Amanda+Pringle



My name is Amanda Pringle and I am a senior in Elementary Education at Clemson University. I am from Fort Mill, South Carolina, and I have two brothers who also attend Clemson. I also lived in Houston, Texas for seven years, but was originally born in South Carolina. I have known that I wanted to be an Elementary School teacher since I was in 3rd grade. My 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Harlan, was a very enthusiastic teacher who inspired be to become one myself. I love working with kids of all ages, but I think I want to teach 3rd, 4th or 5th grade.

Technology is part of my everyday life, especially through the computer and my cell phone. I like technology because it allows me to communicate with my friends and family; however, technology tends to frustrate me when I cannot figure it out or something is not working properly (this seems to happen a lot to me.)

In my practicum classroom, which is Mrs. Chappell's second grade class at Walhalla Elementary School, there is a smartboard. Mrs. Chappell incorporates the smart board in the majority of her lessons and commented that once she got used to the new technology, she absolutley loves using it!

In my classroom, there is a camera with the USB attached (like the one we used in our first Ed F 425 class) and there is also a ELMO (used to take photos of papers and puts them up on the SmartBoard.) There are 3 computers that the students can use as well.

When I visited Edutopia, one of the most valuable things I found on the site was the technology integration section. Under this tab, there were real-life examples of how to incorporate technology in your classroom. For example, one class was able to track a sea turtle's journey online. Another class had the students create their own websites to show their projects. I also found that you can have conversations with groups on this site (such as Elementary Teachers). This would be very helpful when I want to get ideas or share ideas with other teachers.

=__**Math Extension Idea** __=

**In my second grade class, the students are struggling with mastering the concept of money. They have already been taught what each coin represents and encounter practice questions with money in their daily math work. However, when I walk around to help, I notice that many of the students skip these problems because they still struggle with recognizing how much each coin represents. A great way to review the concept of money with this group of students would be to incorporate a technology based money review that they could do daily in their morning activity or after their math lessons. My cooperating teacher already includes a short review of currency in the morning warm-ups.**

**In the morning activity, there are two leaders who lead the smartboard morning routine. This covers the lunch count, days of school, weather, and math songs. The students have a math page that practices with coins. The group works together to figure out how many coins equal the number of days we have been in school. This was does done through a smartboard page with the coins set up to drag across the screen to a box next to the number of days we have been in school.**

**However, I found a great math site that would help give the students even more practice with counting and recognizing coins. This site gives many problems in subtracting and adding money. The students could do a few problems each morning during the morning activities, and/or early finishers after the math lesson can work on this website as well. This would be a great way to extend the technology that is already used with the smartboard in the morning to give the students more practice with money and coins. I know my students would greatly benefit from this technology and it will help them feel more confident when solving problems with currency in their math books and in real life.**

**The site that gives great practice with money is called //MySchoolHouse: Counting Money//, and the link is as follows: []**     = __Science and Technology__   =

 1. After thoughtful consideration, compose a brief reflection on what you gained from the hands-on science/technology workshop conducted by our guest presenters. How did this experience support/extend/connect with what you have been taught in your technology and science methods classes? Did you gain any new insights or perspectives? How do you think this will affect instruction in your student teaching experience and in your future classroom? (One or two substantive paragraphs will suffice.     The hands-on science technology we experienced on Friday demonstrated great examples of how to incorporate technology into science in the elementary classroom. The guest presenters for the landforms activity did an excellent job demonstrating and explaining their activity to us. I feel I could duplicate this activity in my future classroom, using the supplies and technology I have. This activity extended what we have been learning in class by showing the use of cameras and iFlips to record the activity while the kids are doing it. I love how the whole activity was child-centered, hands-on and inquiry-based. It was a great example of the science lessons we are learning to develop in EDEL 451.      I hope I will have the technology these teachers had, such as the cameras for each group and a computer for each child. With this technology available, the ideas for lessons and activities are endless. However, I can still incorporate this activity in a classroom that has minimum technology available (such as one camera and one computer) by making small adjustments. I feel I have gained a more positive perspective on incorporating technology in science lessons from this presentation. I am looking forward to creating hands-on and technology-based lessons in my future classroom. 2. Using the links posted on our Wiki, explore 2 Websites (one from Science Resources and one from an area other than Science). After spending 15 minutes on each site, write a brief review of the sites. Include the title of the site, the url and 3-4 sentences that summarizes the site and indicates how (or if) you might use it in the classroom. (There are some product/hardware sites listed in the Wiki. Don't review these. Stick to sites that are activity or information based.) 1. Home Science Tools: The Gateway to Discovery [] This site gives great ideas for lesson and activities for all types of science. It has tabs for Life Science, Earth Science, Space Science, Physical Science, Physics, and Technology. Under the Life Science and Biology tab, you can find the topic you are studying, such as ocean and water life, and it will give you a list of great science tools you could buy to enhance your lessons. I would use this site in the classroom as a way to extend and enhance my lessons; I could get ideas for lessons on my topic or find great science tools to buy (or make) that would enhance my lesson. Many of these tools could be used for other subjects as well! 2. Science Kids: Bringing Science and Technology together [] I love this website! It has great activities for kids to do on their own, or activities that can be incorporated in the classroom. This would be a great resource for kids to use when developing their own science fair projects; the experiments tab gives great examples of different experiments for kids. I could also use this site to research more information on my topic by using the science facts tab; this tab gives great additional information on science concepts such as plants, sound and energy. In addition, this would be a good site for early finishers. Students that finish early could play the games on this site as a review of what we are learning in the classroom. Overall, this is a great science and technology site for kids!