EDU 235 ePortfolio Work

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Hello, my name is Kaitlynn Charest and I am currently finishing up my Junior year at Southern New Hampshire University. I am working towards earning a BA in Middle School Mathematics where I hope to teach 8th grade math. I have always wanted to teach students and math comes easily to me, especially algebra.

My Vision

Technology is a controversial topic in the world of education. Many educators believe in using as much technology as possible. We are in a world where the children of today are constantly connected to technology and information is at their fingertips. Other educators believe in the old fashioned way of doing things, I am a strong believer in this way of teaching. I have learned very well from my teachers and I hope to inspire my students from my knowledge. I think technology is a great tool to have but not a means to teach.

Now this doesn't mean that I am against using technology in the classroom since let's face it my iPhone, Macbook, and iPad are everything to me and I am not sure how long I could last if they all broke at once. I just think it should be limited to research and projects. Mathematics is a hands on subject and I hope to inspire my students through my teaching.

Regardless of my thoughts on it, many school districts are encouraging it as much as possible. I have observed teachers who utilize their technology and there are ways to make it work. The students get excited to use something they are familiar with and can easily maneuver. The one piece of technology I am interested in learning more about is a TI Graphing Calculator. This may seem like a silly choice but I use mine on a daily basis for basic things and I would really love to learn more about all of the features they have.

Global Trends

When I was in high school, I needed a TI graphing calculator for all of my mathematics courses. I remember using it for graphs and equations along with simple operations. It has been many years since I was in high school and using many of the features. There are many features that I never learned about nor have I ever used them. This would be helpful for me to show my future students. Texas Instruments has a headquarters in Manchester, NH. This is as local as it can get for us.

It is not a resource that is limited to the united states though, Texas Instruments has locations all over the world. A few of their locations are in China, Italy, and Brasil. Students of all nationalities and economic standings have access to the technology that Texas Instruments offers. I think this is a great tool for everyone since the calculators can be set in a variety of languages. A calculator is a basic tool that can benefit all students. The one thing to be careful with when allowing students the chance to use these specific calculators is that students can download games to their calculator. So, it is a good idea to make sure they are using them for the purposes of education.

Lesson Ideas

Coming soon!

Technology Resources

My PortaPortal holds a variety of technology resources. It is a work in progress and will grow greatly throughout my career.

Technology in the Classroom

We all have seen some sort of technology used in the classroom at some point whether it was when we were in school or when we were observing a teacher. Technology doesn't always have to be the most expensive piece of equipment just another technique for catching the attention of your students. While I attended elementary through high school the most technology we had were over head projectors and computer labs. Now many schools have interactive whiteboards and iPads.

I interviewed Kailey Crockett, a reading specialist and 6th grade Explorations through Literature teacher from Berlin Middle School in Berlin, NH. I have known Ms. Crockett for many years and knew that Berlin was increasing the amount of Technology in their classrooms. 

She believes that children in this generation are able to understand information better when it is presented through the use of technology. In addition to understanding it better, students are given the opportunity to express their learning in a way that makes the most sense to them. Technology is used to increase learning since using technology in the classroom allows you to easily modify the work for your students. In doing this, you are able to ensure that all students are learning at their level.

Within Ms. Crockett’s classroom she uses a smartboard, projector, iPads, computers and Microsoft Office. Many of the books at their school are falling apart and the district isn't able to keep up with the cost of replacing them. “With the use of ebooks, we would be able to change the books that we read more often because we wouldn't have to worry about constantly replacing them.”

Berlin Middle School is currently in the process of setting up Kuno Classrooms. Until that goes into full effect she won’t know the results of how it will help the students. Budgeting does not effect the usage of technology in Berlin since they were given a grant, in September of 2014, to provide 1:1 access of tablets to the students. I think this is amazing for the students and teachers to have access to tablets at any given time and have enough so that students are not sharing.

Ms. Crockett uses technology on a daily basis. She spends most of her day completing data analysis, which is all done on the computer. “In the quarter course I teach, we complete two projects using technology per quarter.” In her short experience as a teacher she has not seen any disadvantages to using technology in the classroom.

A main concern to any educator with technology is that students will misuse the devices for purposes other than academics. She has seen this in her classroom. They tried “bring your own device program” where the students were required to have their parents sign a permission slip. Since the students brought in their own devices the school could not regulate the apps that were already on their devices. So students were using apps like Facebook and Snap Chat during school hours and sending inappropriate things to their friends. “We collected all personal devices, found the ones that were misusing, revoked privileges, and suspended a few.”

Now to look into the future and predict where technology integration may be. She believes that in five years most schools will have 1:1 access. “I think that teachers will be required to get more training in technology and how to effectively use it.” In ten years, she believes there the majority of classrooms will be flip classrooms and potentially little to no in school time for lectures. She enjoying integrating technology into her daily lessons and looks forward to what the future holds.