Week 9 -Technology Inventory

The classroom I went to belonged to a first grade teacher. She has many technology resources in the classroom. The most exciting of those technologies is the Promethean Board. This is an interactive white board that connects to computer. The Promethean Board allows children to manipulate the computer screen using a stylist on the board. It is pretty much awesome. This model that the teacher uses includes speakers for the children to listen to music with. Also this teacher uses a lap top for attendance and she has a TV in the classroom as well. She does have a tape player in the classroom to listen to music with.

Because this teacher has a Promethean Board she no longer has computers in the class. She used to have about six computers in the classroom that she would have the children use during center time. The teacher wishes to have these computers back in the classroom because she could then connect what she does on the Promethean Board to activities done on the individual computers. However, the school does have portable labs that she can use.

The teacher uses the technology to get ideas for phonics teaching. She uses the Promethean Board to help the kids learn how to create words using different sounds and for reading stories. She also uses the Promethean Board with the daily routines like weather reports, calendar activities, and simple math drills. The day I visited the teacher was using a program on the Promethean Board that taught about money. With the Promethean Board the teacher has so many programs to teach about so many different things.

I decided to find out what other technologies where available to this teacher so I talked to the technology expert in the school. I find out that the school has three computer labs, two for language and one for math. They also have three portable labs for the teachers to use. The special education early childhood classroom is equipped with a computer for every two students. With the computer labs both the language and the math labs use programs that allow the children to work at their own level and pace. The programs will help a child learn skills in their weak areas as wells as pushing them in their strong areas. For the computer labs, students are taken out by level to work with computers. Higher readers go into the computer labs first. This school wants to have Promethean Boards in every classroom by next year.

I completed my midcourse evaluation and my informed consent form.