Technology Report

Mrs. Adams has introduced our second graders to different kinds of polygons for her math lessons. The coolest thing I saw her do was scan a picture book into her computer and create a powerpoint with it. First off reading a book in math is great because it gets the kids interested in what you are doing. And because she used the technology she wasn't glued to one spot in the room which made it easier for her to keep tabs on her students and move around. She also used the smart board to flip the pages and point to certain things she wanted the students to notice. She also used the audio enhancer which makes it easier on her and the students. I think I will be using this device for my next lesson in shared reading because I've got a lot of interactive practice so it will be nice to have the louder voice.

Go Mrs. Adams!

I was really impressed with our teacher, Mrs. Adams, this week. She used a smart board a couple times to teach math. When you first look in her room your first thought would not be "Oh, wow, she's got a lot of technological resources." But she totally just whipped it out the other day and I was like "Dude, where did this come from?" Anywho, the best quality of the smart board is that she can stand anywhere in the classroom and still use the computer, switching slides, drawing on the screen and pointing out to the students what she wants them to focus on. Then on Election Day, she pulled up this kid-friendly website all about the election. The kids loved it and where really able to learn about the country without the teacher having to put together this huge presentation.

Hallie and I also taught this week. Hallie put together this freaking amazing powerpoint (everyone was asking for it later, you should totally ask her about it), that showed the kids the part-whole concept of fact families and adding and subtracting. Then we played a jeopardy game at the end of the lesson using a template Hallie found online. It worked out really well. The only thing that would have been better is if we would have had the remote to the computer for the powerpoint. It confined Hallie to the side of her computer and I couldn't really help out because I would have just been in the way of the kids. That's also the benefit of the smart board, but we didn't have the technology installed on her computer. Plus we would have had no idea how to use it and would have looked insanely ridiculous. Well at least the kids would have laughed. . . wouldn't have gone over too well with our observers though.