Thursday, January 26, 2012

Introduction


Hi! My name is Becky Holtsclaw and I currently teach a 5/6 grade combination class in Sasebo, Japan. This is my 4th year teaching. I have also taught straight 5th grade in Oregon as well as ELL. I’ve lived in Japan for a year and a half now and love the culture and travel opportunities! Besides travelling I also enjoy reading, swimming, hiking, crabbing, camping, and photography.

From this course I hope to learn how I can better use technology with my students. I feel comfortable with the basics of technology; I use Microsoft office, databases, email accounts, and several online testing sites with my students already. I also have a Smartboard in my room that I use daily. I would like to learn about newer sites/technology that I can use with my students to help prepare them for the future. These kids use so much more technology in their daily lives than even I did when I was their age. I would like them to be able to use it to help them in school and their future jobs instead of just listening to music and playing Angry Birds. I feel lucky that the school I work at has a full time Educational Technologist that runs our computer lab and teaches the students about technology; however since we do have this expert it means classroom teachers are not always trained in the latest technology. I want to be more aware of what is out there so I can better enhance my teaching. Upper elementary classes usually have larger numbers so I would also like to learn more ways to incorporate technology with small groups. My future goal is to be an Informational Specialist/Librarian so I will need to know about how to teach students about finding information that they want through print as well as online. I would feel like this class was a success if I learned several ways to incorporate technology in my classroom to help increase interest and motivation. 

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