NETS Standard Three

Standard three is about using technology in your lessons (plans) to teach the curriculum.

Using technology in the classroom is a good way to differentiate instruction. In my class we have centers in the morning. This is a great time for me to use the computers. I have several math websites book marked. For my students that struggle with math concepts this is a great time to let them work on the math sites. It gives them time to have practice on working on math "in a game like" instruction. They enjoy "playing" the math games and by playing they have time to think through the problems they are having trouble with. Sometimes I have them paired with a partner, and the two of them work together on the games. This provides a peer tutoring session with out being singled out during class.

I use technology "formally" throughout the year.

At the very beginning of the year,we do a "Famous SC" power point. This research project has the students using school based and teacher bookmarked sites to find information about their famous person. The students use the standards we have created ( at Pelham Road). We basically take the students through all the standards, from copy, cut, paste( pictures of the SC), to using the Internet search tools. Students then have to create a power point about their famous SC, that they show during the year when we are studying that person's time period.

At the end of the year my kids get to be creative. They get to pick a topic they are interested in and do research. They become "experts" on topic. They do research using the Internet, they can create a power point, do a slide show on Kids Pix, ...anyway they want to present it is fine. During this project they are using all the skills that they learned all year long, plus with this report I teach them how to scan pictures to add to their reports and they learn how to insert a hyperlink to their reports so they can show the class a clip, picture or video clip about their topic.

My class goes to the computer lab (alas) once a week. We learn how to use the different software that our school has. they work on typing skills, they take AR test on line, we take reading comprehension test on line from our basil readers, we create graphs...I try to make good use of our computer time.