My Practicum Experience: The Uses Of Technology In The Classroom

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Assignment 1 In the first few weeks of my practicum experience, we were to examine the use of technology in the classroom. I am in the a first grade classroom at the beginning of the school day when the students arrive, do morning work, and then go to centers. The main technology I have seen so far is the use of iPads during centers, however Mrs. Zeek says they use the smart board for other subjects. Describe the types of technology that the teacher uses for teaching. I am only in my placement during centers so unfortunately I do not get to see many instructional methods of Mrs. Zeek’s. She said that she uses the smart board for her lessons a lot though. I have not seen any smart board use in this classroom so far, but in other practicum placements …show more content…

Mrs. Estep used the smart board for her lesson, but did not use any interactive features. She used Book Flix by Scholastic, which is a website that reads animated books to the class. When Mrs. Estep told the children to go to the smart board one yelled, “Yay smart board time!” Unfortunately the second book on the website that Mrs. Estep was going to show the children wouldn’t load so she went to her backup plan and had the children play a game. Technology is very prevalent in classrooms, but sometimes it is not reliable, so you must come up with and alternative …show more content…

At the iPad center the students use a specific app that Mrs. Zeek tells them to use. I have seen the children use the apps Epic and Xtra Math. Epic is a reading app that reads stories to the child. Xtra Math is an app that allows the students to practice math skills through games. I thought it was interesting that Mrs. Zeek had a box full of laminated QR codes, one for each student, so the students can sign into Xtra Math with that. I did not even know that was possible! The children absolutely love using the iPads. Mrs. Zeek also showed me an app that she has on her iPad called Classroom, which allows her to see what all the children are doing on their individual iPads. This is a very handy app, especially for higher grades so students cannot do inappropriate things on the iPads. We talked about app selection in class and these two apps seem to meet all of the qualities such as easy navigation, student engagement, and developmental appropriateness. There is also a listening center where the children listen and follow along with books on CD or cassette tape. Mrs. Zeek lets the children start and stop the CD player on their own, but she does not let them change the

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