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....