ISTE+Standard+TF-III


 * EDLD 5370 Reading Reflection for Technology Facilitator Standard III ** ** Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum (TF/TL-III) **

During this course, I have facilitated technology-enhanced experiences for teachers and students in order to make students aware of technology standards. One of my roles as part of the administration is provide the students with the same opportunities to access the technology. I notice that the resources such as projectors and interactive boards were concentrated mainly in middle school and some grades barely had access to this kind of equipment, especially lower grades. For this reason, I reassigned some equipment to be used in a rotating basis to give equal opportunities to other grades, I think that in this time of limited resources, schools need to have better procedures to allow students to enhance experiences and know more about the technology standards, especially in economically disadvantaged population that has limited access to technology at home. I had the opportunity to help in adapting a classroom with in the elementary building to help students specifically for students that had classes in this building, in grades 3rd and 4th, basically to help them in math. The school has been promoting the use technology to support learner-centered strategies that address the diverse needs of students.

 I understand that a technology enriched classroom environment appears to have had a positive effect on student acquisition of higher-order thinking skills, as stated by Hopson, Simms, and Kneze (2002). For this reason, the school has adopted the use of different technology-based approaches to promote students’ higher-order skills and creativity, including the use of student response devices, document camera devices, projectors, and the use of the computer lab at least twice a week from grades K to 8th grade. For some students, this is his or her first contact with computers and this technology, especially the young students. Even though, the use of technology-enhanced environments has proven positive influence in either successful and at risk students ( Dreyer & Charl, 2003), this is one part that our school needs to promote more. I think that after reaching the technology literacy in all the students, we should start designing learning activities in a technology-enhanced environment.

I have been using current research and different resources aligned to the TEKS standards to build lessons and units of instruction for the school year 2010-2011. Particularly, I participated in the team to research about the new testing STAAR that will take place in the state for the current school year and to develop the appropriate content to align the curriculum in order to cover the TEKS that will be tested. We also designed some thematic units to provide teachers and students with more teaching/learning opportunities in this first year of STAAR testing, knowing that new material will be include in some tests, specially science. Also, we know that STAAR is going to be timed and more rigorous (Texas Education Agency, 2011). Finally, we produced our school curriculum according to our school needs and concentrated all the information in our database called teacher’s portal that is an online tool, protected with password for exclusive use of staff.

** References: **
Dreyer, C., Charl, C. (2003) Teaching reading strategies and reading comprehension within a technology-enhanced learning environment, //System//, 31(3), pp.349-365,

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Hopson, M. H., Simms, R. L. & Knezek G. A. (2002). Using a Technology-Enriched Environment to Improve Higher-Order Thinking Skills. // Journal of Research on Technology in Education //, 34(2), 109-119. =====

Texas Education Agency, (2011). STAAR Resources.
Retrieved from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/