Technology and I

"Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important." - Bill Gates

My Philosophy of Education:

As a professional educator, I will best serve my students as individuals through an equitable education for all children by providing student-centered, hands-on learning experiences that will stimulate critical thinking in order to develop students’ problem-solving skills. My goal is to create as many opportunities as possible to learn collectively along with my students by ultimately establishing a learning community that involves the students, their families, the community, and myself. To ensure students success, I will endeavor to make learning not only relevant and meaningful, but also fun! I find this to be most achievable by forging relationships with my students to incorporate their interest into lesson planning so that students are included within their curriculum for engagement, in addition to including their goals and expectations into their learning progress to build their sense of self-accountability.

My Personal Experiences with Technology:  

Technology is major component of my everyday life, both at home and in the classroom- from tutorials on Do-It-Yourself projects, live-streaming television shows, looking up new recipes, reading ebooks, participating in a distance educational program with ITV (instructional television),  participating in virtual field trips, accessing etexts for coursework studies, and even utilizing the Promethean Board with primary elementary students, my own personal technological repertoire continues to grow.  I definitely utilize technology as a tool for entertainment, learning, and teaching. Through my own personal experiences, I can relate to how the usage of technology can be a blessing through making tasks easy and fun, to a burden when technology fails with internet interruptions or requiring assistance from tech support. While there have been instances where I have felt completely overwhelmed with being required to learn new technological advancements, I have never been such a creature of habit that I haven't attempted to learn how to use something that is completely new and foreign.

My Outlook on "Technology Integration": 

I believe that technology integration provides the means for students to demonstrate their understanding and knowledge of content by using forms of technology. Using a classroom blog like Kidblog grants opportunities to eliminate the bulk of student journals. Students can blog their science experiments or inquiries, book reports, and publish final drafts of narratives or essay online. Formative and summative performance assessments such as researching natural disasters and digitally recording small-group newscasts can be uploaded through a classroom YouTube account. With a subscription to Glogster, students can create graphic displays for timelines, biographies, posters, collages, and so much more!

Integrating Technology in my Classroom:

Due to the fact that we continue to make technological advances, I plan on providing numerous opportunities for students to use technology in the classroom, not excluding the examples provided in the technology integration segment. Also, my classroom management and behavior plan is centered on implementing ClassDojo as a rewards incentive. ClassDojo engages students while permitting students, as well as their families, to monitor their behavior by downloading the application right on their smartphones. I can also upload pictures and videos on ClassDojo for parents to have an insider's look into their child's classroom and activities.

I also believe that students need to be granted opportunities to use technology for engagement, relevance, and to support their learning and skills. Living and teaching in a rural area where there is a high demographic of impoverished students, I believe using technology in the classroom such as virtual field trips, live video feeds, online planetariums, and online satellite Earth feeds will provide students opportunities to make connections, stimulate critical thinking, and provide a more holistic learning experience for global awareness.