Improving Teacher Training with Technology

So many times I have sat through a boring training wondering how and why I was going to incorporate whatever that great idea was. With the growing uses of technology our schools should be providing more training on how to incorporate these into our lessons. I think that the administration or librarian should offer a class once a month on technology with a specific topic, i.e. blogs, wikis, trackstar and such. Intergrating technology can be overwhelming and if shown how easy it can be then we will have more teachers on board.

Science Lesson Improved with Technology

I found this idea on the site below along with others. Science students did research on solar cookers, cookers that used the sun to cook. The students chose a design and then gathered the materials they needed. After the cooker was made they then evaluated how well they worked. I think this is an awesome way to get reluctant students involved.


Using Technology to Improve Instruction and Raise Student Achievement

Improving Instruction with Technology

My fellow teachers on my team and myself came up with a great way to incorporate technology into a literacy lesson and an author study. The children worked as a group to choose an author. They began their research online looking for certain information on the author. During the course of the research they were also reading books by that author and writing book reviews and summaries on the laptops. After the group had gathered all the research and wrote the book reviews and summaries they then took all the information and compiled it into a powerpoint. The students really enjoyed this activity and asked everyday if we would be working on it. I know that anytime you incorporate technology into the lesson the students will be engaged. Below is a link to my trackstar that has the lesson all mapped out for you.

Trackstar Author Study Lesson

Thing #23 What a journey!

I have really enjoyed this whole experience. Before I started this graduate course I was searching for things to learn about on the web. This was a great way to learn. I consider myself to be computer savy but now I feel like I know more than before but yet there is still so much more to learn. My favorite was the google discovery and the photo sites. I loved being able to take pictures and create memories with the software. This process has shown me what is on the web and how these tools can be used. I would love to experience the web in a format like this one. I know that there is so much more to learn and experience. I'm looking forward to the next learning journey.

Thing #22 Ning

I explored all three sites and I have to say that I like Ning the best. It seems to have a real use to it. Myspace and facebook are more like a way to keep up with your friends and find people who maybe you lost touch with. I really liked the Texas Teacher Ning. I already found a couple of lessons that I could use this week. It's a great free site to get information from without having to pay for joining.

#21 Podcasts

This is probably one of my favorite things. My team presented a lesson doing a podcast. We had a lot of fun creating it although somehow I got dupped into being the voice on the video. You can visit Jenny's blog and see our podcast on New York. Jenny's Blog My grade level on my campus decided to do an author study and one of the ways to relay the information learned was through a podcast. The students were able to write their scripts and upload the photos and add their voice to the podcast. Below you will see one of the finished products. I see podcasts as another great tool to relay information in a technology form.

#20 You Tube and Teacher Tube

What an awesome tool no matter who the audience is! I love the idea of whatever information you need is probably on these two sites. My sons had recieved a rubics cube for a gift and they had no idea how to solve it. They went to youtube and found a video. This is a really great tool to gather information and present information. I found the following video on YouTube on how our children interact with technology and why are we not using these devices in our school curriculum. Teachers have to start thinking out of the box and deliver the lessons using the tools that the kids are interested in.