About Me

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I am currently 3rd grade teacher at West Burlington Elementary School in West Burlington, Iowa. I'm in my ninth year of teaching at the same school I attended from K-12. I pursuing my Master's degree in Instructional Technology through the University of Northern Iowa and I am so excited about this adventure.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Technology Integration Matrix

In returning home from the ITEC Conference tonight, I am boiling over with even more ideas of how I would like to see my classroom evolve into a 21st century learning environment.  Students are capable of expressing themselves in a variety of ways and I intend to work my hardest to engage them in opportunities that allow them to do so.
Dr. Leigh Zeitz assigned a task through our Selection and Integration class, part of the Instructional Technology Master's Degree program, of identifying technology integration activities and classify them using the TIM Matrix.  The five activities I chose are all activities I have used in my 3rd grade classroom.  In reviewing these activities, classifying them, and thinking about how to take them up a notch on the matrix and incorporate Punya Mishra's TPACK theory involving technology, pedagogy and content, I created a chart of my own.
After attending many of the sessions at ITEC this year, I feel even further behind than before.  I know where I would like to see my instruction, what I am not sure about is how to get there. It is hard to not focus on the tools, when students are coming to my classroom without any knowledge of Web 2.0 tools.  Therefore, when the content and pedagogy is identified, I have to teach the technology before we can proceed. The additional barriers brought on by the lack of support in the district and working technology brings on even bigger frustrations.  This morning, Steve Hargadon stated that you can't ask teachers to teach 21st century skills if they aren't in a 21st century environment themselves.