Week 2 September 5, 2017

Abbey Roos, teaches Kindergarten at Dr. John A. Langford Elementary School in East Hartford, Connecticut, states she uses technology to manage her class room and keep her students engaged in the lesson. Roos also uses a software program to monitor and improve student behavior called ClassDojo. The program provides students with positive reinforcement and collects data that can be sent to the parents, administration and guidance counselors so Roos can spend more time teaching rather than behavior monitoring. I believe most teachers use technology in the classroom to make learning easier for their students. Using technology that allows students to connect not only with what's being taught but with each other, students feel more confident in themselves because these technologies can adapt to a student specific needs. Students will use the technology presented to them and they will continue to use it because it makes class fun, rewarding and confident. I remember as a high school student when teachers finally got projectors that were installed into the ceiling as a class we had to learn how to use them and troubleshoot, just to make it interesting. In the process we got to learn more about our teachers and other students because we were all working on this together.  


An ISTE standard that means a lot to me is the leadership aspect. Depending on where I teach of the student do not have the technology to make their education more powerful I want to be the person to redefine their education system. I want to be the person that helps students who are less fortunate and need all the help they can get because they deserve it. No student should ever feel like they are  incompetent or undeserving of an education. I will need some help with the "analyst" skill. I believe if I keep myself educated and seek help from other educators I can succeed in this area. 

I totally agree with the label "digital native" I am a millennial, I have been using the internet for 90% of my life my younger sisters have been using the internet for 99% of their life. At four years old my sister knew how to turn on the desktop and open up Microsoft Paint! I personally started using technology in school when I moved to Florida from New York at the age of seven. I went to Madison Street Academy which is a technology forward school where you had to be tested to get in. We had a computer lab filled with Mac computers with all sorts of educational games that helped students with everything and anything. I clearly remember learning how to type fairly fast at a young age because this was to be our future. However I hated it and just wanted to go to PE and play outside. When it comes to my professors and teachers it's clear that most of them are "digital immigrants" because most of them received their degrees before computers were available to them in their own classrooms growing up. Most of my professors had to learn about "new" technology as an adult where as I grew up with it in my childhood. You can also tell they aren't technology savvy when they can not pull up a PowerPoint or use the hyperlinks in the PowerPoint, which even I believe is a basic skill and can do. However I don't think it has hindered my education because as a student you have to be able to adapt to your learning environment and make it work for you. I'm going to bet I will be just like my professors now, just because technology will advance so much by the time I am teaching that I will probably be out of the loop. Yet I believe if we take classes based on new technology as it comes out I believe we can stay current and up to speed on new technology so we don't look like "digital immigrants".