Blog #10 The Why's and How's of Technology.

How will you acquire technology for your classroom?

There are several ways to acquire technology for the classroom (although most are not easy and few are guaranteed)

• Beg your principal to give you funding from specialized school funds
• The schools Textnology funding.  A funding dedicated to text books and technology acquisition given from the school district.
• Use your federal funding for the school year
• Submit and apply for Grants and Donations
• Donors Choose
• Honda Grants
• Toyota Grants
• Government Grants
• Private Grants from various companies
• many other sources
• Pay for technology out of your own pocket (some of which can be claimable on taxes)
• Take specific educational courses that provide for you certain technological tools after completion.

How does the use of technology impact your classroom management strategies?

Just like anything in elementary school, management comes first.  Technology require management in many ways.  The first type of management requires safety.  It is necessary to teach how to safely use the equipment, navigate the equipment, and shut off the equipment.  Therefore, specific consequences and rewards are given to students with technology.  Sometimes technology is used as a reward for students.  If students have behaved very well and finished assignments I will allow them free time on certain educational websites that are interesting to students.  Of course, kids love these websites because they educational games.  I don't blame them, I love games too.  I have to give students specific cues and prompts to get them to stop using technology.  I guess you can say, technology requires its own specific sets of management that fits the particular set of equipment or situation.  

Why use technology if you always need a backup plan?

Well, why go to school if you could get into a car crash on the way to school and die?  Why date someone if you know your heart can get broken?  Why brush your teeth if they are just going to get dirty again?  Why make friends when your friends can hurt your feelings?  Why not use technology even if you need a back up plan. Is technology not beneficial?  We all know that technology is very beneficial and can be used to improve students academic success.  We all know technology drives the industries and humanity to experience a better state of existence.  Technology is important and necessary for civilization.  Thank God we are coming out of the Middle Ages.  It's a silly question, but a purposeful one.  Many people refuse to use technology because they are afraid it will break down on them.  Thus is life, everything has a cycle and a season and while technology isn't always reliable, its vital, helpful, and important.  Deal with it. :) 

A Reflection on Grants

1.        In searching for a grant, several factors need to be considered.  Let me further explain this by comparing searching for a grant to searching for a romantic partner.  When you sign up online for a dating website, you must consider that not everyone will want to be with you.  Each online candidate has specific desires and agendas as to what they prefer.  Potential grant givers are similar to this.  Grant sites are not abundant givers, they too are searching for just that special someone who can add to their agendas.  Grant givers want to know that what they are giving will have a return of benefit.  In other words, does your grant support me, my goal, my vision, and my dreams?  Will your grant add to the overall view of my corporation or self?  Similarly, a potential partner may think the same.  Therefore, the grant I write, or the person I am, must fall into vision and appeal to the potential gift giver.

To further this analogy, correct timing plays a vital role into both roles.  Grant givers have deadlines, commitments, and expectations to reach.  A potential soul mate is the same.  To be effective in both dating and grant writing you must have excellent communication and timing.  Most respectable people should expect reasonable execution of timing towards responding to and providing sufficient evidence of how one will benefit them.  Grant givers may be a little stricter in deadlines and have no lenience in late communication.  As all individuals are on trial during the dating period, a grant proposal is also on trial.  Bad profiles may need to be re-written to appeal to the potential date as a bad proposal may need to be re-written to appeal to the grant gift giver.  Grant givers, like any potential companion want to know that you will be grateful for their time, efforts, and offerings.  An expression of gratitude will go a long way to making the grant giver feel good, just as a flower may make your date feel special.  The more one puts effort into reaching out in gratitude, the greater one will look to the giver.  Attitude is everything, in all situations.  If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again.  Oh, and don’t go psycho if you’re rejected, no grant company likes a stalker either.  

Therefore, we can see that grant givers look for the same things as potential partners.  They seek a person whose goals and visions line up to theirs.  They are looking for someone whose financial needs are similar and within range.  A strong commitment to communication, deadlines, and timelines are strong factors.  Thus, the presenter must present themselves as favorable, available, and grateful.  We could all learn a lot about relationships from grant writing.  There is never a reason to take advantage of the gifts we are given and if we don’t try to reach out, there will be no benefit.  Love is within reach and so is thousands of dollars.

2.         I believe I have always had confidence to do whatever I wanted.  Why think anything less than this?  I can do anything I put my mind up to and this beautiful Universe will support me in the good that I do for myself and others.  That is what I believe, anyways.  What this assignment did was get me to search for potential funding sources.  As I was only aware of one source, I realized that there are many sources and like dating, you've got to try and put effort into applying to gain the benefits.  All things in life require work and effort to improve.  This is a simple answer, yes, both confidence and encouragement have improved to seek for grants.  I have learned many new things, such as how to find potential sources and that they are like dating sites.  They all are looking for something different and specific.  The impact is that I feel more aware of what’s available. I feel like I have more power to get the things that I need that the school won’t fund for me.  I’d likely go for smaller items on Donors Choose.

3.         While I haven’t had the desire to write up a grant, I wouldn't be opposed to it now.  Will I take this grant into action, the honest answer is no.  I believe that my grant is quite expensive and while IPad's would be an excellent tool for my students, I believe I will start smaller.  There is an abundance of technology resources available on the computer that I am just learning to implement.   Therefore my direction as of now is to get technology tools that are free and available first and learn how to implement them effectively into my teaching. I also want to increase my ability to use green screening in my school.  I will add that if my school doesn't invest next year in a good camera and tripod stand, I’ll write a grant for that.  

Blog #9 Backwards Design

How does the combined backward design and technology-rich focus impact your unit design?

This question can be viewed from two angles, a professional and person view.  I will answer this from the professional view first.

Professional View: The backwards design allows me to see the whole picture of my unit in an organized way.  This is helpful to an unorganized teacher.  The backwards design allows me to understand my objectives and essential questions better.  Essentially, I know what my students will do to show understanding of the objective.  This means I create assessments that accurately display what my students must know by the end of the unit.  Backwards design allows me to scaffold lessons so the unit can come together step-by-step for students and the teacher.  

The technology integration is easier with a unit design.  If my goal is to integrate a specific tool, such as PowerPoint into my lessons, backwards design helps me also scaffold their learning through this creative tool.  Designing the unit, with technology, gives me ideas on how to prepare lessons and technology materials before teaching, which saves on valuable time.  Lastly, a technology assessment that doesn't involve multiple choice questions is a disruptive tool to knowing what my students know.  I like using interactive, real-life scenarios, with technology for students to demonstrate an understanding of the concepts.  Students love it too.

Personal View: Sometimes, I think I am writing scripts when I backwards design.  This helps me stay organized and have an overall view of what I want to accomplish.  However, I tend to get frustrated by following scripts as my creativity is always running wild and the lessons aren't always simple.  The thing is, if my students aren't understanding a concept, then I have to re-teach in a different way.  Therefore, I tend to stick with teaching by the ways I know my students have been successful.  Why I like the backwards design with technology integration, I know I need to be flexible with my lessons.

Blog # 9 Unit Design

How does the combined backward design and technology-rich focus impact your unit design?

This question can be viewed from two angles, a professional and person view.  I will answer this from the professional view first.

Professional View: The backwards design allows me to see the whole picture of my unit in an organized way.  This is helpful to an unorganized teacher.  The backwards design allows me to understand my objectives and essential questions better.  Essentially, I know what my students will do to show understanding of the objective.  This means I create assessments that accurately display what my students must know by the end of the unit.  Backwards design allows me to scaffold lessons so the unit can come together step-by-step for students and the teacher.  

The technology integration is easier with a unit design.  If my goal is to integrate a specific tool, such as PowerPoint into my lessons, backwards design helps me also scaffold their learning through this creative tool.  Designing the unit, with technology, gives me ideas on how to prepare lessons and technology materials before teaching, which saves on valuable time.  Lastly, a technology assessment that doesn't involve multiple choice questions is a disruptive tool to knowing what my students know.  I like using interactive, real-life scenarios, with technology for students to demonstrate an understanding of the concepts.  Students love it too.

Personal View: Sometimes, I think I am writing scripts when I backwards design.  This helps me stay organized and have an overall view of what I want to accomplish.  However, I tend to get frustrated by following scripts as my creativity is always running wild and the lessons aren't always simple.  The thing is, if my students aren't understanding a concept, then I have to re-teach in a different way.  Therefore, I tend to stick with teaching by the ways I know my students have been successful.  Why I like the backwards design with technology integration, I know I need to be flexible with my lessons.