Practicum Week 1: Technology in the Classroom

Today I had the unique opportunity to take the class to their prep hour at computers. While we were waiting in the hall for the last class to finish up, I started talking to the kids about what they did during this hour and how they liked it. A lot of the students talked about how they would use the computer to do a variety of reading and writing activities and then they would play games for a while. Most of them said that they really liked it. I also talked to the teacher about a program that they are using that prepares students for the end of year tests. It asks different questions about the subjects they are learning about and prepares them for the format of the test. The only other time that the students use technology is when they are listening to books on tape, or when they are typing up writing assignments that they have completed.

I think that the technology that they do use makes the students excited about things that they might not normally be excited about. It also helps relieve some of the pressure from the teacher when the students can be directed by different programs. I think that in these cases, technology is very beneficial to the classroom and to the students.