The teacher I interviewed for that project is from a francophone school and she is teaching grade 4. Here are the key excerpts from that interview.
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Key Excerpts from Interview |
My analysis |
Our school offers many different technologies and I have the privilege to work with them. Every student has access to a laptop at least 3 to 6 periods of 35 minutes every week in my classroom. The laptops are in a portable computer laboratory … Also, we have a tactile board in our classroom (SMART Board) and we have an Elmo device that we use as a projector. I have a personal laptop provided by my school board that I use extensively to create and elaborate different interactive activities. 2. How do you use technologies on a daily basis?
I am a strong believer that technology is the future of our education and I try to include it as much as I can in my daily practice. From Notebook activities on the SMART board to numerous tools of the Web 2.0, I strive to find new technologies that can help motivate the students … The SMART Board in my classroom is used extensively. 3. … strengths and weaknesses …in your classroom and with your students? … technology can be quite frustrating when it doesn’t work as planned and that you have 30 students in the classroom … biggest strength of technologies … it motivates every single student to want to learn new things and new tools … allows students with difficulties to have success in the classroom. 4. How does/can it support all learners ? … From difficulties to reading, writing and mathematics, there are many opportunities to present it in a total different way … Also, it allows every student to thrive at their own level as it supports their learning in multiple ways. 5. Is there anything you think could be improved with the tools and how would you suggest it improves ? …students improve their writing skills using different technologies. We’ve used many different tools for learning different mathematics concept … reading programs that help our weaker readers and others that push our strong readers. I think that the generation of students in our classroom are extremely agile with technology as they are exposed to these at much younger age than we were. … keep up with what stimulates our generation of learners in order to reach out to them. 6. Is technology important to you ? Why ? Extremely, I don’t think I could live without my SMART Board or my Elmo… I absolutely love to create, use, elaborate any technology in my classroom … 7. Can you describe some successes and failures while experimenting technologies ? Success: … students, who … never raise their hands to participate in a classroom discussion … turn into the best mini-teachers for new technologies … Failures: … frustrations of many students when things don’t work as planned. From computers crashing, computers freezing, applications bugging, students losing their work, not being able to retrieve files and many more. … to educate the students on how to deal with technology frustrations. 8. How are you supported in your venture with technologies in your school / school board ? Our school board … provided us with many (technologies) in the past few years… We are extremely fortunate to have the support of our principal and vice-principal on this matter. 9. How do you use technology to assess your students work ? … a challenge and … constantly for new ways to do so. I’ve used Google Drive a lot … … authentic projects like iMovies and …Youtube helps a lot in order to facilitate keeping the files and sharing the files. It is obviously not always easy to manage 30 different projects with students that are only 10 years old but I try to keep finding ways in order to do so. 10. In your opinion, has technology enhanced the way you support struggling students and how ? Technology has absolutely enhanced the way I support struggling students! … every student should have access to a laptop or a tablet throughout their whole learning path. It motivates them, captivates them, and entertains them without even making it look like they are learning. It allows them to feel better about themselves as they live through successes from using different technologies. There are multiple technologies out there to help any struggling students, so why not use them in our classroom?
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This teacher has 5 years of experience in our school, teaching grade 3 and 4. She is quite knowledgeable in terms of her programs. She spends a lot of time in planning and organising her lessons. She is searching for the best activities to suit her students every day. She is also implementing differenciation through her classroom constantly. Technology does provide her with tools that she would not have access normally and offer opportunities to the learners.She is quite sold to Smart Technologies, as she is doing most of her work on NoteBook and her students also have to produce on NoteBook. That way, they are all on the same platform and they can understand each other.
She is very keen on technology in her classroom. Her use of technology is on a daily basis and goes from NoteBook to Web 2.0 tools for motivation.
She includes all types of learners in her group and is looking for new strategies to better support them. She notices all students have big interest in the use of technologies.
She has the knowledge of multiple tools to support different learners. She allows her students to thrive at their own level and progress in multiple ways.
She mentions improvements using technologies in writing, maths, reading from students. She was talking about weaker and stronger readers. She noticed the agility of today’s learners with technology and the greater exposure too.
We have to reach out to them.
She is a believer in technology for the classroom. She states that she absolutely needs her SB and her Elmo.
Mostly, successes are around better participation and failures are frustrations about machines troubles. Education is the best ally in these situation.
She seems well supported in that venture, through her school and the school board. it looks like her school has strong leaders and their philosophy meets with hers.
Assessment is challenging and she is always on the move to find new ways. She experiments multiple tools to better assess her students. « Time consuming » is a concern and the age of her students.
Struggling students are part of her daily routine and technology has enhanced the way she supports all learners. She suggests that all students should have access to a laptop or a tablet for learning. |