Blog I

While teachers are told what students should be learning and may even be given the tests to assess them with, the choices are nearly endless when it comes to deciding what technologies should be used to teach the material. Many teachers use software such as PowerPoint to present their topics. This is a great tool to use because of its great customization. Any subject can be taught using PowerPoint and its many features. Charts, graphs, pictures, or even strictly text can be presented in whatever way the teacher wants/needs.

I have also seen the site BrainPOP Jr. used for note-taking. This site offers videos teaching a variety of subjects for all different levels of learning. When I saw a teacher using it for his first grade class, the students learned science and had the video paused often to further discuss topics or write down key elements. This was interesting to me because I originally thought they'd discuss what was learned after the short video had ended. This teacher's way proved to be much more successful than my way, as the children got to ask questions and get answers before they'd forgotten they'd even had one! Writing the information down as they went also helped the students by further reinforcing the new content learned.

Something else I found interesting when assisting in the classroom is the way things were sometimes taught. Due to current standards, students must always draw a picture to help solve their math problems. While the students were not told they HAD to draw one, the teacher highly suggested they should and that it would help them the most. The result was that everyone drew their pictures and it gave these students an element of fun where they could choose what to draw that might help. As long as students weren't spending too much time on the picture (sometimes it became an art project to some!), drawing the picture aided them through their math processes.

Resources:
BK. Flickr. What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches. 21 August, 2013. Web. Retrieved 1 November, 2015.
Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.