Technology Integration Matrix

After looking over the Technology Integration Matrix, I feel that I am probably in the Infusion stage with most of my lessons.  I think a few might fall in the transformation or the adaptation stage though.

In our school building, we are lucky to have lots of technology at our fingertips.  We also have a TIS person on staff to help us with our technology needs.  In my second grade classroom, I use some form of technology each part of the day.  We start off by using the Promethean Board to take attendance.  We move to morning work.  The studnets are interacting with the board to complete attendance record and morning work.  After that, we usually do math which is completely digital.  The students listen (watch a video) demonstarting the material they will learn in the lesson.  After this, we do our math lesson online.

 After math, we usually do stations.  During stations, one group is the computer group, one group has iPads, one group works with me (sometimes on fluency via a laptop), and one group works on the Promethean Board.  We do various activities with these devices.  The students play several apps on the iPad from WordBall (free app) to ScribblePress (used for writing and publishing stories).  We also work on phonics and math on the iPads as well.  At the computer station the students do a varite of things.   One choice is, the studnets use a program www.readingeggs.com to practice the five components of reading.  Another option is using www.tumblebooks.com to listen to books and interactively play games on these books.   Another option is to use www.tagxedo.com to write their spelling words or vocabulary words (or other important words) and make them into a word cloud (I have found that some students do better seeing a word in different forms).   On the Promethean Board, I have interactive software games from Lakeshore Learning that I put up for the students to do.  We also will use www.spellingcity.com, and other Promethean made flipcharts to complete interactive lessons and activties.  While in my group, I might use powerpoint to test and assess fluency by creating powerpoints that have a varitey of words or phrases, and the students have to read them before the slide advances.


At other times during the week, we are doing research projects, using powerpoint to make powerpoint presentations to present to the class, and we are going to learn how to make a brochure. (These few things, I am mostly doing with my higher ability students while some students are pulled out).
We also use handheld responders to complete Accelerated Math and to answer questions asked by the teacher.  The students respond and receive feedback based on responses.  We can also use these responders to link to www.studyisland.com and work together (whole group) on instruction but each student answers question. 

Our TIS person is constantly having workshops and teaching us about new programs such as Class Dojo, using Twitter in the classroom, and other Web 2.0 tools.  The fact of the matter is, there is so much technology available that it is hard to use everything we see and like.  I have to find a good balance in my classroom to help all students.

When the technology doesn't work in my classroom, it is almost like the kids and I have no idea what to do.  We have been used to this technology for so long that we are lost without it.