Personal Statement: Implementing Technology Into The Classroom

This paper is a personal technology plan that includes my personal philosophy on integrating technology in the classroom as well as my professional goals concerning technology in the classroom. My Mission and Vision Statement are included as well as a plan for communications, integrating technology, software to support assessment, and technology ethics for a strong guideline in the classroom. Although this plan will need to be revised as advances in technology are made this is strong ground work that I can build on as a professional educator. Using this plan I can ensure that my students are using the latest

It is my mission to become an educator with the proficiency, knowledge and resources to encourage academic excellence and provide the opportunity for students to enhance their educational practice and to increase their intellectual productivity through technology. I will provide sufficient resources to encourage the use of technology across the curriculum.

According to Susman (2013), “science is a moving target, forever advancing and getting more complicated. It’s hard to keep up and really hard to catch up. What you learn in high school is often so different by the time you have kids of your own that you can’t easily help them with their science homework. Science changes faster than iPod models”. In this case study, Clifton High School principal believed that “students learn Science by doing, not simply by watching” (Picciano, 2011, p. 182). In 2009, the principal had trouble recruiting qualified science teachers and providing a full Science teaching program.

Technology in the school has become an increasingly challenging and somewhat disruptive aspect in today’s educational system. In order to maintain what is considered the status quo, schools have focused their energy and resources on banning cell phones, wireless Internet and blocking social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in schools. However, as technology continues to grow in our society outside of the school, many believe that effectively involving these technologies into the classroom can ultimately improve student engagement in their learning environments. This research paper will focus on both sides of the argument and ultimately seek to determine if there is a best practice regarding technological being put into schools.

Introduction The purpose of science education is not a straightforward concept, as it is ever evolving and dynamic to meet the needs of society’s expectations and values at that point in time (Ferrari, 2010). Science education should be nurturing, engaging and challenging in the 21st century classroom, catering for all students. We as teachers should encourage out students to explore the world, by providing motivation, engagement and education about the wonder and potential of science, we need to move the focus of our teaching away from the fact finding, memorising and formula driven practical that capture what school has become to our students today (Ferrari, 2010). Science provides a practical way of answering questions about our everyday lives, whether that is biological, physical or technological world around us ("The Australian Curriculum v7.2 Science: Rationale," n.d.).

I believe science is one of the most important subjects taught in our schools as it has a vast influence within the classroom and the real world. To be an informed citizen students “should be involved in hands-on activities and be able to analyze, interoperate and plan open-ended investigations” (Turner, as cited in Hassard, 2010). This develops a range of transferable skills across the curriculum and within the real world. Through the hands on activities within this unit students learn skills such as predicting, problem solving, teamwork, perseverance, patience and researching. Science also provides knowledge about the way things work and consequences of certain actions and through my lessons I have encouraged the development of

As a student teacher I have been challenged to examine these goals in light of my personal experience in the classroom with real students. As a result of this self-examination and evaluation I find my primary motivation for becoming a teacher has not changed. It is my desire to make a positive impact on my student’s lives by helping them see that the challenge of learning can be fun. I hope to share my own love of learning and science by appealing to my student’s natural curiosity about the world around them. Creating challenging lesson plans that engage student’s on every level allows me to utilize my own creative talents and fan the creative spark in their minds and create a positive attitude toward learning that will help carry them successfully through their own academic

This year, I am taking a bigger leadership role at my school. I am one of three content leaders that replaced our instructional coach. As a science content leader, part of my focus is assist teachers in teaching science. Our goal is to make sure science is taught in all grade levels. In the past, science has been pushed to the side because science is not always a tested subject. It is a tested subject in 5th grade. Most of the responsibility falls on the 5th grade teachers. This role is supposed to help make sure science is taught in all grades, so that our 5th grade teacher is not at a disadvantage when it comes to science. Me been the 5th grade science teacher for 4 years now, I have taken this role very seriously. Another part of my role is to offer myself to observe teachers teach science and provide feedback. This is where I think this activity for this course came in very handy.

I am a self-directed, enthusiastic educator with a passionate commitment to student growth, development and learning. I believe that education is a key to success for all students. As a teacher, I hope to motivate students to realize their inner strengths and abilities and to discover what truly inspires them. My aim is to provide a stimulating learning environment that encourages students to trust their own opinions, while creating confidence within themselves to insure that they grow to become intelligent, independent individuals who will become successful leaders of our future

Yes there are some cons to this argument but I think the pros overrule the cons.There are much more reasons why technology is good in the classroom rather than it being bad in the classroom.For example,technology can be used as a reward system to help children get their work done and respect students and teachers in the classroom.The first piece of evidence for this reason is that one of many articles say that since technology is what a lot of kids want,the parents can use it as a reward system so the kid will get his/her work done.For example,if the kid does his/her homework then the kid will be able to play his/her game on the kids computer after words.The second piece of evidence is that the article called”Children, Adolescents, and the

In Science, teachers serve as the facilitator of learning, guiding them through the inquiry process. Teachers must ask open-ended questions, allow time for the students to answer, avoid telling students what

Technology has changed so many of the ways in which we live our lives, from the invention of the wheel to the advanced systems we use and take for granted everyday. Technology was once taboo in most house holds while people still clung to the idea that life was built on life experiences. Nicholas Carr stated in, Is Goggle making us stupid? "Back in the fourth century, BCE, Plato complained that writing (then a fairly new technology) was destroying peoples memory, yet he wrote dozens of books. For half a century, television has been accused of rotting our brains and making us fat and lazy, but most people depend on it for info, news and entertainment." Technology has changed our understanding of the way things work and

In addition, most high school science teacher’s teaching plans accentuate on giving lecture and using the text book as the only resource. Veritably, Science teachers should not only focus on lecture because lectures give more information that can be boring for most of the students. Instead, they should provide activities that engage students to be curious and ask questions. For example, if students are learning about plants, teachers should take students to the yard of the school and ask them to

I want to be a high school/middle school science teacher. I want to teach kids, to show them that the world is their playground. That they can do anything and everything they put their little, bright, energetic minds too. Education is the world I’m putting myself into. I’ve known since I was four that wanted to work with kids, so teaching was the. I get to show them a whole new world full of advantage, and excitement. I get to see them make connections, to make that jump from the norm, inside the confined box, outside into the real world. To allow them to turn their simple generic ideas, into something special and original that they can follow through with and turn into something magical.

Since the time that I started teaching in 2012, I knew that I wanted to understand what motivates and engages students in science. There is overwhelming evidence that states certain groups are less prone to pursue the sciences, so I wanted to see if I could hopefully start to engage my students more. What really sparked this curiosity to pursue changing my teaching practices was that I caught myself doing exactly what my colleagues were doing in the department without asking myself the most important question, why? Why was I following their practices? I knew that their style didn’t fit with mine as