My Past, Present & Future of Technology

My Past:
One of my earliest memories of using a computer in school was right before Halloween in what must have been kindergarten or first grade. Our teacher had printed out pictures of a large pumpkin; it had thick black lines and a very basic design. He taped the pumpkin picture onto each of our computer screens and had us practice tracing the outline of the pumpkin in Microsoft Paint. It wasn't high-tech and it was a little laborious because after every few marks of the mouse, we had to lift up the paper to check our progress and readjust as needed. But at the end of class, everyone was allowed to print out their rendition of the pumpkin and take it home. I thought that was pretty cool and really liked going to computer class once a week.
Throughout my years in school, I've had basic technology lessons for programs like Word, Paint and Excel, various typing classes to improve my speed, and have been expected to manipulate Power Point for class presentations. A few teachers have made lectures on Power Point, a science teacher I had in middle school had the "Astrology Picture of the Day" projected on the wall and one English teacher even gave an assignment out in which we had to make a video and edit it. My K-12 education gave me just enough knowledge to be familiar with the current technological norm of programs.

My Present:
I waffle between teaching third grade (or somewhere between kindergarten and fourth grade) and teaching high school English. I would assume it's almost impossible to make a lesson plan on technology that could work for both an eight year old and a seventeen year old, so for the purposes of this class, I will focus my entries on an elementary school classroom. I think that my third grade class could be old enough to start using Word to write papers and Clip Art for other assignments. I would integrate technology into group History projects and have the students write up short biographies, have them make a few Power Point slides and use internet search engines.

My Future:
I think the most challenging thing that I will face as a teacher is keeping current and up to date with technology and being able to integrate computers into group lessons. Not all children will have access to computers at home and teaching a full classroom of students with different levels of experience will be difficult. Especially if there is only one or two teachers able to help the group of students. Print Page in IE