Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Blog Post 1: Technology Strengths and Weakness

According to the ISTE Standards for Teachers (2008), I would have to say that my strengths are standards 2 and 3 because I effectively use them in my classroom daily. I plan on using each of my strengths to introduce new programs to my school to promote literacy.
·         Standard 2: “Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments” (ISTE Standards for Teachers, 2008).
o   When I plan my lessons I make sure I have some source of technology in the lesson to capture my student’s attention. 
o   My students work on the computer using MIDI or CD-ROM programs that reinforce the information taught in class that day.
o   Various internet sites are also helpful in class, because they allow the student to see the information in a variety of ways.  If we are working on the Renaissance Period, I can show videos from that time period to give a visual for the students.
o   I use clickers to help assess the student’s knowledge.  The students find it fun and engaging because it is not pen and paper but more like a video controller.  This also limits cheating and incomplete work by using the clickers.  Each student is held accountable for their answers.
·         Standard 3: “Model digital age work and learning” (ISTE Standards for Teachers, 2008).
o   As team leader of my team, I began a team newsletter that I can email or my team can access by using the school’s webpage.  The newsletter provides information for the month that they will need to know.
o   On the school’s website, I post events and links to help my students and parents.  For my fourth graders, we have various activities and the links are there to help the students at home practice what they need.  Program dates are listed to inform parents of the different events that their child will be performing. 
o   I have shown my students websites and programs that they can use to create their own music and save it to a CD to share. 

My weaknesses according to the ISTE Standards for Teachers (2008) would have to be standards 1, 4, and 5 due to the fact that I have not had much experience as a facilitator or leader for the school.  As a librarian, I believe I would be able to display the qualities of these standards because they all have a common goal of promoting technology to students, teachers, and parents.  Standard 1 focuses on the teacher being the voice to inform the appropriate audience of how to use technology in different and inventive ways.  Standard 4 is about being an advocate for your school and community to be civil and respectful while using social media and other internet based communication sites. Lastly, standard 5 promotes going out and learning about the new technology and programs that will help your school in succeeding.  Collaborating with teachers and the community on new ideas to help the schools environment is a way described to help in this task.


As an educator I can improve my weaknesses by becoming more involved in the committees at my school.  I am music teacher at the present time and so I focus more on my art area more than anything else.  Anything that is not of relevance to me I tend to ignore and pass up as not important.  However, with my pursuit of becoming a librarian I know that I will need to be in more of the academic planning meetings, attend more professional development workshops of each content area, and get to know my school’s community better.  Once I accomplish the task of becoming more involved then I know my weaknesses will evolve into strengths because I will have a better understanding on how to use them effectively.  I would love to learn more about how to use handheld devices in my classroom because I know it will grasp the attention of my students.  Knowing the programs for Ipads, nooks, and kindles can help me in planning lessons for my class and the teachers that will help improve literacy.  Bringing in new tools always gives a boost of energy to learning and with the 21st century learners, technology is a key component in doing just that.

References

ISTE Standards for Teachers. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-        

          14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf

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