Tech Assist Week 2

Monday, April 27: The Beginning of the End

I had an amazing opportunity this morning as I was able to sit in on a meeting with the board’s 21st century instructional coach and the two tech teachers from the school as they went extremely in depth with the features of Eportfolio, the Hub, and Dropbox. I have never crammed so much information into my head as I did in this 2 hour meeting. It was nice being back on the student side of learning tech for once. I must say I love learning anything new when it comes to ed tech related tools. I learned how to setup the dropbox so that students can submit assignments online. After learning almost all there is to know about these programs I felt extremely honoured and concerned. My main concern that kept flashing in front of my eyes was that if I struggled to follow along at some points, then half the teachers in this school are doomed. It was a lot to take in and a lot of steps to follow in order to complete a simple task. Even with the board pushing these programs for teachers to use, I can understand why not many are even attempting to try it out.

I was supposed to present at the lunch and learn today. However, I am suffering from some chest cold and have no voice. So I cancelled the lunch and learn but made myself available to teachers who wished to learn on an individual basis so that I wouldn’t strain my voice any more. Oh the joys of working with children, you teach them to share, and they share everything! The good part about sounding contagious is that no one wants to come near you. Which made my lunch a little more relaxing as a met with one teacher to show her the basics of the program, while another teacher heard one sound from me and took off.

Instead of using my prep, I went back to my class to watch the rest of the presentations. I have done too much with these kids to miss these awesome presentations! They really brightened my day as they acted so professional as they introduced their presentation topic and addressed questions from the class.

In the afternoon I met with M.B and taught her Popplet. As expected she learned the program quite fast. We ran into some roadblocks and although we found a solution that was not extremely efficient she embraced is and accepted the way it would be. After brainstorming ways to use this program in a lesson later on in the week, I thought I would pose the idea of Eportfolio and see what she says. She was indeed interested to learn about it but a bit hesitant as she was already using Sesame in the classroom. I began with the basics of Eportfolio and Dropbox. I could tell I was starting to lose her at times so I would take a step back and allow her to take it all in. However then a teacher walked by and began giving us her opinion about Eportfolio. A few moments later one of the teachers that attended the meeting with me overheard our conversation and came to my aid to provide support. At this time it forced me to show M.B a lot more about the program’s features than I had intended to at this time. I could see the look on her face and the unsuspected silence start shout “warning, overload”. I knew we had gone way over her head with all this new tech stuff and she turned herself right off. After the teachers left, we headed back to the class and I apologized for throwing so much at her all at once. She agreed with me that a lot of it was way over her head and she began to tune it out. The overall lesson for today was look and listen for those warning signs of tech overload!

Tuesday, April 28: It’s Online Resource Time

I started off my morning in M.K’s classroom. She had expressed her interests about learning online resources to use with her students. I showed her Glencoe Virtual Manipulatives and she loved it. She played around with them for quite awhile as we brainstormed ways this program can be used in the classroom. I also showed her Popplet as she heard about it from M.B and became interested. After teaching her the basics of the program she thought this would be a great way to start off her science unit. She picked up both programs with ease and I could see that she was prepared to use this in her class. The down time with only having one period with her is that I feel so rushed and can never fully give her the overview she needs in order for her to feel comfortable enough to use it on her own. I did not have enough time to walk her through creating a Smart notebook lesson as her class returned to the room. We originally set a goal for Thursday to be the day she would create and implement a Smart notebook lesson. It will be interesting to see if this goal will be met.

Later I met with M.P to give her an overview of Evernote as she too was looking for an assessment tool. I showed her the basics of the program and got her to set up her own account. However, we learned something new. The Evernote app appears to be different on every device we looked at. Looked at 5 different devices and they all had a different version or layout that we couldn’t seem to change accept for changing the colours and the way the files were viewed. This really threw her off and I could tell it was another excuse given to her to not use this app in her daily program. It is so interesting to see two different teachers who both teach kindergarten with extremely different attitudes towards learning new technology. Where one seems to be completely for it, the other, completely against it.

In the afternoon I met with M.S to teach her some online resources to use with her class. I thought that maybe she would enjoy the Glencoe Virtual Manipulatives as much as M.K did early this morning. I was right. She loved it and expressed how she would use it next period as it went perfect with their theme of base ten frames. I only had a single period with her so we only had enough time to explore this program and plan for next period’s lesson. So for the second period I wrote out a list of good kindergarten online resources and apps. I made a copy of this list and provided it to both kindergarten teams.

Wednesday, April 29: Preparation for the Finals

I began the morning by creating a written document requested from the V.P and the Principal. They asked for a write up of what I had covered with the Kindergarten teams in order to know where to use their budget for next year’s PD workshops. I outlined what was discussed on the first meeting as well as the goals each Kinder-team made. I outlined some of the challenges that were faced and skills and strengths that have started to shine through. I made note of their anticipated next steps as to how to continuously grow more comfortable using the technology that I introduced to them.

Later that morning I was back in my class to watch to final Glogster presentation. I really could not be anymore proud of my students as their hard work really paid off. After the presentation I was in and out of the classroom running little errands and gathering a few items of mine that were scattered around the school in preparation for tomorrow being my last day. I went to go back into my homeroom but the door was locked and I was told to go away. They seem to be up to something. So instead I went down to the kindergarten room to double check that the schedule for today worked for them. It was a good thing that I checked because they both wanted the same, so we decided that it would be the most beneficial if we met as a group for our last tech session to learn Google Tour Builder. We met after recess in one of the Kindergarten rooms. We all crowded around the computer as I modelled/ guided them through the program allowing them the opportunity to play with it on their own. We all came up with ideas of where to visit. And as we were going through creating our tour I don’t think there was ever a moment when someone wasn’t saying how awesome this will be to use with the students. Especially to track where everyone is from since they were all born outside of Canada. They had a map on the wall with pins and string to display this, but the teacher was so excited to recreate it to show pictures and to walk the streets of these kid’s hometowns.

In the Afternoon it was M.B’s turn to integrate Popplet into the class. When I first taught her this program she expressed her desire to introduce their next science unit on plants and living things using Popplet to create a brainstorm web of what they already know. Together we presented the students the new program and briefly went over the features. We began really basic with a picture of a plant in the middle. M.B stayed up at the board and I was stationed at the computer to type in what the students were saying about plants. As the web got bigger more hands went up. They really knew a lot and this program really seemed to capture their interest and really got them engaged. Once the lesson was over and it was recess, a few of the students came to me to express how awesome they thought Popplet was. I agreed, it is way better than chart paper! After the students were out, M.B expressed how well it went and wants to continue using it as they learn information to add to the existing web. She did have one concern though, how was she going to type, navigate and teach all at once, once I am gone. We came to the solution of moving the keyboard in a way that her back is not to the class. Overall, she was quite pleased with the way this lesson went.

Thursday, April 30: Last Day

Today is the day, the last one of this amazing experience that I feel I have blinked away. It has gone by too fast! I start off with M.K as she was supposed to create a Smart notebook lesson for today. This was the original goal, however when I got to her room she was no where in sight. I turned on her Mimio board to make sure everything was up and running. She came in a bit later to the room stating that she had too much to prepare for this morning and that this lesson will just have to happen another time. This was a shame as she was looking forward to this. It wouldn’t be a typical day in elementary school if things did not go as plan! So I was flexible and let it go. I asked if I could be of any help as I could see her scrambling around the room. I helped her set up a few things before her class got back from the Gym.

After lunch I was back in my homeroom where my class surprised me with cards that they have been working on all week. They were so pleased that they were able to trick me. I surprised them with bookmarks I made them using Wordle to create a word cloud with their name and adjectives to describe them. I included a heartfelt poem on the back with my signature. They were all excited to see the different words I used to describe them all. During prep I was back in the lab working on the collaborative reflection. This day really just flew by. It was last period before I knew it, so I brought out the treats and veggies. We were all able to have a nice little gathering one last time. Which quickly turned into a massive photoshoot just before the dismissal bell. That was it, the day was done. My placement was done. My education was done. It really was a surreal feeling that I was now officially a qualified teacher.

I ran into a few teachers to say bye as I was leaving and one said that she was going to really miss our group of student teachers. She said that there was something special about this group as we felt apart of the school and it won’t be the same without us. It was such an honour to hear this and I truly think it had to do with the tech portion as it made the rest of the teachers aware of who we were.