I absolutely love that this is the question for this week! It compliments my thoughts from my previous post. As I quickly glance through the 5th grade Common Core, interestingly, I notice technology is only explicitly mentioned a small handful of times. There are several standards that a teacher might assume the use of technology could support the mastery of but it is not specifically mentioned.

I think what drives me, as a teacher, to want to integrate technology more is the fact that so much in todays society is being handled in a technological manner it becomes apparent that it is imperative to teach using technology. However, there is one devise that NC uses that can also help to motivate teachers to use technology and that is the Educator Evaluation Tool. When teachers are asked to choose only 2 of these standards to focus on (while maintaining and still growing in other areas, of course) this gives us time to really get to know and understand the standard as well as best practices for implementing them into the classroom to maximize student learning. With that in mind, a teacher could choose to focus on the technology aspect of their classroom more because of this tool and less because of the Common Core.

This year, I was being observed by an administrator and during the post conference it was noted that I was marked “developing” for the use of technology in my lesson. I wasn’t in the place to debate this mark because I had, in fact, not used any technology in the lesson. Therefore, the mark was rightfully earned. However, when I had asked, “What suggestions do you have for me that would allow students to utilize technology during this type of lesson?” I was told to meet with another teacher because she had projected a worksheet onto the board for the students using her ELMO. When I heard that I couldn’t help by smirk! How was that, “…using technology to learn content, think critically, solve problems, discern reliability, use information, communicate, innovate, and collaborate.” (as stated in the North Carolina Teacher Evaluation Process, standard 4d.)

After this experience, the session I was lucky enough to attend during the NCDPI summer institute, and all of the amazing resources explored during the Kenan Fellowship NCCAT I will most definitely be focusing on this standard this school year. The first hurtle to get over is trying to make my classroom “worksheet-free”. We do not have the resources to make it paper-less classroom, much like the middle school that the students will be attending, but I am really going to strategize about making the room worksheet-free this year. I think this will force me to find and explore new and known technological resources while teaching this year to enhance the students learning and publication/presentation of their knowledge. I already have contacted a 4th grade teacher to learn about their experience in flipping the classroom as they tried this last year. I also want to continue to meet with a 6th grade science teacher to learn more about the Edmodo program. I’m really excited to see what comes of these changes to my teaching style 🙂

I think the Common Core offers a great many opportunities to utilize various technological products but being aware of these products and given time enough to at least become familiar with it before requiring students to use it is a little more difficult to come by. I’d like to think that I already include the basic technological knowledge in my classroom but I’m interested to hear, what are some ways in which you utilize technology in your classrooms?