Fear Not!

"I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?" (Redman, 2006, track 2)

If I am truly trusting in God, my father, my fears are replaced with faith; anxiety with peace.  This is one of my favorite songs because it puts my mind in the right place, my focus on Him and the things I need to accomplish to serve Him better.  If I put my faith and trust in God, there is nothing I cannot do!

Technology is certainly not something I fear, but rather clamor toward.  With new technology comes a learning curve, not without frustrations as I learn, but with new understanding comes even greater excitement!  I have always loved learning.  I walked out of first grade knowing I wanted to be a teacher!  I am.  I love learning new things and then sharing the new knowledge with others… that’s the teacher in me.  Technology is a wonder.  I am constantly amazed at the things we are able to do today that weren’t possible when I was in school.  Making technology accessible to everyone is what I do best.  So no, I do not fear technology – I love it!

Our school currently has only two smartboards for approximately 16 general education classrooms.  I consider myself blessed to be one of the two!  Our new math adoption has a phenomenal technological piece with it that allows me to show a visual learning animation on the smartboard to the students and then turn the textbook page from the student book into an interactive page that students can write on to solve and work problems.  The kids really enjoy doing math on the interactive whiteboard!  I  have enjoyed discovering all the little perks that come with the digital math adoption and showing other teachers how to access it. 

We have a computer lab in our building that the students get an hour of computer lessons each week.  They learn skills such as Word processing, Google searches, KidPix creations, webquests, and PowerPoint presentations.  With my math stations kids get to experience math games on the whiteboard and four student computers in the classroom.  A class favorite is “Questionaut” from the BBC website.  I feel that I do a good job meeting the NETS goals for student and teacher standards.  I know there are things I could improve upon, but there will always be things I can do better.

The technological barriers I see in our professional setting today are numerous.  We have old equipment.  The laptops the students use in the computer lab need to be replaced.  The jacks for headphones have been jostled so much that they don’t keep the headset plugged in anymore.  Students now have to deal with the sound everyone else’s computer around them is making as a result.  There are limited resources available.  I already stated that we only have 2 smartboards in the building.  Every classroom should have one and every teacher should know how to use it in every subject.  Student computers in the classrooms are old as well.  They are large and cumbersome.  The motors run so loudly that they disrupt instruction and student learning at times and must be shut down.   The district just can’t keep up with the growing demands of technology today.

As I progress though this class, I hope to learn many new presentation programs… I have seen a Prezi before, but I know there are many more out there.  I want to learn tips and tricks to better use what I have available to me and I want to have a deeper understanding of the ways I can get students utilizing technology in the classroom and computer lab.  I am fairly knowledgeable, but you can never know too much!  My biggest triumph will be figuring out all the things I don’t know now that I didn’t know, I didn’t know!  :o)

Stay tuned!


References:
Redman, Matt. (2006).  You never let go. On Beautiful News CD.  Roswell, Georgia:  Sixsteps Records.