Technology Integration in the Classroom

The first semester of the 2011-2012 school year, I spent many of the school days substituting for my mother, an ELA teacher, or simply completing school work in her classroom.  She is very fortunate to have a mobile lab and every time I would go in the students were always on the laptops.  When I would sub, she would tell me to unlock the cart and the students could take it from there; to my surprise, they always did.  It wasn’t until I finally asked her what exactly they were doing or learning if they were always on the computers.  At that very moment, I was introduced into the Web 2.0 world. She threw out words like Diigo, Edmodo, PB Works page, Googledocs, Glogster, and the only one I was familiar with was Prezi. I instantly was confused but wanting to know more.  My mother was able to teach/aid her class, even when she was away. The students were always engaged and quietly COMPLETING CLASS WORK, the entire time, and I had no clue. They were collaborating with each other, as well as with the teacher, in ways I knew existed but had not seen, first hand.

As I began to explore, freely, I noticed how user friendly these tools were. Starting my career as an inclusion teacher this past second semester was a great experience.  I was fortunate enough to co-teach with an MTT.  Since I had already been exposed to integrating technology in the classroom, I felt right at home. We interacted with the students via web, using smart phones, and simply using the smart board.  Yes, my SpEd students picked up without a problem.  QR codes were their favorite.  The days following the first QR code integration in the classroom, they stormed in going on and on about how they were going crazy scanning magazines, labels, movie posters and many more.  It gives me the greatest feeling to see my students light up when they discover these new tools. My favorite part about integrating technology is that I am able to reach all their learning styles:  visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.