Week 3-# 7 Technology

My use of technology has been a challenge for years. If it was not for our campus Tech and my husband I would not be using computers. I was always afraid of computers. But with their help I began to find a comfort zone using the computer. About 15 years ago I created my first webpage for my classroom. I enjoyed looking for graphics, creating the pages and watching the counter on the pages to see that it was being used by my parents. Then 10 years ago I was asked to assist on the campus website- I knew very little about the program (Frontpage) we used at school and that the teacher that asked me to help decided not to do the webpages at all after a few months. It was a challenge for me to make sure it appealed to the teachers and administrators.

I also attended 75 hours of training for the laptop incentive that the district offered. The training was interesting and informative. It included creating a thematic unit (webpage, powerpoint, and brochure)
about something we could use in our classroom. We had digital camera training which was fantastic- the instructor was a photographer and was really patient with the level 0 students.

Another training I took three times was Intel to the Future. It was training on creating units using Publisher and PowerPoint to create a complete unit as if you we the student. The first time I took it was a beginning session for me. I learned alot but was not comfortable with the work I did. The second time I took the class I managed to get several friends to attend with me. I was comfortable this time and recalled what I needed to do, the funny thing about the class was I sat between 2 of my colleagues and seemed to get whiplash trying to help them because they were not computer literate. The last session was during my Laptop incentive.

That was my slow start, but from that time frame I have attended numerous training for Clickers, Document Camera, Mimio, Whiteboards, SchoolWires and the district gradebook system. The training would allow me to work with the teachers when they had problems.

So I am enjoying this training, I am just not comfortable with all of it yet.
I am keeping an open mind.