Blog #6

When I was in school, none of my teachers had a personal website in which I could have went on and looked up information regarding my class but they do this now. I went onto John G. Riley Elementary School website and they had a tab which lead to the personalized website of each teacher and some information that they had for their students and parents. I randomly selected Mrs. Hannah Nalls webpage, a first grade reading and math teacher. On this page she has tabs for assignments, student resources, announcements, important documents, and the class calendar. Each tab displays content that will inform students and their parents of everything that they will need to know throughout the school year. My favorite part of this web page is the Student Resources tab. It has a list of sites that the students could use at home and continue to learn. The coolest thing about these resources is that I use to use these sites when I was younger, especially Starfall.com

After the visit to the Technology Sandbox, I saw so many interesting and exciting pieces of technology that I have never seen or even heard of before. The fact that there is a place to go that I can go learn to use all of these items before I even step foot in a classroom is great. This tour allowed me to envision how I will be using technology within my career. I want to make sure that all my students have about an hour and a half of what I call "tech time" in order for them to use different types of technology within the educational setting. I really want to have a Smart Board in my classroom because it seems to be one of the most interactive thing that I experienced while on the tour and it seems like it wouldn't be hard for students to work with. I also think that the Smart Board table and Osmo, which is a game system that will change the way students interacts with the iPad by opening it up to hands-on activities, will be a great addition to all classrooms across the word. Even though I saw a lot of incredible pieces of technology on the Sandbox tour... i think these would be the best in a classroom setting. These items allow multiple students to participate at one time and makes it easier for students to rotate and try to use and learn the technology in the class.