Christie
Cutshall
Field
Experience Reflection
Regis
University College of Professional Studies School of Education
I had the
wonderful opportunity during this class to spend some time out in the field of
education. As teachers, we often get stuck in our own schools. While there is a
lot to be learned from teachers right next door to us, venturing into other
education environments is extremely beneficial to us as educators.
I sent out a
survey to the teachers at my school about the technology they use in their
classrooms every day. I have analyzed the results of the survey and used those
results to develop my professional development unit. According to the data, just
over half of the teachers said they feel confident in their ability to use
technology. About half of the teachers in our school said that they never use
the document cameras in their classrooms. Three fourths of the teachers use
their desktop computers and projectors on a daily basis. I have synthesized
that a lot of the reason for these low percentages of technology use is from a
lack of time and instruction for the teachers.
On May 9th,
2013 I interviewed the technology director at my school, Lynn. Because of this
class, I have had the opportunity to work with her directly more than I have in
the past and I have been able to develop a really strong relationship with her.
We have had many engaging conversations about technology in our school. Seeing
how far technology has come in just the past years, we both daydreamed about
future technology. We envision paperless education, Tony Stark style
three-dimensional holographic computers, and student desks with the entire
surface as a touch screen tablet. We both recognize that these developments are
probably several years away from being in schools, but I think it is important
to imagine the different possibilities. After all, everything starts with a
simple idea.
I asked Lynn what
frustrations she had with technology at our school right now. She responded and
completely gushed about what great technology resources we had available to us
at our school. However, she said that teachers weren’t really using that technology
to it’s fullest potential. From a teacher perspective, that is also what I have
been seeing. She told me in her interview that only three teachers in our
school building were using the program Accelerated Reader in their classrooms.
I was not using the program at the time and I was completely appalled to find
out that we were paying $95 per student for this program. At this point I knew
I needed to do something to help. I immediately began planning my teacher professional
development unit to help teachers integrate technology into their
curriculum.
On May 13th,
2013 I observed a teacher, Jeremy, give a professional development workshop for
teachers at Riverdale Elementary School about iPad apps. In his presentation,
the most interesting app he discussed is called Comic Life. It allows students
to create comic strips by writing their own text and importing pictures. This
incorporates several different subjects. This reminds me that I always need to
include cross-curricular connections. This class showed me a really great way
to use technology to make writing meaningful.
I mentor middle
school students at a program called Controlled Chaos, and on June 4th
I interviewed 6th grade students about their thoughts on technology.
The results were mostly as I had expected. 75% of the students believed
themselves to be digital natives. I definitely anticipated this. My third grade
students have on multiple occasions taken the technology right out of my hands
and manipulated it better than I could have myself. I am, by no means, new to
technology. I am an early Millennial Generation Y. I have had a cell phone
since I was 15 years old, and I currently own a laptop, tablet, and smart
phone. However, the children being born after me are already set up for success
having grown up with this technology at their fingertips. I also asked these 6th
graders how much technology they use at their school. Most of them said they
only use technology occasionally, and 95% of the students thought that they
would be more interested in the content if it were presented using technology.
All of this information has taught me something very valuable as a teacher:
Kids are always more capable than what adults expect of them. Kids have had
entirely different life experiences than we adults have had and they are ready
to embrace technology and use it to learn.
This year, I had
the wonderful opportunity to attend the Technology in Education Conference in
Copper Mountain, Colorado June 18th-20th. I attended many
amazing sessions about different kinds of technology that can be incorporated
into my curriculum. There were two sessions that really stood out to me,
however.
The first session
that I really learned a lot from was about flipping your classroom using
Edmodo. I had previously heard of Edmodo, but not really heard how it can
successfully be implemented into my classroom.
This will allow me to help my students become more critical thinkers and
answer deeper questions. Finding more strategies to do this is going to make me
a better teacher. Teaching my students to have a discussion is a very difficult
task, and Edmodo is a really great tool to scaffold my students’ discussions. I
am very excited to introduce this technology to my students in the fall.
I really enjoy
teaching third grade, but my least favorite subject to teach is writing. I have
always had a difficult time with how subjective it is. There is not a right and
wrong answer like there is in math. But after attending the Writing for
Audience and Purpose session at the conference I got super excited about
teaching writing. The instructors have one to one laptops at their school and
do all of their writing conferencing on Google Docs. Their writing is
completely paperless and they publish all their writing to individual student
blogs. This gives the students great purpose in their writing. Seeing this was
revolutionary for me, because while I have used blogs and Google Docs in the
past, I had never thought to use them in this way. It’s always good to look at
current technologies we use and evaluate them for new and creative purposes.
I feel as though I
have made a lot of growth throughout this semester, both as a teacher and as a
person. This class has really sparked my imagination and creativity around
technology. I have stumbled upon many great resources and ideas that I can’t
wait to implement in my own classroom. I want to always be a technology
resource for other teachers and this class was great progress in that
direction.
Bibliography
Magley,
E. (Ed.). (n.d.). TIE Colorado. Retrieved June 3, 2013, from Technology in
Education Conference website: http://tiecolorado.org/
Moore,
C., & Vander Velde, N. (n.d.). East dragon den [Blog post]. Retrieved from
East Dragon Den website: http://eastdragonden.blogspot.com/p/contact.html
O'Hara,
J. (Ed.). (n.d.). Edmodo: Where learning happens. Retrieved June 18, 2013, from
Edmodo website: https://www.edmodo.com/
Stein,
J. (2013, May 20). The me me me generation. Time. Retrieved from
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2143001,00.html
