My name is Danielle Truchanowicz. I am currently studying at Edinboro University for my Early Childhood Education degree with a minor in special education. This blog page is a final assignment project in my Technology for Teacher's class. I will be explaining what my future classroom will look like, the demographics of my classroom based on the school I want to teach in, the technology's I will be integrating into my teaching and the assisted technologies I would use should a disabled student be placed in my classroom. I know that once I graduate from Edinboro, I will probably have to move south to find a teaching job. With so many colleges offering teaching degrees in this area, jobs for teachers are hard to find here in Erie. My hope would be to one day come back and teach at the school that I graduated from, Fairview School District. I want to teach at their elementary school as the area is beautiful and I would love to live there some day. Third grade is what I would like to teach. I believe this is a critical period in a child's life and I think I would enjoy working with this age group.
This I believe:
This video highlights one of my most important beliefs about teaching; that it is a teacher's duty to do everything in their power to find out why a child doesn't understand a lesson, chapter, concept or subject by implementing many methods of teaching into their classroom.
My classroom:
(Third grade at Fairview Elementary School)
The demographics of Fairview Elementary School are, 98.16% White, 2% Hispanic, 1% Asian and .7 % black. I would expect my class room to be about the same then, with mostly white students. As per the student-teacher ratio for the school (18), I would expect that my classroom has 15 students. Fairview typically scores very well on their student's PSSA and proficiency tests so most of the students probably read at a third grade level, and the same goes for math proficiency. The few who do struggle with math or reading will be encouraged to stay after school.. My class room may also have a student with a disability. This could include something physical such as being in a wheelchair or hearing impaired, or a mental disability.
Setting:
The seating arrangements allow for 15 students to see the board at all times. The students will be seated at the tables so that no student has his or her back to the white board. The desks are half-spheres that they can be joined together to create a collaborative environment, or can be separated for individual work, or tests. My desk will also be in front of the room so that I can see all of the students at all times when I am sitting.
A small table just in front of my desk will be called the "turn in center". This is where students will turn in their homework, or collect a packet of notes/assignments that they missed if they were absent. There will be three bins. 1. Assignments ungraded(where students will hand in their work) 2. Assignments graded (things that need to be handed back) 3.Absent work (notes, worksheets and assignments for absent students is kept here). This system will also make my life easier as it will keep assignments organized.
One corner of the room has a reading center. This will be a relaxing environment in which all students can sit for reading as a group, or individual students can read here during free time. This is also where the supplies are kept (paper, pencils, tape, staples etc.) Next to the reading center is a shelf for activities and arts and crafts. The activities will include board games, math cards, puzzles etc.
The technologies in this classroom include a smart board, computers, projector, and FM speaker for a disabled hard of hearing student in the room. These technologies will be explained further later on.
When deciding how to set up my classroom, I already had some idea as to what I wanted to include in the room. When I started researching, I came across the University of Northern Colorado's website.They had a page under their "School of Teacher Education" program that has some good ideas on how to set up a classroom. I decided to follow these four components when designing mine:
Four Keys to Good Room Arrangement
- Keep high-traffic areas free of congestion.
- Be sure students can be seen easily by the teacher.
- Keep frequently used teaching materials and student supplies readily accessible.
- Be certain students can easily see whole-class presentations and displays.
- Arrangement of Student desks-Arrange desks so students are facing and can readily see the primary whole-group instructional area.
- Small-Group Instruction Areas-Arrange this area so you can monitor the rest of the class from your seated teaching position.
Integrations:
Listed below are five technologies that will be used in my classroom to help my students
learn:
1. Connecting students and teachers inside the classroom
Next to the white board in the frot of the classroom, I will have a smart board. A smart board will connect the image from my computer, to the screen and act as a touch screen.This will allow for interactive learning through games, puzzles, and visual representation of concepts. Projects that the students make can be projected in front of the class and can be presented by the student without them having to stand behind a computer screen.
2. Supporting publishing students and teacher's work
"The Amazing Writing Machine" is a program that can be installed on the computers in my classroom to help help my students write. This program has creative and artistic writing options that allow the students to either write from scratch or chose from a number of templates. Illustrations can also be drawn along with their writings. The program includes spell check, a thesaurus and text to speech options as well.
3. Connecting students and teachers outside the classroom
Edmodo.com is a website with a design similar to Facebook. Students have access to a network that contains our class and can post on the classroom wall, and share files and photos. Other students can also comment on other's posts. This will allow for class discussion. Assignments, worksheets, the class schedule, links to other websites and resources will be posted on this website and used as a communication site for the whole class.
The site that I will use to post grades will be edline.net. This is the site that the district of Fairview uses to post grades and assignments. Other teachers at this school primarily use edline but I think that the site lacks communication and class discussion.
4. Connecting the class with experts around the world
Skype is usually thought of as a means of private communication for two people, but the company offers resources for education as well. www.education.skype.com currently offers 2,880 lessons. These lessons come from experts in various subjects. Some teachers also post on the site that their class is looking for another class to connect with. This would open up opportunities for collaboration across the country or across the world.
5. Collaborating with others to share knowledge
Kid Pix is a program that allows for illustration on a tablet that has the program. This is a child friendly program that allows the finished product to be printed. The drawings can also be made into a slideshow and uploaded to youtube. Projects can be assigned to students to "teach" the class about something and then presented through youtube on the smart board.
Assistive Technologies
This is a picture of a student that could potentially be in my classroom one day. She is disabled and has moderate hearing loss. A hearing impaired person may have mild, moderate or profound hearing loss. Someone with moderate hearing loss has trouble hearing and keeping up with a conversation when not using their hearing aids.
To help Sarah learn better, I would seat her so that she is always facing me. Many people with hearing loss learn to read lips to some degree and always seeing me, will help her understand better. The seat will also be away from any running background noise such as computers, projectors or heating systems as they are easily picked up by hearing aids and very distracting.
Reverberation of sound can also cause problems for a hearing impaired students. Hard surfaces of a classroom such as floors, desktops and hard walls can make this problem especially bad. To counteract this reverberation, the ceilings can be acoustically treated, the floor could be carpeted and bulletin boards can be placed along some of the walls. These materials act as sound absorbency and help alleviate reverberation. Self Reflection
I think that this class has made me seriously think about the planning of my future classroom even before this project was assigned. The technologies that we explored helped me decided which ones I wanted, and which ones I really didn't want to use in the furure. In our class we explored the Mac operating system and the different applications that it offered. Even though I do not like Mac's, I did try to use this technology and ended up learning that they have some innovative technologies that could be used my classroom if I took the time to learn how to use them. This was my first semester in college and my first class that really had a lot to do with my major. I defiantly enjoyed this class more than any of my others because I was passionate about learning and discussing all of the topics in class. I enjoyed this project as well as others that made me think about what I wanted to be like as a future teacher. This class also made me excited for my future here at Edinboro as I get further into my major and start taking upper level classes.
Bibliography
"Frequently Asked Questions on Schooling for Disabled Children and Young People."Csie.org. Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education, 12 Jan. 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2012. <http://www.csie.org.uk/inclusion/faq.shtml>.
"Classroom Management Guide." School of Teacher Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012.
"Fairview Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Aug. 2012. Web. 13 Dec. 2012.
"Fairview Elementary School." Zillow. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012.
"THE AMAZING WRITING MACHINE." THE AMAZING WRITING MACHINE. Ed. Lee Ann Bonson. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012.
Sommer, Susan. "Technology in a Third Grade Classroom." Www.4teachers.org | Teacher Testimony | Technology in a Third Grade Classroom. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. <http://www.4teachers.org/testimony/sommer/index.shtml>.
"Kid Pix." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 July 2012. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Pix>.
"Deafness and Hearing Loss." National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2012. <http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/hearingloss>.
Doyle, Melanie, and Linda Dye. "Mainstreaming of a Student Who Is Deaf or Hard of Hearing." N.p., Jan. 2002. Web. <http://www.handsandvoices.org/pdf/mainst_cal.pdf>.
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