Technology I Have Seen in my 5th Grade Classroom

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    As I have stated before I am currently in a 5th grade classroom in the Lansing school district.  This classroom has four apple computers which the students are able to use, but unfortunately they barely ever get time to use them.  They also have an overhead projector and a newer apple version of a projector.  You put whatever you would like the class to see as a whole under the lens, and then the lens will place this object on the big screen in the front of the classroom for all the students to see.  The teacher I am with does not use much of the technology she has available to her in her classroom.  She is not comfortable with using a computer at all, and she only uses the old overhead projector.  The one where you write on it with markers and then it will place it up for everyone to see.  I went into this schools computer lab and they have bran new mac computers, the students had keyboards hooked up to them when I was in there.  My teacher told me this was part of their music class, however many of the students where not doing what they were supposed to be doing.  They were playing around on the computer and barely did anything with the music program.

   I feel as this is always a challenge.  There is so much you can do on and with technology so as a teacher it is extremely important to be aware of what your students are doing.  We need to ensure they stay motivated and focused when granting them the opportunity to use technology for an assignment.  I loved how this school had so many opportunities for students to be exposed to various types of technology, but I feel as though the teachers do not have the knowledge of how to use the technology.  This causes some students to never get introduced to new technology.  As a future teacher I feel it is extremely important to learn how to use various forms of technology. I want to be able to accommodate as many of my students as possible.

Cell Phones in the Classroom

The other day my CEP teacher said something that I found to be really interesting, he said cell phones can be used in the classroom to take polls and check for the students understanding. This was astounding to me! Cell phones in the classroom, how weird. I mean usually teachers are yelling at students when they pull out there cell phones in the classroom. So I did a little research to find out what cell phones are used for in the classroom. I found a very interesting website which tells us the obvious reasons cell phones are banned from classrooms, but it too tells us how cell phones are useful in a classroom. Here is the site http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/cell-phones-in-the-classroom , check it out!

Majority of highschool and even middle school students have a cell phone they carry around with them. I found that cell phones can be used to text message in a constructive way, teachers can make polls or multiple choice questions and have the students send a text message of which letter they think the correct answer is. This is neat because as the students send in their answers they can see the chart change. Also every student is able to participate and no one is embarrassed if they gave the wrong answer because no one knows who answered what. I like the thought of this because the students all are learning and their confidence is not jeopardized in any way. I feel also believe by taking polls of what the students think is the correct answer allows you as a teacher to know what your students are understanding and what they are not understanding.

So yes I agree that cell phones can be productive, yet at the same time they are a huge distraction to the students. So I am not sure on where I stand exactly when it comes to implementing cell phones into teacher lesson plans. What do you think about this? Are you for or against using cell phones as a use of technology in the classroom?