Research-Book+1

This page is meant to show note-worthy information from a book I am currently reading.

INTRODUCTION

The introduction tell us that the book is going to discuss Lois Lenski Elementary School in Centennial, Colorado (it will inform the reader of the schools technology program). A little about the school - It is a K-5 school with about 600 students. The students partake in typical special classes such as music, art, and physical education. In addition; students have the opportunity to take enrichment classes in visual art, music, performing arts, foreign language, technology and academic interests through before and after-school programs. Significant support dollars for the school and thousands of hours of volunteer time is provided by parents.

The author, Boni Hamilton is a technology teacher at Lenski. When she took the position in 1999; she approached the program with beliefs: 1. Students learn best when they are controlling the mouse themselves. 2. Any computer is better than no computer. 3. Students could accomplish as much with basic office software as with specialty software. 4. Teachers need to feel safe acknowledging what they do not know. 5. Effective staff development in technology is differentiated and individual. 6. Teachers should decide how many computers they want in their classrooms. 7. Technology is integrated into curriculum, not taught as a stand

Chapter 1: The Philosophy of Integration

__What is Integration?__ The author describes what Integration is __Not__. These things include: using managed instructional software, learning only technical skills in the computer lab, regular classroom teachers staying behind during their lab time, online gaming, replacement of a teacher. __Why should we integrate?__ Improves student achievement? The question arises- Can a computer teacher integrate technology with content that the students are dealing with in their classroom without the including the classroom teacher? The answer is No, because only the classroom teachers really knows the level of understanding that their students have. Every class has different needs. Without the involvement of the classroom teacher in the computer lab, the computer teachers lessons are __only supplemental, not integrated__. __Paralle__l teaching is when the computer teacher attempts to add in what they believe works along with classroom academics but it does not link tightly to their classroom learning. __Isolated__ teaching is when the computer teacher's lessons have no connection to curricular content. How does this tie into the art room? A lesson that comes to my mind is about Bugs-their exoskeleton and body parts. Rather than the art teacher trying to teach the introduction to all of this in 30 minutes; how about have the classroom teacher ask the students to research one particular bug and have print outs ready for art class. Then when they arrived in the art room; we could have a brief discussion and then begin drawing and applying glue over the exoskeleton. The open sections would later be filled with pastels. Every lesson could be very effective. Requirements for integration that Chapter 1 suggests are : Administrative Support, Support Staff, Time and Tools for Collaboration and Equipment (although the most supreme equipment is not necessary... if only one computer is what you have; it can work with a great teacher).

Chapter 2: How to Get Started

Chapter 2 mostly describes the how the district and it's administrators can make the change. It mostly suggests having master computer teachers and librarians. It also suggests to have larger class sizes and using the staff in more positions in the computer room and the library. Chapter 2 also continues on Chapter 1 with integration. The classroom teacher really needs to be on board.

Chapter 3: Curricular Planning

This book is primarily using computer teacher examples, however this chapter could be very valuable to me. Just as technology should not be a completely separate curriculum; art lessons don't need to be either. This chapter states that when the learner has a reason to use technology skills, it is much more effective. An effective tool I can use in the future would be a Curriculum Planning Map that is shown in this Chapter. A possibility for next year would be to create a map for each grade level and have it separated into 9 week periods. If the teachers give me a line up of what they plan to teach, I will be able to reinforce it.

Chapter 4: Acquiring Technology on a Limited Budget

As I mentioned in the Introduction, this book uses Lenski Elementary school as their model. This chapter mostly discusses Lenski's donation program where businesses would donate computers and then they had high school students receive volunteer hours learning to refurbish them. It also gave a number of free resources for classroom teachers.

Chapter 5: Infrastructure, Oranization, and Logistics - This information is mostly for a computer lab set up.

Chapter 6: Drawing

Before reading this Chapter; I thought to myself that this information would be irrelevant to me. However; I learned a lot about Drawing programs and how they can help students. Drawing programs basically depend on a mouse and the motor skills of the student. The author suggested conducting gallery walks where the students would be able to view others work. There were also many ideas for lessons such as creating four squares and showing the process of the water cycle. Another great ideas was tessellations! Although I will not be able to use these ideas; I will definitely pass them on to our technology teacher.

Chapter 7 & 8: Word Processing/Word Processing to Improve Writing