Hit me with your best shot.

1) Technology should be used in education for the benefit of the students. We are living in an age of technology. Students are constantly using computers, cell phones, i-pods, and other such technological devices. In order to reach students, it is incredibly important to use technology, not just in teaching, but also in order to truly engage the students.

As a teaching aid, technology opens up many different opportunities within the classroom. It could start simple, such as taking attendance and recording grades on a computer. This easy process will save time for teachers and help keep their abundance of papers down to some extent. Technology could also help teachers to captivate their students directly to their lesson. Perhaps I am teaching Romeo and Juliet. I could use a DVD to show clips from several different versions of the movie in order for students to have a visual to go along with the text. Technology can serve in several different ways to benefit the classroom.

2) I have only been in my classroom once, which poses a difficulty for me to know exactly what technology my students have/use. However, I did see one girl today bring in a flash drive, containing her homework assignment for that day. I did not see any cell phones, though I am sure students have them. Also, there were no laptops. Students wrote in notebooks. As I work more in the classroom, I am sure that I will be able to see more of the technology that the students themselves have.

Of the technology that I have seen, I believe that I could definitely use flash drives with my students. But I would have to make sure that they had somewhere to connect and print their documents.

3) Again, I have only been observing in my classroom once, so I am not 100% sure of all the technology that is used in the classroom. I did see however that the teacher had a computer on her desk. I also saw an overhead projector. As time goes by, I may see more technology, but at this time I am not entirely sure. I know that she has open e-mail communication with her students, which is both profitable for her and the students. But most of her work is done by hand, with paper and a pen.

I think that several things could be added to my classroom. One such thing could be a class website. Mrs. Warren, my cooperating teacher, does not at this time have a website to post assignments. I think that would be very helpful for my students. They are incredibly busy and I think they would find this extremely helpful. Also, being that my class is an AP junior English class, I believe that technological aids would be extremely helpful. For example, the class is reading The Scarlet Letter. They are mainly using just discussion to study the book. I would want to bring in outside sources and maybe show clips from the performed play. Visual representations help to solidify the text into the student's minds.

4) Currently, the classroom that I am observing has very little technology. I am not sure if at there is a computer class/program that my students have to take in order to meet the NETS standards. So it is difficult for me to say how I could help my students with technology standards, especially since my class is solely an English class.

If this was my personal classroom, I would probably have my students help me design a website for the class and then implement some kind of discussion forum so that students could ask questions and receive answers from their classmates. This would help them understand what it is like to use html and to format their own website. This would work in the basic operations and concepts. I would also make sure to address that class on how to correctly format a document for completion of an assignment, which would work under the demonstration of understanding technological systems. Finally, I would have my students read about technology changes and growth, etc. through newspapers and websites and then have them write their thoughts. This would work under the information management section of the NETS.

5) My Professional Preparation Performance Profile
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