K-5
ABOUT ME
Welcome to my classroom. I am a teacher of Kindergarten students in the Utopian School District. My name is Jennifer, and I am going to take you through my classroom and show you how we learn from exploring through technology.
KINDERGARTEN THROUGH FIFTH GRADE
In the elementary school, each of the children has the technology stated on our main web site. A typical day in the lives of the elementary-aged children begins sharply at 0800 with breakfast in the atrium cafeteria. Classes begin at 0845, and each child reports to their appropriate classrooms.
A typical elementary classroom day begins with computer-aided instruction on English, where the teacher's computer is the primary computer, with a touch screen panel, and the children's computers are secondarys. The teacher's primary computer takes control over the children's secondary computers, locking them down, as the lesson is given. The children can follow along with the lesson at their individual workstations, as the teacher's computer displays the lessons onto the children's computers. Depending on the grade level, the children learn the alphabet, spelling, grammar, or sentence structure. At the end of the lesson, the teacher unlocks the children's secondary computers, and the children perform lessons similar to quizzes on their workstations. If a child is having trouble, the teacher who is monitoring the workstations, can actively take control of an individual child's workstation and assist them through her primary computer. She has the option of helping out with the immediate quiz, or directing and controlling the child's computer back to a different, easier lesson to enable the child to "catch up." This also allows the teacher to know what level each child is learning, and allows the teacher to identify common problems.
The next lesson is science, and each classroom uses their virtual reality equipment for this lesson on normal days. The virtual reality enables the children to explore and learn in a positive, fun, entertaining world, where virtual reality seems like real.
For example, when they explore the human heart, they are actually traveling through each vein and artery with their eyes, looking around at the ventricles and the capillaries. They can look down, look up, look sideways, and travel through each vein. The children are allowed to explore these science lessons freely with their virtual reality gear. The students are told by the teacher what they need to find out about before their individual exploration is begun. Even the Kindergarten classrooms participate in this activity.
The next session is strictly devoted to behavioral and social learning, where the students spend two hours in combined art activities, playtime, and reading sessions. All of these activities provide an opportunity for children to achieve social skills, peer interaction, behavioral development, and artistic foundations.
Each child has forty minutes for a lunch period following these activities either in the cafeteria or outside common eating area.
The afternoon session combines more interactive learning in the video teleconferencing centers of the classroom. Depending on the field of study, classrooms independently interact with other classrooms, businesses and local governments. Today, the children in Kindergarten are interacting with a classroom in Japan. They are both studying the foods of their respective countries, and both classrooms have displays at their VTC of such foods. The teachers and students are versed in English, and each child has an opportunity at both VTC sites, to talk about a specific food and the origin behind it, as well as information on its growth cycle, and how it is eaten. Children in Japan are dressed in their traditional Japanese attire, and the American children in our school, are dressed in their appropriate school uniforms.
The next center of instruction is more individual learning on the student workstations, where each student is given individual assignments based on their learning achievements. Some students may be working particularly long on math assignments, while other students are independently working more on language skills. The teacher has the capability to "record" these lessons simultaneously, as well as watch and hear each child independently from the primary station. This technological interactive learning method allows the child to learn at a pace suited for the individual child, and allows the teacher to understand that particular child's learning needs and requirements, which can be implemented and changed and any given time based on progress/regression.
The last session in a typical day is teacher to student learning, with more technology involved. The teacher goes over new information in the area of study for that classroom, whether it be foreign language, English, History, etc. During the lecture period, the teacher will project information from her primary computer to a projection screen, showing students various viewgraphs, video streaming, photographs, etc. from the Internet or from her self-integrated lesson plans. This lecture period leads to the next day's individual student learning time on their individual workstations to comprehend, learn, and be tested on the new information.
At the end of the day, children have the option of staying at their individual workstations to complete homework assignments, surf the Internet, email letters, play games or interact with each other on their Palm Pilots, or access the community computer center for multi-media entertainment. All children are given their assignments, which are downloaded onto their palm pilots, which they are able to upload to their home computers. These lessons are password protected by the teacher, and the children cannot delete them. They are overwritten at the beginning of each week. This enables the parents to view the assignments as well.
The school, as well as each classroom for K-5, has a web site that is password protected, where parents, out of state relatives, and the children can access the classroom database link, the homework activities, the class schedule, the lunch menu, etc. The site also displays the student's artwork, essays, and photographs. The site lists school phone numbers, and other pertinent information.
