Reflection from Inventory

While taking the inventory of the school, I was really surprised at the limited technology in a lot of the lower grade classrooms. I really thought that computers would be more readily available for students. But, the process to use the computers seems easy enough for teachers to have access for their students. Also, in the upper grades there are enough computers in every classroom for each student, so I suppose that they are simply giving it to students when the basics of learning have been mastered.

Also surprising to me was how much our mentor teacher used technology in very subtle ways. If one wasn't looking carefully it would be easy to miss the use of the laptop to take attendance, the use of the overhead projector for morning work, ten-minute math, math problems, guided and interactive writing lessons, the use of the computer for short videos that are applicable to what the students are learning, the use of an Ipod or cd player to get students thinking about emotion or simply give them background noise while working on timely projects. She also uses technology in big ways throughout the day to show longer movies on the tv or use digital cameras to look for geometric shapes throughout the school.

Technology truly is a vital part of our educational system today and whether a school has plenty of resources or only a few, the teacher is responsible for being aware of these and using them as much as possible.