Blog Journal 3

After learning the many different ways technology can be used in the classroom, I have thought about what kinds of technology I will use in my future classroom and what lessons I will use technology to teach. One interesting use of technology that I have witnessed firsthand as I observed a 6th grade classroom last semester, was the use of the classroom website to create learning games for the students. The teacher kept an updated website displaying upcoming due dates for assignments and tests, however, he also created vocabulary games and posted a link on the website. The students could be in the comfort of their very own home and use the website to play a memory game containing the vocabulary words that they would be tested on. As I will be teaching younger grades, I will try to incorporate something like that in to my lesson plans. Maybe I will post word searches or word games for the students to study the words that they will be tested on for a spelling test. I'm excited to learn more exciting ways to incorporate technology in my future classroom!
As I have already mentioned, I will be teaching younger students, so I should not have to many concerns about controlling a technology incorporated classroom. However, I do have a few minor concerns. Even first or second graders can navigate the internet on their own, so as I am not concerned that they will be visiting explicit websites or websites like "facebook", I do express concerns over my students getting off task by visiting other websites, like the "Disney" website or other noneducational websites that younger kids enjoy.
A very interesting web-based tool that I've seen students really engage themselves in is a website entitled Starfall. http://www.starfall.com/ This website is aimed toward younger children in grades K-2. The website contains a variety of categories and different games to help students brush up on things ranging from phonics to learning the months of the year or days of the week. I completed my community service hours helping a first grade classroom and I saw how much fun the students had on this website and how much the website taught them. I hope this website is still in action when it's time for me to teach!