Over which "Conditions" do you as a classroom educator have control? How do these conditions relate to the NETS-Teacher standards?
OK, Here's a hard one:
You're a 5th grade classroom teacher in Tennessee. You have to prepare students for federally mandated assessment (TCAPs) and the Tennessee Writing Assessment. Technology Standards are not tested standards. How do you include the NETS-S standards to ensure your students' technology growth is on track AND make sure your students still learn math, science, social studies, language arts, and reading?
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As a classroom educator, a few "conditions" I would have as control over are Shared Vision, Ongoing Professional Learning, Student-Centered Learning, and Assessment and Evaluation. These conditions relate to the NETS Teacher Standards due to the fact that I will have to know how to have control over these conditions. They are required within the standards. I.E. Assessment and Evaluation is a standard, just as it is a conditon.
As for the matter of being a 5th grade teacher who is preparing my class for TCAP testing and a Writing Assessment, while trying enrich my students minds in technology and in general subject matter, the answer is quite simple. I can develop a computer test (more than likely a different form every time)that will help the children learn more about technology while learning about each subject. For example...I may want to administer a science test. I can post a small passage to read on a website and require the students to answer the questions via a interactive poll. They will be learning technology while gaining various subject knowledge. Writing can be done the same way. Have the students write a paper, then have them type it in a word processing program. =)
We as teachers have control over Curriculum Framework, Student-Centered Learning, and Assessment and Evaluation in our classroom. These conditions relate to the student standards because all of them are found under the teacher standards for the teachers to use in their classrooms. One way that teachers can teach the technology standards and the state mandated tests are by incorporating activites on computers. There are several subjects and lessons that can be taught on computers such as math games that test the students minds and raise them to another level. English can be done by doing different paragraph formation, sentence structuring, or writing papers on the computer using different types of games or word processors. Social studies can use technology by letting the students do projects about a historical figure by using only the computer and technology based subjects. Every subject that a teacher may teach is able to have a different project that goes along with it teaching all of the technology standards and testing standards.
Technology needs to be brought into schools as often as possible because it is a major part of our society. Several conditions are used by teachers in the classroom on a daily basis. The conditions a teacher actually has control of are as follows: a shared vision for educational technology that can be passed along throughout the school as well as the community. Get others excited about technology, especially students and their parents. Also, a systematic plan to go along with the vision for the student’s learning of technology and the school’s effectiveness. Teachers do need to make sure they are qualified for their job responsibilities. The growth cannot continue through the students if the teachers are not properly educated first.
Students need to have a well-rounded education and not just be drilled on what is going to be on their TCAPs. Teachers can incorporate other things into their education to make sure that they are learned as well, for instance the technology standards. The best way I think to do this is to have a combined project. The students would take one of their main subjects (math, reading, or science) and put it into use in a technological aspect. This way they are learning about two things at once.
Some of the conditions that the classroom teacher would have control over would be Implementation Planning, Ongoing Professtional Learning, Student - Centered Learning, and Assessment & Evaluation. Some of the things that the teacher would not be able to control would be funding, and access to current tecnologies.
To prepare students for the TCAPs you could try finding some types of trivia games that are online and related to what they need to cover. For example the school that I work at frequently uses the website BrainPop. It's a website that shows short animated educational video clips and then the students take a quiz at the end.
I read the NETS-S activities for 5th grade and the Tennessee 5th grade state standards and developed some activity ideas to use in the classroom. Students could use Excel to create charts and graphs of science experiments. This could also be used for math. In regards to social studies and language arts, students could take part in mini research projects regularly to practice their ability to collect and gather information. Students could maintain a Microsoft Work journal and contribute writings to the journal throughout the week. Students could create PowerPoint slideshows over particular science and social study related concepts to be presented to the class. I think students should have an e-mail account where they can communicate with one another and with the teacher. I also think that students could type their assignments and e-mail them to the teacher.
As a classroom teacher I have control over the following standards; skilled personnel, ongoing professional learning, student centered learning, and assessment and learning.
First, as an educator I am in control whether I am skilled or not in ICT appropriate to my job responsibilites. It is up to me whether or not I chose to familiarize myself with the things I need to know to perform in my occupation.
As an educator, I am also in control of my ongoing professional learning. It is my responsibility to meet with other people in my profession to share ideas and practice skills.
Next, teachers also have control over the condition titled student centered learning. This condition requires the use of ICT to facilitate engaging approaches to learning. This is my choice to either make use of ICT or not.
Last, the condition of Assessment and Evaluation is also something in my control as an educator. It is in my hands to assess and evaluate both my students use of technology as well as my own.
In order for these conditions to be met, I will have to first meet the conditions presented in the NETS-Teacher standards.
If I was a fifth grade teacher trying to include NETS-S standards while still making sure that my students were still learning the basic subjects I would try to mix them together. For example, on Friday I observed a 4th grade reading class. The teacher was having the students do a book report, but the book report could take several forms. One of the forms was a power point presentation. For me it was amazing to see 4th graders working on a power point presentation. At the same time, other students using a computer program to work on basic multiplication facts. In my classroom, I would try to use technology as often as possible during my teaching practices. The students can lean about two things at once in the process. They will learn what they need to know about technology as well as math, science, social studies, language arts, and reading.
One of the conditions that a classroom teacher has control over is the shared vision. Although I as the teacher will not have complete control over all aspects of this condition, it will be up to me as a responsibility to do my part in the vision of maintaining the highest technology standards within the plans of the school. The second would be the ongoing professional learning. It will be my responsibility as a teacher to also be a student. Technology along with many things are always changing, and it is up to me to learn about these news things and how they work and in what ways I can implement them into my classroom. Curriculum framework would be the next that I must take part in. It will be up to me to implement new technologies into my lessons so that the students can see them being used and also to give them a chance to use them when available. This also incorporates the ideas behind student-centered learning and assessment and evaluation. These are related to the teacher standards in the sense that they require teacher participation and guidance for benefit of the students. As a teacher, the standards that are set for them are also embedded into the standards for the students because they learn from what the teacher uses and teaches from. If I were teaching a 5th grade class, I would start with including projects that required the students to do research. This could be anything from looking for pictures to go with a project to looking up information to assist with an experiment. I would also have the students to use new technologies with their experiments. It would also be imperative to include lessons within the classroom on new technologies in brief when the students are asked to use them in their projects. There are numerous specific ways to include the standards in the learning of the students, but I think that it is most important to lead by example and use the new technologies within the classroom so that when the students are introduced to the new technologies and asked to use them, they will have a familar basis to start from. This will also lead the students to be more comfortable with new technologies, and will in turn, benefit them most.
At the moment, I really don't understand how to answer the question. I am guessing that #6 of grades 3 - 5, conduct science experiments using digital instruments and measuring devices, is the appropriate answer.
The conditions I believe that a classroom teacher has most control over are: shared vision, ongoing professional learning, curriculum framework, student centered learning, assessment and evaluation. I believe there are ways to have more funding such as grants, but I, myself, don't specifically know how to write a grant for teachnology sources.
I believe all of the standards could be met. I think that to incoporate technology into the classroom and lesson plans it would not be that hard if there was enough equiptment for the students use. I believe using technology would make the students more interested in learning and be something different for them. There are plenty of webpages that are "kid friendly." Also, depending upon the students experience, projects or group work could be given to let the students possibly teach a lesson. I don't think that it would be difficult to incorporate technology into the classroom as long as there was easy access.
one could include the standards by having the students use the internet for help with homework. another way is to have students break up into groups and present on different topics that are on the tcaps. with this, the students would also be able to use email to communicate with one another.
The best idea to reach both goals is effective integration of technology into the lesson. If you are from a school like mine, for instance, you can schedule a day to take your class to the computer lab. When you have this time set, have the class do an assignment where they try to find the information for the lesson. This will take care of most of the coals set forth on the Profiles on the NETS standards site. The teacher would need to make sure that they are assisted in the project, and guide them through the process so they can effectively achieve both goals.
Conditions that I have control over:
Shared vision, Implementation Planning, Ongoing Professional Learning, Curriculum Framework, Student-Centered Learning, Assessment and Evaulation
The conditions that I have control over is what is expected of me according to the State Standards.
Here is a project that I would have the students do in order for them to strengthen their tech. skills as well as prepare for the TCAPs.
1. Have the students pair up in groups of 2/3, got to Google Earth and pick a country. Then have the students research a country and decide what is an important environmental issue of that country and how can the country "solve" this issue(this would meet #2,3,4 and science/reading/social studies)
2. Have the students prepare a media presentation that includes maps, charts, and pictures of the information that they have found on that country, along with explaining thier theory of what the country could do to prevent/improve the environmental issue. Then have the students present this to the class (#1,2,4,6 and math/reading/science/social studies/language arts(spelling, grammar etc...))
To meet the #5 standard could involve having each group of students set their own webpage and blog. Post their findings and presentation on it and allow other students to post comments. Require each group to make a 2-3 sentence post on each group's webpage (reading/language arts)
I feel like as a classroom educator the necessary conditions that I would have control over would be Shared Vision, Implementation Planning, Student-Centered Learning, and Assessment and Evaluation. Depending upon the school you are placed will depend on the other conditions. If you are placed in a school setting with high funding for technology and a high availability for the different resources then you would have more control over more conditions.
Let’s say I was a 5th grade teacher and I had to prepare my students for TCAPs and the Tennessee Writing Assessment, but technology standards are not tested. I would try to incorporate technology in the classroom with every activity possible. I would not necessarily teach to technology because of time constraints, but I would teach the different subject areas using technology. In the process I would teach and hope the students would pick up on different things about technology. This way the students would not get behind on their technology skills just because it is not in the state standards.
In the classroom, technology is such a huge part of all subjects. Now days in many classrooms, each subject has a technology counter part that is used to insure a student's knowledge on that particular subject. In my classroom, I will always find creative ways to make sure that at least once or twice a week a child has the opportunity to get onto the computer and practice a certain subject. For example, for elementary students, math and science online worksheets can be used to show examples to the students'. The best part about that, is that they can see their mistakes instantly and can also see the correct ways to fix them. Even though technology does not have a gateway or major testing done to evaluate it, it's our responsibility as teachers to make sure that we apply the standards daily to ensure maximum learning quality to our students.
A few of the standards I would have control over would be: Shared vision, Implementation Planning, Ongoing Professional Learning, Curriculum Framework, Student Centered Learning, Assessment and Evaulation. Its important to bring technology into the classroom as often as possible and to get the children as excited as possible to learn about technology.
For the fifth grade teacher question this can be addressed in many ways. As already pointed out by other classmates, a test on the computer, or research projects etc. will help see where they are. I believe that incorporating all the resources your school has will help see where the students are and if they are on track. Make the activities fun, but also make sure the students are learning subject material as well as technology skills also. There are a ton of ways a teacher can incoporate technology into his or her classroom, depending upon the resources, age level and subject matter being taught.
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