Reflection: Teachers in Greenville County are required to show technology proficiency every 5 years. Some of the ways that teachers earn this certification is attending technology courses, including INTEL. These classes are to help teachers gain knowledge about using tools of technology in the classroom to improve student instruction as well as participate in the community of other technology proficient teachers.

Summary: Standard 4 stresses the importance of modeling safe, legal and ethical approaches for using technology. Teachers should also make sure to diversify learning and cultural understanding through the use of technology. Reflection: I think it is so important to model internet safety and ethics! Our students are growing up in a world of illegal downloads and internet sites that are inappropriate. I believe that if they see adults that they respect and trust using the tools of technology safely, effectively and appropriately they might learn these values. I thought that section (d) was very interesting. (Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.) I have done this before in a whole class setting (emailing people from other countries, etc.), but my children aren’t ready to be doing this on an individual bases because of their age.

Standard 3 discusses the need for teachers to be fluent enough in technology to use digital tools to collaborate with students and parents, communicate with students, parents and peers, and model to students how to use digital tools in the classroom.

Reflection:
Standard 3 seems to be a standard that I identify with very well. I communicate primarily with parents through email. My weekly newsletter is emailed out each Friday afternoon (for the coming week) and is posted on the website.  I also collaborate on weekly lesson plans with other teachers on my grade level by emailing them out each week. I also post them on our staff drive for my administrators to access. Students often use technology in my classroom, either by accessing computers, visiting the laptop lab, using the SMART board in group instruction, or  by partnering with our fifth grade buddies to use the computer lab.

The ISTE standard #2 basically states that teacher should use technololgy as a their curriculum to maximize the content that students are learning and to help develop skills, attitude, etc. The standard suggests that teachers should (a) design learning experiences around digital tools,(b) design technology enriched classrooms in which students set goals and manage progress, (c)customize learning experiences using technology and (d)provide students with various assignments using different styles of technology.

Reflection

I believe this standard can easily be used in the classroom. Students should be exposed to experiences to use technology in many ways. As a classroom teacher, I am always trying to think of ways to use technology to promote student creativity and learning. Some of the ways that I use technology in my classroom include Compass Learning to boost reading goals, SMART board instruction, SMART board games for small groups or whole group, AR tests,and computer lab lessons. I think that my classroom is rich in technology because I use the technology that has been provided to me every day. We are always using my ipod for fun transition music or exercise breaks, using our classroom computers to research information or play games, using our SMART board to create documents or play games and practicing different ways to use all of these pieces of technology. Many of my students have A-team strategies and goals and part of the way that they are meeting these goals is through using Compass Learning to practice their weaker stills. I can then later go into the Compass Learning system and print off what they worked on, a % for how many they correctly answered, and see how much time it took them to do each activity. This is helpful information for me to take back to the A-team.

A. Summary

Teachers will use what they know about technology as well as their knowledge of teaching methods and practices to help students learn in creative ways both in the classroom and through online interaction. The teacher will model creative thinking (section a) and working in groups (section d). Teachers will also help students to explore this knowledge in a way that they can relate it to the real world (section b) and help students work together (section c).

Reflection

Some great ways to use this standard in the classroom would be to allow students to interact with one another on blogs and wikis. Because it might be difficult for early childhood teachers to allow their students to do this independently, teachers could partner up with each other and interact over the web with their partner class. This would allow students to become familiar with online interaction in a way that would not be stressful or over-stimulating. To apply technology skills to real life, teachers could access the morning news paper on the smart board during morning meeting to show students how to apply technology to current events.