An Intern's Testimony

This fall I am in a first grade classroom for my internship in elementary education. My classroom consists of 20 very diverse students with different learning abilities, ethnicity's, and home lives. The students in my class may be very diverse. but they all have two things in common: they are filled with energy and love. I have the most wonderful certified teacher who provides constructive criticism, encouragement, and the tools I need for success. She allows me to try new strategies and classroom management ideas even if it is something she probably would not try herself. She truly lets me take on the classroom each day as if it is my own. The list could go on about how much I love the school I am at, my teacher, and my students because I am so blessed to be where I am. That being said, I want to share how God was thinking of what is best for me rather than what I thought I wanted when He placed me at MVES.

Spring semester of 2017 my class filled out internship request forms and were were able to request a school we would like to be placed at for internship. After falling in love with the school I was placed at during pre-professional block, I immediately requested that school. The school is close to home and is filled with encouraging, loving faculty and staff. I told God I needed to be placed there because he knows how much I love the school and the people there and he knows how I would feel so at home and comfortable there during my internship. (Haha that I though God would place me somewhere I thought I would be comfortable). I convinced myself God knew the desire of my heart and I would for sure be placed at the school I requested.

Fast forward to May 2017... At the end our internship kick off all interns were given an envelope with our placement for the fall semester. My heart was beating hard and I could not wait to open it and see the school I requested. When I walked out of the room, I opened my envelope, and read my placement letter only to find I was not placed at the school I requested. I was placed at a school I had never been to, Meadow View Elementary school, and with a teacher I did not know, Mrs. Glass. I immediately left the building and got in my car and cried. Why was I placed here? Why God? Why would you put me at a school I knew nothing about? Why would you not be faithful and put me at the school I prayed to be at? How could you do this to me? After throwing myself a pity party, I called my mom and told her what happened. She told me there had to be a reason I was not placed at the school I requested and to go ask the person who was in charge of placements. I dried my eyes and walked back into the education building into Dr. Brewers office.

I sat down and began talking with Dr. Brewer about my situation. After explaining what happened she responded, " You're Hollie Brown, aren't you?" I nodded my head. She then went on to say, "Your professors speak very highly of you and know you are a great teacher. With that said, you were placed at the school you requested until there was a commuting issue with another student who needed to be placed at that school. I talked with one of the professors in the education department and she told me you would do well at MVES. She knew you had already been placed at the school you requested and loved it there and wanted you to experienced a different environment. She believes you will love it there and will be successful there." I then began thinking maybe she is right and maybe I do need to experience a different school. I explained to Dr. Brewer I always pray God will place me where I need to be and each semester he has. This must not be any different. She asked me what school I was placed at, so I told her MVES. A big smile appeared on her face and she began talking about how great of a school I was placed at. She then asked who my teacher was and I told her Lynda Glass. "She is wonderful! You are going to love her and be so blessed in her classroom. She has been teaching for a long time and everyone calls her momma because she is like a mom to everyone" Dr. Brewer explained. I then began to see how, maybe, God had placed me where I needed to be and just maybe He did have my best interest in mind even though it wasn't what I thought I wanted.

After the first week of internship I left school one day and remember saying "You were right God. My bad. Lol." How silly of me to doubt God. How silly of me to think He was throwing me to the wolves. How silly of me to think He did not care where I was going to be placed for my internship. I thought He was being unfaithful, but I was mistaken. He was faithful by placing me at a school I would grow to love. He was faithful placing me at a school with faculty and staff who continuously encourage me and aid in my success. He was faithful to place me with a teacher who I make a great team with and share a brain with. He was faithful to place in a classroom with students that need the love of Jesus and need the light of Jesus shown to them. Being where I am today and looking back at everything that has happened so far this semester, I cannot believe I ever doubted God's plan for me. Yes this plan is completely opposite of what I thought I wanted and needed, but this plan is exactly what I wanted and needed. I am blessed and thankful God did not give me what I thought I wanted and needed because He gave me so much more. This has been such a special time in my life and it has taught me to always trust the Lord because He is faithful.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 

in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. 

Proverbs 3: 5-6

Technology in Math and Science

Advantages of Integrating Technology in Mathematics

According to Robyler (2016. p. 308), "The existence, versatility, and power of technology made it possible and necessary to examine what mathematics students should learn as well as how they can best learn it". Technology integration in math provides opportunities to build student's conceptual knowledge and connect learning to real world problems. When applied, it supports access to mathematical skills and enhance their learning of them. 

Preparation of technology use in preservice teachers is a critical issue facing teacher education programs. This article recognizes the growing need for technological literacy and gives example activities for technology integration.

Disadvantages of Integrating Technology in Mathematics

According to Robyler (2016. p. 310), "The CCSS-M hopes to provide a more focused and coherent set of mathematics standards that results in improving mathematics achievement of all students. Helping teachers change their teaching styles to meet this vision is not as easy task since the standards seek a fundamental shift in the way many teachers have learned mathematics and have been taught to teach". Many teachers are going to have to learn a completely new way to teach their students. They will have to make changes to past instruction and quite possibly start from scratch in some areas.  

Specific Activities, Programs, Etc. 

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, Geometer's Sketchpad from Keypress, Derive from Texas Instruments, Fathom from Keypress, Spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel, Math Forum at Drexek: Ask Dr. Math.

Advantages of Integrating Technology in Science

According to Robyler (2016. p. 319), "Technology provides powerful learning tools for engaging students in investigating more complex ideas and problem solving to reveal important interactions among the disciplines while engaging students in an inquiry-oriented science instruction". Student engagement will lead to active learning which aid in success in the academic area. Students need to understand how concepts relate to the real world to fully grasp the concept.

Disadvantages of Integrating Technology in Science

According to Robyler (2016. p. 319), in order to integrate technology in the classroom on a regular basis, one must understand the meaning of technology in the context of science teaching and learning. Many teachers who have taught for years are not very knowledgeable in technology. Therefore these teachers may need some type of professional development to be able to understand how to integrate it successfully. 

Funding is another issue many educators and schools face that could be considered a disadvantage to integrating technology. According to this article, "limited budgets were cited as the biggest barrier to accessing technology".

Specific Activities, Programs, Etc. 

Globe Project, CBLs and spreadsheets, The Exploratorium Museum, National Science Digital Library, Poll Everywhere, National Academy Press, Night Skies Network.

21st Century Software Tools

Materials Generators

Materials generators help teachers and students produce instructional materials on paper and online. Through Google Docs, teachers and students can use the Word Cloud Generator. It generates a downloadable word cloud that offers many features to customize the word cloud to how a person desires. In the classroom is is very important teachers follow a student's IEP plan. An IEP generator offered through Google apps is called IEP Writer.
Testing and Grading Tools
Testing and grading tools allow collection and tracking of assessment information to measure student progress. According to Robyler (2016. p. 155), Software tools are available to help teachers with what may consider to be one of their most onerous and time-consuming instructional tasks: producing tests and other kinds of assessments. As a teacher it is not only time consuming to make assessments, but also grade them. Through Google Sheets, teachers can use the Add-on Flubaroo to quickly grade and analyze online assignments and assessments, as well as instantly share scores with students. Electronic gradebooks are also helpful to teachers. Learnboost is a free electronic gradebook.  
Graphic Tools
Graphic tools allow creation of illustrations for use in documents and Web Pages and create visual data summaries. Through Google Drawings, teachers and students can some color to your documents, presentations, and websites with easy to create charts and diagrams. Other features include: building charts, layout diagrams, creating flow charts, and then easily add them to other documents or embed them on a website. Another online graphic tool is Flowchart Maker and Online Diagram Software. 
Planning and Organizing Tools
Planning and Organizing tools help organize ideas for writing and discussion; help organize, plan and schedule activities. According to Robyler (2016. p. 161) on many occasions there is a demand of some form of documentation to show what teachers are teaching and how they are teaching it. Tools that help teachers develop and document their descriptions of lessons are sometimes called lesson makers or lesson planners. A Google Add-on tool that would be helpful for making lesson plans is called Lesson Plan Tool for Docs. An online organizing tool teachers can use for dates and scheduling is Google Calendar. 
Research and Reference Tools
Research and reference tools help students research on assigned topics; assist with using correct spelling and word use. According to Robyler (2016. p. 162) research and reference tools include digital versions of encyclopedias, atlases and mapping tools, and dictionaries and thesauruses. Today they are online and usually available as apps. Through Google Add-ons, Paperpile can be used  to add citations and bibliographies to your research paper.  Digital mapping tools can be useful to teacher and students as well. An online mapping tool is Google Maps.

Online Tools, Uses, and Web-Based Development

Search Engines & Web Navigation

Search engines and proper Web navigation allow teachers and students to find better information. There are many search engines available such as: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com, and AOL. While these are most popular in the United States, some may not produce appropriate information for teachers and students to view for classroom use. Search Engine Watch is a site that offers information on all available search engines, most popular searches, and recent search-related news. This site offers various types of sites such as filtered ones for kids and social networking search engines. This can be helpful for teachers in the classroom to teach digital citizenship and netiquette. (Roblyer & Doering. 2016. p. 183).

Website Evaluation

In this video a teacher is explaining to her students how to evaluate sources on the internet as her Technology Committee Project. The teacher has the students actively participate in learning and discovering how to evaluate sources. The project was successful because the students understood what it meant to evaluate something and then were able to apply that to evaluating sources on the internet through a series of steps and guidelines.

Favorite Professional Websites

One website that would be helpful as a teaching professional is Edmodo. Edmodo is a social network website that has been modified and refined to be appropriate for classroom use. With Edmodo, students and teachers can connect with each other by sharing ideas, problems, and helpful tips. It also allows a person to add pictures, links, and videos to a post. According to Robyler (2016. p. 198). Edmodo meets the Website Evaluation Criteria Checklist because it is easy to navigate and and the content is organized.

Another website that would be helpful as a teaching professional is Scholastic. Scholastic is a website that offers educational resources and materials for teachers, students, parents, administrators, and librarians. Due to this website's current, up-to-date content and excellent visual design, it meets the Website Evaluation Criteria Checklist according to Robyler (2016. p. 198).

Online Safety and Security

According to Robyler (2016. p. 174-175), although the online world has many benefits, it also has several issues such as: society-wide debates, problems, and controversies. The main umbrella issue is safety and privacy for students. Under that umbrella term fall categories like online predators, sales pitches aimed at children, privacy issues, and cyber bullying. Online predators are an issue I believe to be most prominent is today's society. Students should not believe everything they read or hear because a person online who gives their name and age could possibly be lying. It is important students know to never share/provide their complete names, addresses, or telephone numbers to anyone over the internet. They should also know to report to their teacher any person who asks them to share/provide these things.

"Basic Three" Software Tools in Education

As a teacher, using software programs such as word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations will be beneficial for both me and my students because they improve productivity, appearance, and accuracy and promote interaction and collaboration. However, an issue with the use of these software programs is that many students need to learn 10-finger keyboarding and many teachers feel the time spent teaching this to students would be better spent on more important skills. Another issue with the use of software programs is most programs have a built-in auto correction feature and sometimes the software program selects a word as more correct which can lead to typos that interfere with the intended meaning.

Word Processing Software

Word processing software saves time, enhances document appearance, allows sharing of documents, and allows collaboration on documents. Word processing offers high versatility and flexibility and allows a teacher to use it to support any directed instruction or constructivist activity. Although word processing has many great advantages, it has a few disadvantages such as frequent use of it can lead to handwriting becoming less legible and less time will be spent on developing fine-motor skills." Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2013). Integrating educational technology into teaching. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. 

Spreadsheet Software

Spreadsheet software saves time, organizes displays of information, supports “what if” questions, and increases motivation to work with mathematics. "Spreadsheets can be used in the classroom to keep budgets, grade-books, and help teach mathematical topics. Spreadsheets, however, can be an issue for students who fear mathematics and processing numbers. Teachers must take time to allow students to become comfortable with using spreadsheets and realize it can help them, rather than challenge their math ability." Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2013). Integrating educational technology into teaching. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. 

Presentation Software

Presentation Software helps organize thinking about a topic, enhance the impact of spoken information, and allow collaboration on presentations. "Presentation software is most beneficial when made dynamic and engaging to students. Although presentations can be great visuals, they can cause people to focus more on the slides rather than the message. Sometimes when presentations are used during lectures, students tend have a boring experience and the whole purpose of the presentation is diminished." Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2013). Integrating educational technology into teaching. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. 

Classroom Use - Presentation Software

Presentation software in the classroom can support teachers as they present information to their students. In the classroom I could use a presentation when teaching a lesson on the presidents of the United States. Through a presentation I would be able to add a photo of each president we discussed and add key facts about the president. I could also include links to provide more information, photos, documents, or speeches relating to a specific president.

This video demonstrates how presentation software in the classroom can be used. This teacher uses a presentation to teach a social studies lesson to her students. The presentation includes vocabulary and pictures. What I love most about the presentation is the slides either only have pictures, which allow her to further discuss, or they only have the definition of a vocabulary word, which allows the students to focus on just that. This presentation keeps this students engaged without overwhelming them with too many words or visuals.

Welcome!

Hey everyone!

I am an Elementary Education major at the University of Montevallo. I created this blog for a class I am enrolled in at UM. This class is to educate me on technology in the classroom and help me learn new ways to implement technology in the classroom. I am super excited to graduate in December of 2017 with a degree in Elementary Education and hopefully soon after have my very own classroom! I cannot wait to fulfill the calling God has given me to educate children and through teaching show them the love He shows me every day. As an educator, of course I believe it is important to teach children academics and prepare them for their next level of schooling, but I also believe it is important to love on them, be their number one supporter and encourager, and help them realize and achieve the greatness God has instilled within them. 

Proverbs 22:6