Week 7 Essential Question

How can technology enhance learning when students aren’t the ones accessing it? How can we create effective assessments using technology? Also respond to the video that we watched about standardized testing-where is the balance and what should we strive for?

Technology can enhance student learning through their teachers knowledge of technological tools. If a teacher is more knowledgeable with technology then the teacher can constantly update their lesson plans, teaching techniques, and assessments given to the students. Teachers in my opinion should also stay current with new information in the subject area and be able to relay that knowledge to their students. Parents can also enhance learning for their students by being aware of and accessing parent portals, teacher web pages, and district websites that pertain to their child.

We can create effective assessents using technology by using digital tools to creat new assessments or adapt old assessments to the digital age. Students appreciate being able to get out of the classroom at times and are often excited to try out new forms of assessments i've discovered. I know it is hard to sometimes change up what seems like a good assessment, but I really feel like teachers need to be constantly trying out new things in their classroom.

I think we've tipped the scales in Nashua with the balance of testing. I actually believe we're overtesting at this point. I do know that testing will stick around throughout our whole professional lives and that we need to be prepared for it. Even after SAT's there are still GRE's and I also had two rounds of Praxis tests. Standardized tests are not going away anytime soon so we need to stay current with how standardized tests are evolving. We should strive for making tests not have such bad connections and really make them tools for students for their futures.

Week 6 Essential Question

How does teacher experience change how they view technology integration?

I think that a teacher's experience will even dictate whether or not they want to try to integrate technology into their classroom. The truth is that if you feel comfortable with something then you will want to use it more. I think it all goes back to the first week when we said that most teachers are digital immigrants and our students are digital natives. I am more of a digital native so I think I am much more open to trying out technology integration then some older teachers. I say some, but not all, because there are some teachers that do amazing things with technology that make me want to try out new things as well. But there are teachers who don't see anything wrong with their way of teaching and don't feel like they need to add "bells and whistles" to make students learn any better.

I think it all comes down to making educational opportunities available to all teachers on how to integrate technology and what kinds actually might work in their classroom. It's very hard to up and try to integrate technology on your own. I feel like we do have great opportunities in this district that we just have to take the initiative to get educated and then get the technology we want. I finally did a DonorsChoose and it was so straight forward and easy that I am kicking myself that I haven't done it sooner. You're always critical of what you don't know I guess. I think our cohort itself is helping us all integrate technology but we have the amazing opportunity to do so. I find myself helping out other teachers more now because I feel mo0re comfortable with technology. We all have to adapt to the changing world of education and especially here in Nashua with X2.

Week 5 Essential Question

How can digital tools be used to increase understanding? Why can digital storytelling be an authentic assessment? Could digital storytelling be used in your classroom as an assessment? Should students publish their work?

There's the old quote that "a picture says a thousand words" and I believe that could be true with students and their understanding when provided with a digital tool. Students could understand a topic or concept better if they had a digital tool that showed them a story or process with pictures for visual learning. Digital tools are also more interactive which increases student learning as well and students can add music or videos that actually interest them. Digital storytelling can be an authentic assessment because the students are creating their own product and are using a tool to create that product. Teachers still will have a product to assess with a rubric that they have set.

I actually do a couple projects where digital storytelling could be used. In Latin 1 the students do a project on a god/goddess of their choosing and give all their biographical facts. I've had students do powerpoints in the past but most students usually do plain old posters. I know I need to make that project more modern. In Latin 2 students create a children's book in Latin, illustrate it, and share it with the class. That would be a perfect outlet for digital storytelling. I've found over the last five years students are really having less interest in creating posters or projects with their actual hands and would rather go completely digital. It's hard for me because I have to reserve the projector for class but luckily I just did a DonorsChoose project for a projector.

In some situations student should publish their work but not in all. I think it depends on the class and nature of the project that they are doing. If the project had personal information on the student then I don't think they should publish it being underage. If the project was not completely personal then I think students should be able to publish their work if they choose, but I don't think it should be required.

Week 4 Essential Question

How can you engage all students? What is your ideal technology "set up" in your classroom? How would technology impact student achievement and engagement in your classroom?


I don't know if it's possible to engage all students 100% of the time. Odds are that a student will always have an off day when they haven't gotten enough sleep or they have some issue to deal with, they're teenagers after all. I think it's an impossible task for an educator to engage every student. But we should all strive to engage as many students as possible as often as possible. I think if you get a student for over 80% of a 90 minute block then you aren't doing so bad. 


I actually just got made fun of by students for using an old projector and writing on the blank white sheets. Ideally I'd like to have an overhead projector with a remote, speakers, and a document camera. I still like to use "old technology" though and I don't think I'd ever really get rid of anything. Latin isn't exactly a brand new subject either. There are interactive websites websites that I do like to explore with students and if I had iPads or laptops in the classroom then I could use those websites and the book website to help the kids study. I know they could use computers for vocabulary study.


I think having technological tools as study aids or translation aids would be very beneficial in my classroom. My research project in our last grad class was to have a Latin 2 class have access to a computer lab to study vocabulary online before their quizzes and see if scores improved compared to a class without access to computers in school. Considering engagement in the classroom I think being 'up with the times' with current Latin articles and games would help with students. I already have students using iPads or iPhones to do work in the classroom.