My future with technology in my classroom

So it has come down to the age old question: How will technology be used in the classroom? 

My answer feels that same, that I will try my hardest to incorporate what I can into my lessons. 

However, this response is no longer valid.  I must come up with something else....

Technology is taking over.  There is no hiding from it.  Technology is even beginning to offer public elementary school online.  What does this mean for us??  I don't know about those of you reading this blog, but I sure as heck am not going to let a computer take over my job.  So here are some things I would like to do in order to keep the technology flowing in my classroom.  I would like to make this my pledge. 

I pledge to make an effort to take my students to the computer lab more often.  I want to spend more time finding technological resources for my students to use to learn new skills and to practice old ones.  I want my students to use computers to create projects and conduct research.  I want my students to spend time utilizing my PolyVision board- I want them to use it more than I do. 

I pledge to find as many interactive websites as I can that the students can use in large groups via PolyVision.  I also plan to actually use the program EZTeach that compliments the PolyVision board in order to make some abstract concepts more "fun" for my students.  It provides them interactive participation, similar to the one practiced in the video about the kindergarten in Alabama. 

To stay current with the trends in technology, I will be relying on the websites I posted on delicious.com: http://www.delicious.com/cmixbin
These sites provide current professional documents about the technology that is currently being used by our students and how we can effectively implement it.  (Again, I feel like I am repeating myself.)

I will also be looking to attend a PD.  Unfortunately, my school does not willingly hand over funds to do so, but I will push for that this year.  I attended an ISTE conference in IL as an undergrad (which is where I got hooked on Mac.)  I had such a hoot at the conference, they provided us with all sorts of ideas.  I would like to be the person who brings back those ideas to share.

Also, I pledge to get my reluctant team members involved.  My teammates are so far removed from technology that I have to walk them through it step-by-step when I provide the site on the lesson plan.  I will do my best to better encourage their willingness and participation, as well as overall comfort level with technology.  We meet (ideally) once a month for a tech development PD with our tech department- even at that we are provided 50 minutes (minus the 10 it takes to get there and get set up and the 5 minutes it takes for us to shut down and the chatter in between).  In those 50 minutes we are supposed to pick-up new technological concepts and *BAM* implement them.  Unfortunately, we need more hands-on with it before we work with it.  Since it is not provided, I pledge to make an effort to figure it out on my own.

My biggest struggle next year is going to be practicing my willingness to let technology take over.  I need to understand that students respond very well to technology.  I sometimes take it personally that the students would rather work with the computer than with me (and they are only third graders!)  However, I need to learn to not take a lot of things personally and let technology take over (with me still in control, however.)  I believe that with this willingness and drive that I have to make these changes, my next school year is going to be much different than the past.  I hope to find my students more motivated with the increased use of technology.