H's students sit quietly and take notes during the lecture. Ms. H has good control over her students. She has surprise binder check to ensure that the students take notes. When the students went to the lab, Ms. H numbered the students according to the lab table they would be at. This reduces confusion, puts a stop to any bickering about wanting to be with your friends, and I think that it is a good idea to implement.

Observation Day 1....

Today was my first day of observation at the Middle School. The following is what I observed:

Ms. H - Advanced Science 6th Grade
Technology:

• The first thing that I noticed was that the class was watching a video being projected onto the SmartBoard. The video was also being shown on the teacher's computer at the back of the class.

Activities:

• Do objects have heat? After the video the students did an activity to determine if objects have heat. Ms. H polled the students to determine how many thought that objects had heat. She then made each of the students objects. One student held a cardboard circle (energy) with words on both sides. The first "object" (student) handed the "energy" to the other "object". The students did this over and over again until they all understood the answer to the question.
  

General Observations:

• I came into the class with only 20 minutes left.
• The students started to talk during the second video, but Ms. H quickly put a stop to the talking.
• I find it extremely odd that there are not any bells to end the classes.
  

Ms. H - Advanced Science 6th Grade
Technology:

• When the next class came in, I noticed that Ms H had a PowerPoint projected onto the SmartBoard with a review of the previous day's lesson. The students came in, got their notebooks off the shelf, found their seats, and did the assignment. During this "bell work" Ms. H froze the projector so that she could return to her computer to find another file.
  
• Ms. H uses the SmartBoard to switch from the PowerPoint review to a movie.
  
• After the Brain Pop movie, she uses the SmarBoard to switch to a quiz.
  
• During the quiz, the students were able to interact with the SmartBoard by coming up to the board and selecting the correct answer.
• After the quiz, the class watches the video that I walked in on from the previous class. They watch two videos then
  

Ms. L - Advanced Language Arts 7th Grade
Technology:

• Ms. L has a "bell work" (quizlet) assignment projected onto the SmartBoard for the students when they first come in.
  
• After the bell work assignment the students do their independent reading. During this time media center students (students who are assigned this day as being able to go to the media center) leave. Other students (who are quizlet students) go to the back of the classroom and do quizlets on the computers.
  
• The quizlet students appear to be accessing the quizlet from the internet.
• After the independent reading the students take a quiz on a previous day's lesson.
  

Creating a Blog....

Sitting in EDU 201 class, creating a blog. The blog will contain our field notes from when we go to the middle school, PRMS.

Getting Oriented....

Today I went to the middle school for the first time. This visit was just an orientation, to introduce us to the school. I was a little surprised by the school....

First, the school is kind of in the middle of nowhere. I turned off the interstate, and I drove on one road for what seemed like forever. I know it wasn't actually forever, but it seemed that way. I was using my iPhone as my GPS, and as my little blue dot got closer and closer to the purple pin, I thought "this cannot be the school".

The road I was driving on was to the back of the school. When I first came up on the clearing for the fields I thought that this has to be the school. Then I actually saw the building! From my vantage point the building didn't have any windows. It was just this gray concrete building. It looked more like an armory or prison than a middle school.

Then I turned onto the road that went beside the school. I saw a sign for an early education center, but no sign for a middle school. I assumed that I hadn't found the school after all, and I continued driving. The next time that I looked at my map, I realized that my blue dot had passed the school. Apparently, the early education turn off was for the school. Who would have known?

After everyone for my class showed up, the VP took us to a computer lab. There we discussed why we were there, what we were looking to get out of the experience, etc. This process was disappointing. It was apparent that the school wasn't prepared for our meeting. However, with a minimal effort on the part of the school, we were able to labor through it.

Hopefully, the middle school visits will be better....

Why You're Here....

This blog is for my EDU 201 class - Integrating Technology in Education. We are doing a practicum where we will be visiting a middle school and an elementary school for fifteen hours each. We are to observe how technology is used in the schools. This blog is going to be a place for our field notes, thoughts, concerns, etc. about the entire experience....