Blog Extra #4- Technology in the classroom- Gabrielle Ambrose

In this current day and age, it is extremely common to see students at all grade levels with some type of technology at home and especially in the classroom. I am in my senior year at the University of Tennessee as a special education major and have had the pleasure of teaching and observing students in two different school settings. I have worked with students in the general education and special education settings; thus, I have seen many different types of technology in both types of classrooms.

In every classroom I have visited this past semester, I have noticed that there have been  at least 5 or 6 computers somewhere in each room. This is shocking to me, because when I was in grade school, it was a rarity to find computers anywhere but the library of the school. I have also seen loads of technology in many of the Special education settings as well. The technology in the special education classrooms I have seen have included: ipads, promethean boards, text to speech and speech to text devices, etc. Therefore, much technology is now available for teachers in the special education and general education settings. This proves very significant for teachers, because they can find different ways to teach different academic content, which I think is very beneficial for students. This technology is allowing students to become more active in the classroom and, therefore, allows teachers to delve deeply into the academic content they are teaching.

I have many thoughts on the 1:1 computing. My first initial reaction to 1:1 computing is that students will be more inclined to cheat on academic assignments and also to be distracted by the device they are using. However, on the other hand, 1:1 computing would prove significant for students who have troubles writing and are easily bored with the lecture/listening type of lesson that all teachers are guilty of. 1:1 computing could be a great asset in the classroom because students will be able to explore academic content in ways that have never been thought of until now. My ultimate hopes for the availability of technology in my future classroom is as follows: technology should be supplied to students on a daily basis. However, this technology should prove to benefit the student and teacher by helping students to better understand the content and to allow teachers to better teach the content. Technology should not distract students and make cheating more of daily occurrence. Thus, some type of program should be on every computer that prohibits students from cheating in any way on academic assignments.

Wiki Reflection- Gabrielle Ambrose

I researched a wiki named: Resources for history teachers. I found this wiki through searching through some of the best education wikis on the internet. This wiki actually received second place for "Best educational wiki of the year" in 2011; thus, I was interested to see this wiki and to explore it for myself. When navigating to this particular wiki, I was astonished at the organization and attractiveness of the wiki. This wiki was extremely easy to read and contained much useful information for history teachers.

This wiki included information that is taught in grades 1 through 7 and also included extra topics such as: influential men and women of U.S. History, world history, United States history and economics. Every individual page also listed the Common Core standards for the subjects being presented, which I found to be very helpful as a future educator. Every page also had some type of visual to associate with the topics being presented; therefore, students could develop a mental picture of the specific history topic being presented.

This wiki was indeed fascinating and, in my opinion, deserved the award of one of the best educational wikis on the internet.

Final Post- Gabrielle Ambrose

I found my first section of TPTE to be a challenging yet useful class for my future teaching career. TPTE taught me many useful technology skills that I feel every educator should have in their pocket when teaching. I believe the following projects completed in TPTE will prove to be the most useful when teaching in my future special education classroom: making a website, publishing a blog, making a digital story and, lastly, making a digital diagram using Inspiration.

Making a classroom website will help the parents of my students feel involved in their children's classroom and, therefore, is very useful. Publishing a blog proved to be educational to me as a future educator because this is how I will inform parents on my website of happenings in my classroom. Making a digital story proved to be extremely useful to me as a special educator because social stories are used daily in special education classrooms for behavioral issues. Digital stories could be used to make social stories for many behavioral issues in the classroom. Lastly, making a digital diagram is important when teaching students with disabilities because they, more than most students, need a visual when learning new information. Thus, digital diagrams will be helpful when teaching my future students new information in all academic subjects. All in all, TPTE will prove to be very useful when I begin my teaching career because of the many skills I learned while taking this class.

Website- Gabrielle Ambrose

My Google website is not finished as of yet, however, most of my website is finished at this point. I thoroughly enjoyed making a website for my future classroom. Having a class website available for students and parents is extremely important. Parents should always be aware of the happenings in their child's classroom. Because this is their child's daily learning environment, parents need to feel that my classroom is a valuable and safe environment. Also, my class website is a great way for parents to feel connected with me. Parents will be able to view my contact information and use it for their benefit. Also, since we live in a technologically savvy world, parents are more inclined to view their child's classroom website to view the happenings of their child's classroom and school.

Making my Google classroom website was rather complicated, however, the time spent making the website helped me to learn the ins and outs of making my own future classroom website. Because of this experience, I will be well prepared to make my classroom website for my future Special Education classroom.

Digital Storytelling- Gabrielle Ambrose

Although unexpected, my digital storytelling experience was very successful. I made a digital story on appropriate greetings. I decided to complete a digital story on this subject because many students with disabilities struggle to appropriately greet their friends in the school setting. First of all, it was very easy to make a digital story. I first completed a storyboard for my digital story, which I found to be a very helpful way to organize my thoughts and information.

Overall,  I found this experience useful because I could use digital storytelling to provide social stories to students with disabilities who have behavioral issues in the classroom. Also, I could use digital storytelling in my future classroom to teach or introduce a lesson with new information. Overall, I found this to be a rewarding and extremely useful experience that could prove to be significant for my future classroom and students. 

Inspiration to create Diagrams, Maps, and Webs for use in the classroom- Gabrielle Ambrose

I made a mathematics web map this week during TPTE using the program: Inspiration. This was a really neat experience! When making this diagram on Inspiration, I realized how simple it was to make a web, map or diagram. Webs, maps and diagrams are very easy to manipulate using the Inspiration program and, thus, in my future special education classroom, it would be very easy to supply the accommodations and modifications needed for students with different types of disabilities. Therefore, I felt very confident making my multiplication diagram. This also makes me feel very excited and prepared for making webs, maps and diagrams for my future classroom.

Being able to give students a map, web or diagram to view or fill out is very helpful when attempting to have students think critically about the content being taught. Having said this,  I strongly believe creating different types of webs, maps and diagrams for many subjects will help the students I will work with in the future- those with disabilities- to achieve their academic and personal goals. These tools will also help my future students better comprehend and retain information presented. 

All in all, webs, maps and diagrams are easy to use and to make, a very useful tool for any grade level, subject and ability level.

Chapter 1 O'Bannon Reflection

Interactive white boards are becoming very popular in the world of education: especially in grades K-12. Interactive white boards allow for teachers and students to be engaged in the lesson. However, many are unsure of their influence and impact on the knowledge of students.

Interactive white boards actually offer many effective teaching elements such as highlighting, magnifying important information, collaboration, discussion, etc. Interactive white boards also help teachers with classroom management and flexibility in lessons.

The relationship between interactive white boards and instruction and achievement are still on the fence, however. Some studies show positive relationships between interactive white boards and instruction and achievement, while some studies show negative relationships between the two.

However, in one study, conducted by Marzano and Haystead, students showed positive gains using three specific features of the interactive white board: student response systems, graphics and videos and reinforcer properties. Some studies have concluded no significant gains and average gains amongst students using interactive white boards. However, one thing is clear, engagement during class time is definitely a positive element of interactive white boards.

Teachers must be properly trained to use interactive white boards. Through the use of adequate training, teachers will be able to easily make lessons flow using the interactive white board and will be able to get their students more engaged. Overall, interactive white boards are very effective in the classroom and should be used whenever possible to promote student participation, understanding and engagement in the classroom.