Session 1

Technology use:

One of the reasons that I chose to get a Masters in IT was due to the fact that I love using technology and I want to learn more about it so I can improve my skills. I use technology everday of my life and if I don't have access to a computer or I am too busy to get on the computer, I feel lost the entire day. When I first started out as a teacher, I use to do all my grades in the old fashion way of paper and pencil with one of those books with the little squares. Oh, can I tell you come report card time, my eyes would cross looking at those little squares and trying to average grades. Not to mention the hours of flipping pages to compose all the grades. That was when I said, "there has got to be a better way." That is about the time that I started looking into computer programs that can help me in this situation. I found a program called Easy Grader Pro. I loved it, it averages your grade whenever you put in a new grade and just made my life that much easier. About that time, I met my finacee and he being a Network Engineer, taught me more about computers and how they operate. This was my turning point from old fashion teacher to new and improved, tech teacher. Now I use my laptop on a daily basis from home, work, and school and I have added some new items to my technology to my list over the years. Such as a LCD projector that I use all the time in my classroom, digital photography and digital video (movie making), I have also began teaching my students Windows and how to surf the internet safely. All of these things have inspried me to teach, learn and operate with computers. In 2004 I became an educator for the Discovery Network, where I attend conferences hosted by Discovery Channel to learn more about using teachnology in the classroom.

Supporting technology

Now that I have become so much more involved in the world of technology, I have been able to expand my wings to help other fellow teachers at my school site. I am a member of the tech commitee where we are constantly raising money to purchase the most up to date software and equipment. We service the entire staff and faculty with any computer related issues as well as audio and visual problems. Each of us has a specality that we bring to the group. Some are more troubleshooting experts where others, like my self are more program and software experts. We really try to teach to the teachers how to fix their own problems so that way they get a better understanding of how to use the computer and to not be so afraid of it. We also host several teacher trainings through out the year where we open up the computer lab to teach the teachers how to use the computers in the classrooms. I really enjoy working with this team and I have learn so much from all of our collaborations.

Communication with others

My Masters project focus is going to be about improving the communicaiton barriers from the teacher, parent and student. Many of the complaints that teachers hear from parents is that they didn't know that their student was having troubles in the class. I have created a webpage using Frontpage and Dreamweaver to help improve my communication with my parents. Of couse there is always that comment, " not all students have computers at home." I see it this way, the price of computers has decreased so much over the past few years, that they are nearly the same cost as an X-box, iPod, Wii...you name it. Now, ask your students how many of them have those? With the growing trend in these types of technology, we will begin to see an signigficant increase in the purchasing of computers for the home. Until then, I continue to make phone calls to those parents. I would rather know that there are only four parents in my class that if there is something that I need to discuss with them, I have to call. Four is alot more helpful than thirty-four. I use my computers all the time at work, so a parent can email me and right away that day I can get back with them with a reply email. Where as, if they were to call I would get a note in my box, that note would probably sit on my desk for a couple of days and then I would call and they wouldn't be home and the cycle continues.
This is why I am always looking for more effective ways of communication between my parents and my students. For my students (and parents), I have a grades posting page, where each child has recieved an username and password that they can use to go on and check out their current grade standing. They can view the assignments that they are missings and the ones that they need to redo. My students use this page everyday. I update the grades once a week and send out an email to all parents letting them know that they have been updated. I have found that using this feature, less students are likely to fail when they know that that their parents are looking at their grades on a weekly basis either from home or work. I have also set up a BLOG page on my website titled "Lets talk," where I post a question to my students (non-acedmic) and they get the chance to reply back with their comments. Sometimes I will tie it to a subject that we were discussing in class where I had so many students that wanted to say something but couldn't due to time. This allows them to still share to the class their opinion or thoughts of the matter.

Learning Contract

I will be doing all 3 projects because I really want the A. I am not sure how I am going to come at these projects yet, but I am sure that come proposal time, I will know.

Session 1 Activity Log
I made my blog and gave a little speel about myself. I tried to post comments on everyones page, but I need to see what is wrong with my java script. Sorry if you didn't get a comment this week. I am working on it. Take care and I hope to get to know all of you more. If you would like to check out my webpage, here it is... www.msokelley.com