Assignment 4 How technology is used to support ELA instruction

I interviewed Mrs. Tova Pir, a well know experienced educator in Newark, New Jersey. Mrs. Pir is a teacher’s advocate in implementing technology into ELA and Math lessons. I am glad that I was able to discuss some of the ways she uses technology in her classroom to further enhance her students learning. Mrs Pir began, by telling me that her main concern is that all students should succeed. She believes when using technology her students are more engaged in their learning which has a direct impact on their success. She also uses a computer programs that make it very easy and organized to assess student’s achievement, class participation and grades.  

Mrs. Pir uses a Smart board and its many interactive functions as her main technological tool. Firstly after every lesson she can save whatever was written on the board that day as a document. The next day when she comes in to class and wants to have a review she just opens up the document and everything that was on the smart board comes up. This makes the review that much more efficient and saves so much time.

Mrs. Pir is able to prepare her notes at home and bring it to class on a USB and the students can follow along on the Smart board. This allows for visual students to see and hear the lesson making it very clear. Students can view multiple diagrams on the smart board at once, making it easy to compare and contrast. They can use full color and zoom in and out as well as show educational multimedia easily.

   

Students have a Blog where they can ask an answer questions from that days learning and homework. This makes student collaboration fun, easy and exciting. Mrs. Pir added that on occasion she sends her class URL links to sources they’ve used in class so they can review them. Student teacher collaboration is so important and by using technology its that much more convenient.

            Quizzes are given through the smart board too. Every student has a clicker and can enter in their multiple choice answers from their desk. The computer system marks it and they find out their grade instantly. This also saves Mrs. Pir a lot of time grading papers and entering marks.

            I really benefitted from interviewing Mrs. Pir on classroom technology integration. She had great insights and ideas that I would definitely add to my classroom. Mrs. Pir really showed me how she takes in student’s needs and plans her curriculum with technology.