Chapter Five Response:
I found this chapter to be informative and educational to me since I teach in a Montessori environment. Due to the environment I teach in many of the software tools I do not use. It is amazing that programs exist to help with IEP, test making and lesson planning.
The software programs I am most familiar with are Print Shop and reference and research tools. I personally use Print Shop to publish our CMS yearbook. All pages are formatted and saved in a PDF format and then taken to the printer to be printed. All CMS yearbook includes student volunteers from the 3rd thru 6th grade. They work with me learning how to layout and design pages. This includes inserting text and clip art. Our last years’ yearbook sold 90 copies and was a success. This year we have added the sale of ads to the parents. These ads can advertise businesses or salute a Kindergartner or graduating 6th grader. We hope this will generate more income for the yearbook.
Our class also uses Encarta as a research reference tool. We regularly refer students to dictionary.com/thesaurus.com to find the meanings and etymology of various words. This has greatly enhanced many of our students writing skills.
One direction I would love to see my school go is towards on line registration. This would decrease the amount of paper copied and used; and also allow all information to be stored in on location with all teachers having access. I personally feel more parents would be on time in filling out the information and all changes could be made with a click of the button.
Lastly, I am interested in obtaining samples of many of the software programs to see if they could be adapted to the Montessori Method. These include the graphing software and the Inspiration software. I personally feel these programs would help both our accelerated and remedial learners in math and language skills.
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2 comments:
Hi
It sounds like your school has lots of uses for technology. I think it is great that you use the different methods to work on the yearbook. I am not very familiar with the format of your school, but from what little bit I know, that kids are supposed to “choose” more of what they learn. I would think that because technology is so much a part of their daily lives that students would choose to use technology. Also since there are so many technology tools available for researching and investigating topics that the use of these tools would be extremely helpful and almost required in your school environment. I hope you get use some of the other tools you are interested in learning about.
Michelle you use technology in some wonderful ways. I do agree with you that the use of technology would be an efficient tool for registration. It does make this process easier and as you said you can change things and update easily. Tina
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