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Chapter 4 Prompt: How many of the digital technologies discussed in this chapter have you used? Have you used them in an educational setting or elsewhere? For what purposes did you use them? Did they facilitate the purposes? Chapter 4 in our textbook discussed different technologies along with the challenges/opportunities for educators to integrate them into the classroom. This is the sixth edition of the textbook “Teaching and Learning with Technology” and as such, is relatively up-to-date with the various types of technology available to educators today. The chapter divides technology into computers and peripheral technology. Computer Technology
Except for electronic whiteboards and graphic tablets, I personally have used basically all these different types of technologies. Without aging myself too much, I was probably in 4th or 5th grade when my parents first got a desktop computer, and I was a junior in high school when I first got a digital camera (2mp was a huge deal at the time). Since then, technology has EXPLODED, but I feel that I have done a good job keeping up. Besides the technologies listed above, I have also used digital cartographic instruments/software and ground penetrating radar for archaeology. In medical school, we used clickers to answer questions in class. Otherwise, I have used the other types of technology in my personal and vast academic endeavors. As an educator, I use technology all the time. From displaying presentations with my Apple TV to utilizing my school google drive for cloud storage to attempting to video conference during the COVID-19 pandemic remote learning that happened in the spring. I am hoping to actually get a graphic tablet to use in my classroom next year. I feels that it would enhance my lectures if I could annotate the presentations while presenting (highlighting key ideas) and to get the students to annotate or identify material while I’m lecturing to increase student engagement. So, wish me luck! Chapter 3 Prompt: Think back on a classroom environment in which you were not as successful as you might have wanted to be. What were the factors that you encountered from the teacher and/or other students that may have hindered your learning? How will you mitigate such factors in your own classroom? In my academic career, I was not successful (obviously) in medical school. At medical school, I struggled like I had never previously nor since experienced. While there were multiple factors involved, one large factor was how the material was presented. With very few exceptions, such as General Pathology and Osteopathic Manipulations, there was little student engagement and was very teacher-centered (as many medical school curriculums are). We primarily sat in a lecture hall and listened to instructors go through PowerPoints. I am a note-taker in class but at times, there was simply an overload of information. One professor would cover a 100 slide PowerPoint with mostly histopathological images in one 50-minute period. Medical school gave me excellent examples of what not to do. In my class, I pace my lectures to meet the needs of my students, which at times means spending 20 minutes on one slide even if the entire lecture was supposed to take 15 minutes. Another practice that I picked up was to provide my students with paper copies of the slides to keep up with at their desk to write notes on. I am working on bettering my student engagement in the classroom. There have been times where I see the glazed stares and call for a ‘commercial break’ where all the students stand up and stretch to refocus themselves. Afterwards, I say, “Now back to our original programming.” 😊 I also try to be more student-centered, so the students have autonomy, and the learning is more authentic to them. This, as the textbook points out, is very time-consuming to plan, but it is better than the alternative. Chapter 2 Prompt: Using Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, describe three intelligences in which you excel and give an example of each. How could these intelligences be useful when you become a teacher? According to the multiple intelligence quiz, my top three intelligences are spatial, nature, and self/intrapersonal. Spatial intelligence means that I am good at visual learning and mentally manipulating objects, which makes a lot of sense considering my aptitude for drawing and painting. This also explains why I do best at spelling when I can write the word down rather than spell it out loud. I hated spelling bees as a kid in elementary school. As a teacher, this intelligence serves me well because I create a lot of drawings and models for my students to better visualize science concepts. Naturalistic intelligence means that I am very interested in nature and animals. I have my parents to thank for feeding this intelligence growing up. I have many childhood memories of my mom catching garter snakes for me and my brother, watching Shark Week (since 1990), and going fishing and camping on Horn Island. Having a high aptitude for naturalistic intelligence also explains why I thrived during my summer in Belize working in the jungle (no joke, we hiked 3 miles in and 3 miles out via macheted-trails everyday) doing archaeology. We dealt with monkeys, insects, scorpions, scorpion spiders, toucans, turkeys, and snakes every day during the rainy season. I have the perfect job right now because I get to teach high school zoology! I found it very amusing that while preparing my lecture last spring on amphibians and reptiles that I had tons of personal pictures of frogs, toads, iguanas, and snakes that I have taken. My students think I’m a bit crazy, but I have tons of personal stories about my encounters with animals from huge insects to sharks to greyhounds that really enriches the content I teach. Self or intrapersonal intelligence means that I am well in tuned with understanding myself and have more introverted tendencies. This intelligence has both been good and bad. During the recent quarantine, I have found this to serve me well; however, in school, this has been a hindrance at times. People with intrapersonal intelligence tend to mull over a question before answering. When I was in graduate classes that were all discussion based, I found that the conversation would move on before I could formulate my contribution to the discussion, which is hard when your grade depends on your involvement. So, as a teacher, I try to involve all my students by giving them a couple of minutes to formulate their answer to a question before we enter a discussion phase. Chapter 1 Prompt: What standards do you feel are most relevant to your teaching and to your content area and that will challenge you the most? What strategies will you employ to become familiar with these standards so that you can more easily address them in your classroom? When discussing ‘standards’ in education, there are many different ones that educators use to guide their instruction. There are national standards; there are state-level standards; there are content-area standards. Here, in ITD 645, we are concerned with technology standards used to guide educators in integrating technology into their classroom. While there are no single ‘set’ to follow, the most common have been set by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). The ISTE has defined 7 different student roles of students in the 21st century: empowered learner, digital citizen, knowledge constructor, innovative designer, computational thinker, creative communicator, and global collaborator. Educators are no just charged with using technology in the classroom but to foster an environment where students become technologically literate in the 21st century. In my science classroom, technology is at the heart of many scientific advances, such as virtual dissection labs. One of the most novel and relevant ISTE student standard is being a global collaborator. According to the ISTE, “students use digital tools to connect with learners from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, engaging with them in ways that broaden mutual understanding and learning” (2020). I think that it is so exciting that educators can connect with scientists all around the world and even the International Space Center to bring experts to the classroom at the drop-of-the-hat so to speak via video conferencing. Conversely, the most challenging ISTE student standard is teaching students to be a digital citizen and understand the permanence of their footprint in the digital world. Even before looking up the ISTE technology standards for students, I already adhered to and believed in many of their goal ideas. In this day-and-age, being technologically savvy is more than just learning how to type and use word processors. Moving forward, I plan to …
Howdy ya'll! My name is Nicole Musselwhite, and I currently teach high school zoology and human anatomy/physiology. Spring 2020 was my first semester teaching, which was quite the experience! Besides general science, I hold endorsements in biology, chemistry, health education, and social studies. When I'm not teaching, my hobbies include long distance running/triathlons, being a mom to my greyhound and cat, and being an aunt to 3 nephews. I also am a novice artist (instagram- @southern_life_art) and dabble in drawing and painting. Though this summer, I am teaching myself how to hand-sew a quilt. Education Right now, I am in the Masters of Art in Teaching program at USM. After this summer, I will just have 2 internship classes and am set to graduate next spring. My prior education experience is what I can only describe as eclectic. I have a B.A. in History with a minor in English as well as a M.A. in Anthropology (Emphasis in Maya Bioarchaeology), both from USM. I also have over 100 credit hours in science, largely due to my failed attempt at a career in medicine (I made it through 2 years of medical school but that is a whole other story). In total, I have had at least 12 classes online that I can recall off the top of my head, mostly in the MAT program. Besides being a professional student, I have also held jobs as (but not limited to) a nanny, office assistant, graduate research assistant, graduate teacher assistant, PACU-Recovery Medical Technician, and medical scribe for outpatient surgery procedures. Technology Skills I would say that I am most familiar and proficient with the Microsoft software (Word, Powerpoint, OneNote, Excel, etc) in my roles as both student and teacher. I started using Google-platform software (Drive, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Forms, Google Classroom) as a teacher this last semester, especially when we went to distance learning. I am also familiar with Coogle, basic Adobe, GIS software, and electronic medical records software (Epic and Cerner). In terms of technology tools used in education, I am more familiar or aware of the tools and have not had the chance to try many out yet. I used Edpuzzle, Quizlet, Kahoot, and Screencastify in my first semester of teaching. I also created all my tests on Schoolnet (provided by my school). I am very familiar with the use of email (as a teacher, student and professional) and discussion boards as forms of electronic communication as well as Zoom and Google Meets. They all have pros and cons associated with them, and I feel that no one method is 'best' for all situations. Though I must say, I prefer email, text or face-to-face rather than calling people on the phone. Teaching Philosophy I believe that all students are individuals that learning in a multitude of different manners (auditory, visual, kinetic, etc). I best try to integrate multiple learning styles to reach every student. I also believe that my job as a high school teacher is teaching the students more than just the subject material but also to prepare them for life outside of school. In my first semester, I experimented with virtual animal dissection labs and animals behavior games as well as group projects in google slides. I am very new to teaching and am slowly building a repertoire of different technologies to integrate as I become more familiar with what students respond to and what is available. |
AuthorHi! My name is Nicole, and I am a high school science teacher. Blog Roll
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