Teaching today for the future

Chapters five and six offer so many ways to help an educator integrate technology into the classroom. It is only for the instructor to take the foundation and begin to build a wonderful structure of learning. In the teaching of social studies, I have always told my students that all subjects are touched upon. This being the case, the software, programs and materials discussed in these chapters can be incorporated in most any avenue of the social studies that the teacher wishes to use it.

Chapter five includes a section on desktop publishing. This is probably one area all teachers incorporate technology – sometimes without even realizing it. Students today, especially once they reach middle school age, are well versed in desktop publishing tools and use many facets of it in papers and projects, even when the teacher does not require it. Long gone are the days of having to plan that research paper so carefully so that your footnotes line up right or of writing it out long hand and editing it more than once and then having to re-type a whole page because you made a spelling error or missed a word. Today desktop publishing programs offer an ease of use in these areas, that teachers of all subjects should be assigning some form of research paper from at least eighth grade on.

I love the puzzle generators. I have used them a few times before and find them a fun tool. Near the end of the year, as students are getting antsy and it is harder for them to focus, crossword and word search assignments are great – and they can create them for each other to enhance the learning process.

Probably the greatest asset I found in teaching was the electronic gradebook. I loved the one I used from Teacher Created Materials. We had weekly grade reports that we sent home and this program not only helped with that, but at mid-term and marking period time – I found it much easier to have kept a weekly total of grades. It also allowed me to weigh tests, quizzes and homework assignments any way I wished and not include assignments for absent students or based on individual needs of students. I must say though that these programs are becoming obsolete as more and more schools go to a server/network program that allows parents to access grades daily if they so choose. My own children’s school has one and I love to be able to see how they are doing and get reports weekly through e-mail.

Other things mentioned in chapter five that I have found or would love to implement in a classroom include: student response systems (kids love the anonymity of them and the competition aspect), the various graphic tools are wonderful for teachers working to incorporate the multiple intelligences into their classrooms, charting and graphing tools are helpful for students that might be a bit ‘math deficient’. One feature discussed that I really must utilize more and investigate are the planning and organizing tools. I think that if I would become more familiar with them, they would help me greatly in my classroom.

Chapter six offers so many opportunities for implementing concepts of multiple intelligences it makes my head spin.  The section discussing evaluation of software is one of the most important. Often times, educators are dazzled by the ‘bells and whistles’ of a product, but once purchased, find that it really isn’t practical in the classroom. That is one reason the six phases of TIP are so important. I love that as technology expands, we can offer projects that include blogs, podcasts, and editing movies and such. Students are so well versed in what they can do, it behooves us to implement that which will be an integral part of their world in the future into their education today.