NO!
To Mountainbrook!
Two weeks ago, the Education Department took a four day field trip to Mountainbrook.
Why?
To broaden our horizon, to make us more technologically savvy, to rub elbows with the elite of educators?
ALL OF THE ABOVE!
AND, it fulfilled a requirement for our EDU 311 Instructional Media class. :)
Our host school was Brookwood Forest Elementary School, one of the leading schools for integrating technology in the classroom in Mountainbrook. While there, we were able to meet with Mrs. Mumm, the technology coordinator, for one-on-one technology use teaching everyday. She taught us how to use Wikispaces, clouds, Elmos, Inter-Write Pads, and so much more. I never knew there could be so much technology to be used in the classroom.
Mrs. Mumm made a good point about technology.
She said that, "Technology is our students' lives. Use technology as a resource for learning before we (teachers) get left behind!"
This is so true!
To make this statement more relevant for us, we got to see how this technology is used in the classroom. I was first assigned to a math class. The teacher was steadily using her technology while teaching students. She used her elmo for checking and correcting homework assignments. She also used her Inter-Write pad for math problems. That was pretty cool. The students didn't have to leave their seat for the whole class to see their work!
My favorite part of the Brookwood Forest experience was the work I saw in a 6th grade English classroom.
Being the English major that I am, it's always rewarding to see English in ACTION.
The students were working hard on a portfolio of over 27 differnt styles of poetry that they have written over the past semester.
OVER 27 DIFFERENT STYLES! WOW!
Each student was putting their finishing touches on their projects. Which means they were typing their poems and were putting clip art and other colorful pictures to their work to make it look fun and exciting. Then they would print them out and bind them for a keepsake after grading.
The experience at Brookwood Forest Elementary really opened my eyes to the different ways content can be presented to students. I now know that technology isn't just something for leisure time or research papers. It can be used to stimulate and sustain the learning process. I have used technology like this in a few lesson plans for this May block and I plan to use more as I prepare to be a teacher and after I become a teacher.
After all, I really don't like being left behind.
Here is a link to a Wikispace about our experience:edu311instructionalmediashorttermmay2011.wikispaces.com/Picturing+Our+Experience
Another Lesson Learned.
