image retrieved from Melanie Scott
I am feeling more comfortable now with practices being in the morning and me not having to work during the day that I can completely wrap my head around this class. I am really excited (not to write a 10-12 page paper) but to research how iPad can be effective in an elementary school setting. Our school has three iPad carts and they are wanting us to implement them more into our classroom. The problem I am having with them is that I still do not completely understand the capabilities of them because I do not have one of my own. We talk about adding applications to our carts but the only advice I can give them is find applications for early childhood. Now what are the good ones, I'm not sure. I really want to make sure that using an iPad in my classroom will benefit my students then me being more hands on with the skill being taught. I am always afraid of students having too much "computer" time and I do not want to use them as a second teacher.
image retrieved from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH2y1mnm2XLc_wQKcbKBbXFxyp9smyUFzC1SqqAtT0n3wsVpUOySoU1YlEkkv_d-edOUguwcyzcaSGM7fW6TgIdHyH4KHtMALIlcRwCuxukFdljYxwUmw-7ellkzpH8Gh97Yx4IxITgcXd/s1600/ipad+1.jpg
I am also excited to interview a person about assistive technology and how we can get them within our county. I used to be an inclusion classroom and this year we went back to being one again. We didn't begin to be inclusion until January and I had a student who came in this year in September who clearly was in need of special services. This was the first time I went through the process of getting him the services he deserved and needed. I had no idea on this process and I feel that I wouldn't even know what to do if I needed to get assistive technology for a student and I feel this is something that all teachers should know. This is something I feel the board should do for all new teachers but of course we do not find out unless we ask.
Image retrieved from: http://rjcooper.com/spell-a-word/classroom-phrases.jpg
I am finally glad to have my head back on my shoulders and in the game of things. I'm excited to dive completely into this class and I have truly enjoyed writing these blogs and maybe will think about keeping one one day but let me at least get through grad school first!
Melanie,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you are going to back to Inclusion. I feel passionately that this is the best way to serve many students. Do you have enough support to make it a true inclusive space or is it more main streaming?
I am interested in what you find about IPads. Here is some resources I found that may be helpful:
http://www.coolcatteacher.com/effective-tablet/
https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-02-07-la-unified-officials-cannot-access-ipad-curriculum
Best,
Naomi
To be honest... they threw the inclusion part got thrown at us in January. I feel we got some support getting it start but my special education teacher didn't get her IA until weeks after she started. We never knew when kids were coming until the last minute. Meetings would pop up for kids and she didn't have adequate time to start creating items for her kids and the first couple of days I knew were very stressful for her. I would hope next year will be different for her and us... but whoever knows.
DeleteThank you for the resource ideas! I will totally check them out!
Mel,
ReplyDeleteI found that writing the blogs was quite fun as well. It was almost liberating to share my thoughts without having to worry about the use of "graduate level writing."
Writing the paper is probably not going to be that much fun. We have all written way too many for undergrad and grad classes. I wish instead of asking us to write yet another paper, we would be given a large project from day 1. I would much rather compile a list of 30-50 (depending on the professor) apps/sites/Web 2.0 tools and explain their use and how they can be applied. Maybe focus on ten and share how I would use them in the classroom or come up with activities for them. Instead we have to write another paper. Like you, I am excited about my topic but not about the writing.
~Santi
I do now believe anyone enjoys writing papers especially since we are going through technology based certification. However, it is what to be expected but I also keep thinking about I would be writing more papers if I went through another subject certification so that doesn't make me feel as bad when I am asked to write a paper.
DeleteI meant "I do not believe"
Delete