Educational Blogging

In our technology driven society, computers and their applications in the classroom are becoming more and more commonplace. After reading articles about the different applications of technology, I am astounded at the avenues (many excellent ones, but not all are good) that are available for teachers, students and parents.

The largest benefit I have read about and seen in my own classroom is the expansive sharing of opinions between students, their teachers and their peers. In a few different articles, they speak about the idea of an after unit reflection created by the students. I love the idea of a forum where the students can reflect on the class and content and share where they had difficulties, where they found the topics interesting and so on. This type of feedback would be extremely beneficial for the teacher, and would help to improve the class from year to year.

Introductions

Hi everyone. My name is Laura St. Michael and I am completing my fourth year of teaching Grade 7 in Hamilton. As well as teaching science, math and phys-ed, I coach the U-13 Field Hockey Team in the fall and the Swim Team in the winter.

I am currently teaching in a private school where technology integration is on the forefront of my day-to-day responsibilities. Last year, my science lab was one of the first classrooms to be fitted with a projector and a computer to enable (among other things) delivery of my lessons via PowerPoint presentations. This year, our math classroom had a SMART Board installed. This has enhanced the program considerably as it allows the students to complete examples etc. on my lessons on the SMART Board, and in turn, I can post the day's notes and examples into my Math Folder accessible to the students on our First Class server. This allows the students a chance to access the former notes and examples throughout the year.

Although I already use the computer in my classroom considerably, I am looking forward to learning new ways to integrate technology.