As I begin my Cohort 1 experience in a second grade classroom I am amazed at how much there is to learn. It is interesting to see what is available to students and the school as a whole. I am in a non-rural school that is fairly nice, but has been around for 30 years. My cooperating teacher has her MacBook, laptop, everyday where she enters students grades and other personal information. The teachers all have access to wireless internet. My classroom has one computer in it, used most specifically for students to take AR tests. I have only seen the students get on the computer to take these tests, and nothing else. The office can contact the teacher through an interactive intercom. The teacher can simply talk back and communicate. My school, Sprucewood Elementary, has one computer lab with about 35 computers (only about 30 workat any given time). We have two mobile labs with 15 computers on each set.Some software that is available in the computer lab is Pages (which is kindof like Word), Kid Pix, Graph Club, Garage Band, Graph Master, Kidspiration,and Inspiration. The students at the school each have a 30 minute time once a week in the computer lab. There is a little bit of open time in the lab that teachers can sign up. Other digital technology at Sprucewood are digital projectors in every room except the portables, 3 document cameras, 6ELMO machines (like a flex cam), several digital cameras, a digital videocamera, blue clickers, overhead graphing calculators. Sprucewood's technical support is one 17-hour a week computer lab assistant. I am excited to get into the classroom and actually have my own students and use what is available to me. There are so many options with technology today, and I am anxious to try new things as a "tech savvy teacher."
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