Practicum week 9-10

3/4-3/9

During this week, I helped teacher throughout the building with technology needs.  I assisted teachers in setting up ELMO projectors, connecting a new desktop to a SmartBoard, and doing some routine printer maintenance.  The printer maintenance was essentially replacing toner cartridges that were empty or that had gone bad.  I also had the opportunity to set up an additional monitor for our In-school-suspension teacher.  This allowed him to monitor what students were doing on their Chromebooks using the program Netops while completing work that he needed to complete.  During this period, I was also able to make basic repairs to student Chromebooks, mainly replacing missing keys.

Practicum week 7/8

2/24/20

Today I worked during my planning period helping teachers with technology needs.  One teacher was having trouble with their printer so I had to troubleshoot it.  The toner was low on one, so it had to be replaced.  I also worked to change the default printer for another teacher.  Another teacher needed work on her Chromebook cart.  The chargers on some of the ports had become lose and had to be ran again in order for students to be able to charge their Chromebooks.  Each of the Chromebooks are numbered so that students are able to identify their Chromebook.  I added numbers to the charging cords so that students can easily tell which cord corresponds with their device.

I also met with the teacher who I will be working with on the collaborative unit.  Options for what should be covered were discussed.  Chromebook care and digital footprint/citizenship were the areas that we thought students would get the most out of a lesson.  Our middle school students are rough on their Chromebooks, both on purpose and accidentally.  Therefore that would be a good topic to cover.  Most of our students are on some form of social media whether it is Snapchat, Instagram, or TikTok.  A lesson on what to post and what not to post, in terms of digital citizenship would be valuable as well.  Ultimately, it was decided that digital citizenship would be the most beneficial

2/25/20-3/2/20

This week I spent at my 3rd site location, Westside Elementary School.  I worked with the media specialist in the media center.  The media specialist were gearing up for Dr. Suess Week the following week.  Each day, a different first grade class came in during my visits.  The same plan was used for all three days.  Students came in and checked out books with the media specialist while I assisted students checking out books.  This allowed me to become familiar with Destiny, the program they use in the media center for cataloging, checking books out, inventory etc.  After the students checked out books, the media specialist would read Fox in Socks to the students.  Then I would run a Kahoot quiz on the book, helping  students get to the app on their IPads and logged into the game.  Most of the students had never used Kahoot before, so it was a blast getting to see their amazement and the fun they had.  My last day there was a Makerspace day of sorts for the first grade students.  They were able to use a variety of blocks (e.g. Lego, magnetic blocks, Kinex) to follow a pattern of what to make, or make whatever they wanted.  It was interesting to watch their problem solving ability, communication, and teamwork.

Kahoot

Kahoot on IPads

I also had the pleasure of interviewing the site supervisors for my second and third placements, Westside Elementary (Ashley Henderson) and Heritage High School (Chris Douglass).  It was interesting conducting both interviews so close together.  What stood out to me the most is how much the role of media specialist evolves from the elementary setting to the high school setting.  In elementary, they are very focused on the literacy side and spend a lot of their time supporting instruction through reading strategies, exposure to books, and getting the students interested in reading.  At the high school level, it functioned more like a quasi-college library setting.  Students come in and work independently and take care of many of their needs on their own.  Mr. Douglass at the high school spends infinitely more time on the technological aspect of the job, handling many issues and needs that arise for staff and students.