Kerri

=Kerri Huntley= toc My name is Kerri Huntley. I have been teaching first grade for five and a half years at Lake Garda School in Regional School District #10. I have a one year daughter. I enjoy gardening, running, and spending time with my family.

I received my undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from CCSU in 2006. My focus was in Mathematics and Earth Science. I have taken six courses in the Educational Technology program at CCSU. I use the Smart Board a great deal with my first graders. I also have knowledge in Elmo projectors, Smart Notebook, Web Quests and iMovie. Most of the technology I use with my students is whole group, guided instruction.

My partner is Craig M.

=**Reflective Essay: Research #1**=

I have personally not done a great deal of research in the Educational Technology field. The majority of the research I have done has been in my undergraduate courses through the teaching program at CCSU. My focus for my undergraduate work was in Math and Earth Science, which did not require much research, but rather labs. Most of the research I have done was for my general education classes, such as History classes. Since I have been in the classroom for the past six years, I have not been researching as of lately. I think it would be interesting conducting a research study of my own. I have never done research to this magnitude. I feel that I would learn a great deal from this process.

When is comes to the field of Educational Technology, I would like to learn more about how technology impacts young children, such as my first graders. I am interested in what ways are best to approach teaching with technology to young minds. I have used many different types of technology, particularly the Smart Board. I have found that most of the time, students at this young age really are not able to use technology at an independent level. Most of the lessons I teach with technology are whole group. At times, I feel that the technology may distract students, especially since a first grader has a fifteen to twenty minute attention span at a time. I would like to learn what technologies would make the best impact in my students' learning. I would also like to research which technologies can be used at an independent level for these students.

=Facebook and Linkedin:= I was able to join Linkedin this past week. I have never heard of this site before taking this class. I enjoyed browsing this site. Craig and I decided to focus our search on teaching math using the Smart Board. I am fortunate to have a mounted Smart Board in my classroom. I tend to use my Smart Board a great deal during Language Arts. I would like to incorporate more use of the Smart Board and virtual manipulatives during math. My district's curriculum is changing due to the new CCSS and I feel that now is a good time to get a head start on researching what is available for the Smart Board in Mathematics. Craig and I located Dana Defever from Lake Fenten, Michigan on Linkedin. She wrote an article about her school using Smartboards in innovative ways. Her school has sixteen Smart Boards, one in each classroom! Craig and I messaged her to see if she can share more about the uses of the Smart Boards. I am looking forward to hearing back from her. We also joined a Smart Technologies group on Linkedin that's pending membership. We found a blog created by James Hollis that gave games you can play with your students on the Smart Board as well as helpful tips.

After researching on facebook, we found a great site, http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0. I was able to browse lessons that were created by teachers. I was able to search by topic and filter the search results by grade level. I really liked how there was a preview so I did not need to download the whole lesson notebook. I found math lessons on graphing, which I start the year teaching. I will definitely go back to visit this site!

=Social Media ID's= Facebook: Kerri Huntley Twitter: @KerriHuntley Linkedin:Kerri Huntley Skype:kerri.huntley

=**You Tube**= media type="youtube" key="Jeij_YM_2Bs" height="315" width="420"

I chose this You Tube video because it looked like a great activity to use during our first unit in math, which is counting. I liked how the song was geared for a young elementary student. I also like how you can press the numbers and they turn around. It was a great way to use the Smart Board for counting.

media type="youtube" key="XBksaVgEdwY" height="315" width="560"

I chose this video since it related to my research paper on the Smart Response system. This video is geared to middle school students. The video focuses on math scores increasing since implementing the clicker technology.

media type="youtube" key="tpcdcAAReaQ" height="315" width="560"

I chose this video to post on my page since it gave the student view point of using clickers versus a pencil and paper. I thought it was interesting to see a different view point other than a teacher, administrator or software developer. It seemed like the clickers were a positive use of technology among students.

=Blog Activity:=

Checking Your Facebook Privacy (Again): Response



=Podcast:=

I listened to a Podcast on itunes called StoryNory, stories for kids. I chose this podcast because I would have the opportunity to feel like to learner, especially since a story podcast could be something I can use for my students. As the learner, I found that I really needed to visualize the story being read about Katie and Morocco since this was an audio only podcast. I teach my students about visualizing and sometimes is helps to close your eyes in order to "see" the story better. I found that I was better able to listen to the story with my eyes closed. I enjoyed when Moroccan music was played during different parts of the podcast. It really made me listed to the story more intently. I enjoyed my podcast experience. I think I would be able to make a podcast with my students on a lesson on using expression while reading. I think the students would really love to be recorded. They would also love to share their podcast with the class and family.

=Final Reflective Essay=

I have learned a great deal about research over the past month. Before starting this class, I have not read much about research in the field of Educational Technology. I wanted to learn more about what types of technology are out there, especially those that would positively impact the young learners I teach. This course have given me the opportunity to learn several types of technology available. I was able to read case studies and reflect on how the technology would fit in my classroom. This is the most beneficial part of the course for me. I was always reading the case studies thinking of ways I could enhance the curriculum that I teach at my grade level.

I was happy that I had the opportunity to read several case studies over the course of this class. I was better able to understand all the details of an action research plan. I found that most of the research I read during the course the participants were ages high school and beyond. I understand that consent is a large part of why research studies are not that common in the primary grades. Even though the research studies were not focused on my grade level, I learned a lot about the process of creating an action research plan.

After reading through all the technologies introduced in this course, I am looking forward to podcasting with my class. I will try to record students in reading groups to build confidence in reading as well as fluency. I have thought about this idea in the past. After reading through the case study, I thought about ways I can use podcasting in a meaningful way. I feel that this form of technology will enhance student learning within my classroom. One thing that is important to remember, it is not the amount of technology you use in your classroom, but rather the way in which you use the technology to enhance the curriculum and student learning.

I am looking forward to conducting my own research plan in the fall based on virtual manipulatives. I was always aware of all of the resources available. I am interested in seeing if there is a difference in student performance by students using virtual manipulative or concrete manipulatives. I am excited to see the results after my research is complete.