This week was a lot more curriculum and planning based because Gnets was closed for President's Day. On Tuesday, I worked with Dawn at our Introduction to Computer classes that are going very well. I am actually an expert at creating Gmail accounts now. Here are just a few things that I have learned from helping with these classes: how to set up the projector and the screen, carry multiple laptops at the same time, set a home page on a computer, get multiple computers on the same network, and communicate silently with Dawn during our classes. I also attended staff meeting where we discussed our preparations for a big event in less than two weeks which is really exciting! The rest of the week was made up of hours working at the Center and developing curriculum. I also wrote up my monthly reports which will be sent to the Knight Foundation to make them aware of what Digital Bridges is doing here in Milledgeville on a monthly basis. Overall this was a very productive week of work.
(10 hrs)
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Last Initial Evaluations
Mrs. C was actually back today, so I got to do a real initial evaluation with her. She teaches Math for the 7th and 8th graders. They are focusing on central tendency, word problems, Pythagorean theorem, lines, and area. For her students, all of the math must seem very applicable and useful in the students lives because otherwise they do not care at all and want nothing to do with abstract memorization of concepts from a book. Mrs. C is also a large active part of the team that works on the behavioral aspect of the school. She is working on the students and their impulse control, long term goals, and short term goals. They are learning to express themselves clearly and resolve conflict in appropriate ways. I would rate this teacher as below a level 1. She is interested in the technology and ready to learn. She was more cautious about the amounts of time this commitment would take, but this was because of circumstances outside of her control in her personal life.
Miss P is very excited about this project and its possibilities. She sees how much this could benefit her students and their participation in the lessons. She would like her lesson to focus on the continents and current events which I believe can be tied together very well. She would like a symbol that would represent something famous from a continent, and the student would put it on the correct continent placement. She teaches high school students. Her class was a little more crazy and difficult to get time to work with her because of the nature of her classroom. I would classify her as below a level one with the Smartboard technology. She has not had any more experience since her initial training on a Smartboard which was a very long time ago.
Miss F is a week behind schedule because of miscommunication and her absence at our meeting time. I actually did my first meeting with her a week later than everyone else. Her students are elementary age. She is extremely technologically inclined and so excited about working with the technology. She has actually worked with the Smartboard and also promotes the idea of a media room for the computers and Smartboards within the school as a whole. She teaches all content areas and none of her students can read. She is giving me free reign to come up with a good idea for her lesson. I am going to search through a lot of content, and then I will come up with the best option for her. I would classify her as a level 1 because she is familiar with the basic technology and is not afraid to use and make mistakes with it.
With the teachers this week, I took them through the basics of the tool bar, what each icon does, and showed some examples of possible things you can do with the Smartboard from my computer. I also walked them through how to use the gallery effectively. They were all really shocked and impressed with that. Using the teacher tools, they were able to go to the websites that have the GA standards and found lesson plans pre-made by other teachers that they can download and use for free. All they have to do is search by standard, subject, or content. They all loved me for finding this for them. It really wasn't that hard at all.
During my time with Mr. W, he actually radioed the principal to ask for the sofware to put it on his personal computer to work with the programs at home. I saw this as great progress and a really promising situation. I was thrilled to see him excited about the technology's possibilities.
Miss J told me during my time with her that she had needed me with the technology. I asked her why, and it turns out that she did a lesson using the Smartboard without me! The only problem was that she had not waited until I had gone through the basics of using the actual board with her. When her students tried to click on items with their fingers, the board was not calibrated and did not recognize where their actual hands were. I took the time to show her how to calibrate, but unfortunately I did not have a board ready and available to practice on at that time. One of the very next lessons I will do with the teachers will be to go over the basics of using the actual Smartboard and setting it up.
Miss B got some really good ideas, and I could see the light bulb go off in her head as I showed her the sample lesson and possibilities of the technology for her classroom.
The only thing that really did not go as planned this week was that the teachers had a faculty meeting while I was still there, so I did not have time to meet with Mr. C. I promised him that he would be first on my list the next time I am there.
I am debating whether or not we should move on to the actual board for their next lesson or whether we should work with the technology on my computer some more and begin to create a lesson for them to teach. I am now leaning toward teaching them how to work the physical Smartboard for their next lesson.
For my other hours this week:
I worked at the center
Attended staff meeting
Taught introduction to computer class
(10 Hrs)
Miss P is very excited about this project and its possibilities. She sees how much this could benefit her students and their participation in the lessons. She would like her lesson to focus on the continents and current events which I believe can be tied together very well. She would like a symbol that would represent something famous from a continent, and the student would put it on the correct continent placement. She teaches high school students. Her class was a little more crazy and difficult to get time to work with her because of the nature of her classroom. I would classify her as below a level one with the Smartboard technology. She has not had any more experience since her initial training on a Smartboard which was a very long time ago.
Miss F is a week behind schedule because of miscommunication and her absence at our meeting time. I actually did my first meeting with her a week later than everyone else. Her students are elementary age. She is extremely technologically inclined and so excited about working with the technology. She has actually worked with the Smartboard and also promotes the idea of a media room for the computers and Smartboards within the school as a whole. She teaches all content areas and none of her students can read. She is giving me free reign to come up with a good idea for her lesson. I am going to search through a lot of content, and then I will come up with the best option for her. I would classify her as a level 1 because she is familiar with the basic technology and is not afraid to use and make mistakes with it.
With the teachers this week, I took them through the basics of the tool bar, what each icon does, and showed some examples of possible things you can do with the Smartboard from my computer. I also walked them through how to use the gallery effectively. They were all really shocked and impressed with that. Using the teacher tools, they were able to go to the websites that have the GA standards and found lesson plans pre-made by other teachers that they can download and use for free. All they have to do is search by standard, subject, or content. They all loved me for finding this for them. It really wasn't that hard at all.
During my time with Mr. W, he actually radioed the principal to ask for the sofware to put it on his personal computer to work with the programs at home. I saw this as great progress and a really promising situation. I was thrilled to see him excited about the technology's possibilities.
Miss J told me during my time with her that she had needed me with the technology. I asked her why, and it turns out that she did a lesson using the Smartboard without me! The only problem was that she had not waited until I had gone through the basics of using the actual board with her. When her students tried to click on items with their fingers, the board was not calibrated and did not recognize where their actual hands were. I took the time to show her how to calibrate, but unfortunately I did not have a board ready and available to practice on at that time. One of the very next lessons I will do with the teachers will be to go over the basics of using the actual Smartboard and setting it up.
Miss B got some really good ideas, and I could see the light bulb go off in her head as I showed her the sample lesson and possibilities of the technology for her classroom.
The only thing that really did not go as planned this week was that the teachers had a faculty meeting while I was still there, so I did not have time to meet with Mr. C. I promised him that he would be first on my list the next time I am there.
I am debating whether or not we should move on to the actual board for their next lesson or whether we should work with the technology on my computer some more and begin to create a lesson for them to teach. I am now leaning toward teaching them how to work the physical Smartboard for their next lesson.
For my other hours this week:
I worked at the center
Attended staff meeting
Taught introduction to computer class
(10 Hrs)
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Ms. K and My Week
Ms. K is the most technological teacher I have met so far. She loves technology but is so limited by her resources because of budgets at this time. For her, the Smartboard has been too much trouble and other teachers hogged the use of it when it was in the room with access by all teachers. Her students are actually less computer literate than she had expected. There were a ton of things on her wish list for Gnets, but her top priority is a scan converter. Her idea for our project would be to create a Morning Message which is what they do every morning. I have seen several of these done before, and I believe we can come up with really fun interactive ways to introduce the date and have some problems for math or vocabulary on the board to get the students thinking in the mornings. Simple concepts like a b c order and word families are appropriate for her class. A calendar could be really cool, too. She introduced me to the possibility of a Sony Smartboard on which I need to do some research. I gave her a level 1 at this point only because of her lack of access to learn the technology well enough to use all of the functions.
I also taught the computer class with Dawn, and it is getting so full. I love teaching those classes because everyone seems to leave happy and proud of themselves. This was also my first week of working at the real center! It is really exciting to see what was just an idea in August. Now it is a fully operating program with many employees. The building looks amazing on the inside. We even have full staff meetings now. I am very encouraged by what I see Digital Bridges doing here in Milledgeville. I am also prepared and ready for lessons with the teachers from Group One on Monday of next week.
(10 Hours)
I also taught the computer class with Dawn, and it is getting so full. I love teaching those classes because everyone seems to leave happy and proud of themselves. This was also my first week of working at the real center! It is really exciting to see what was just an idea in August. Now it is a fully operating program with many employees. The building looks amazing on the inside. We even have full staff meetings now. I am very encouraged by what I see Digital Bridges doing here in Milledgeville. I am also prepared and ready for lessons with the teachers from Group One on Monday of next week.
(10 Hours)
Summary of Projects
Ms. B: Geography
Central, South America, Europe
Middle School Appropriate
Pre-made Lessons
Make a Level 2!
Ms. J: Science-Life, earth, and Physical
Dissection
5th Grade
Solar Systems
How to Run Smartboard
Webquests
Webspiration
Make a Level 1!
Mr. W: 3rd and 4th Grade
Add Info to Computer
Wii info
Geometry
Manipulate and Build Something
Level 2!
Mr. C: Social Studies
3rd and 4th Grade
Native Americans, Colonies, and US government
Find great websites and games for kids
Make a level 1!
Ms. O: High School
Current Events, Weather, and Regions of GA
Make a level 1!
Ms. K Pre-K- 1st Grade
Morning Message
Sony Smartboard
Level 1
Ms. C: Math
Psych
7 and 8 Grade
Make a Level 1!
Ms. P: All Subject Areas
High School
Continents and Current Events
Make a Level 1!
Ms. F: All Subject Areas
1-3 grades
Be Creative!
Level 1
Central, South America, Europe
Middle School Appropriate
Pre-made Lessons
Make a Level 2!
Ms. J: Science-Life, earth, and Physical
Dissection
5th Grade
Solar Systems
How to Run Smartboard
Webquests
Webspiration
Make a Level 1!
Mr. W: 3rd and 4th Grade
Add Info to Computer
Wii info
Geometry
Manipulate and Build Something
Level 2!
Mr. C: Social Studies
3rd and 4th Grade
Native Americans, Colonies, and US government
Find great websites and games for kids
Make a level 1!
Ms. O: High School
Current Events, Weather, and Regions of GA
Make a level 1!
Ms. K Pre-K- 1st Grade
Morning Message
Sony Smartboard
Level 1
Ms. C: Math
Psych
7 and 8 Grade
Make a Level 1!
Ms. P: All Subject Areas
High School
Continents and Current Events
Make a Level 1!
Ms. F: All Subject Areas
1-3 grades
Be Creative!
Level 1
The Second Round of Initial Interviews
On Monday I met with four more teachers to complete my initial interviews at GNETS. First I went to meet with Mrs. Wolf to make sure that this time was going to be alright for everyone for the rest of the semester and to make sure that she was fine with me interrupting the teachers for thirty minutes every other week. She agreed to everything and all is right on track. I will in the future need to let her know the information that a lot of her staff has given me about how they would like to see technology run in the school.
First I met with Ms. O. She had a lot of ideas about how the technology should be handled in the school. She wants the Smartboard to be stationary in one technology room where everyone could come to and was already set up for group work with the board. This is a possibility for the future because Gnets is actually moving to a new location next year. In the past, the Smartboard was in the pace lab with the idea for all of the teachers to have equal access. Unfortunately, the room was never set up with the equipment ready, and there were never chairs set up when a class went in to use the technology. The expectations of the room were not met and so the Smartboard in the room failed as a whole.
She said that if the technology was readily available to her, she would have her students using the board at the very least three times a week. She knows that her students would get a lot of experience, fun, and learning out of using the technology. As the teacher is such a setting, he or she needs to know the technology inside and out in order to maintain order in the classroom and keep the emotional outbursts to a minimal at a psychological education center. She would also love to have a setting where the teacher could sign in under her own name and all of her personal content and lesson plans would be right there. For her lesson, she had many ideas. She wants to be able to share current events with her students like the earthquake in Haiti. She also mentioned doing a unit on weather in science class. Because she needs to work the breakfast where the event will be taking place, we will put her class presentation later in the morning so that clean up will not be an issue for her and her class. I will research all three of her topics to see which has the greatest possibility for a lesson. The main example that she seemed the most excited about was studying the regions of GA.
On the scale, I would put Ms. O below a level one. She is very willing to learn the technology though and excited.
First I met with Ms. O. She had a lot of ideas about how the technology should be handled in the school. She wants the Smartboard to be stationary in one technology room where everyone could come to and was already set up for group work with the board. This is a possibility for the future because Gnets is actually moving to a new location next year. In the past, the Smartboard was in the pace lab with the idea for all of the teachers to have equal access. Unfortunately, the room was never set up with the equipment ready, and there were never chairs set up when a class went in to use the technology. The expectations of the room were not met and so the Smartboard in the room failed as a whole.
She said that if the technology was readily available to her, she would have her students using the board at the very least three times a week. She knows that her students would get a lot of experience, fun, and learning out of using the technology. As the teacher is such a setting, he or she needs to know the technology inside and out in order to maintain order in the classroom and keep the emotional outbursts to a minimal at a psychological education center. She would also love to have a setting where the teacher could sign in under her own name and all of her personal content and lesson plans would be right there. For her lesson, she had many ideas. She wants to be able to share current events with her students like the earthquake in Haiti. She also mentioned doing a unit on weather in science class. Because she needs to work the breakfast where the event will be taking place, we will put her class presentation later in the morning so that clean up will not be an issue for her and her class. I will research all three of her topics to see which has the greatest possibility for a lesson. The main example that she seemed the most excited about was studying the regions of GA.
On the scale, I would put Ms. O below a level one. She is very willing to learn the technology though and excited.
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