Teaching Interests and Instructional Topics

Being that this is my first post, I wanted to talk about some of my teaching interests and topics which I would like to integrate technology into. I teach first grade, so naturally I am interested in teaching reading. The students are so eager to learn about how different letter combinations make words and that those words have meaning. Reading is a skill that is used throughout your entire life, so I feel it is so important to help children become engaged readers from the very start. There are so many opportunites to incorporate reading into all curriculum areas, and the use of technology enhances the way in which teachers can teach reading. Today's children are so driven by technology and things that appear on screens, that it seems like a no-brainer to use their interests to support learning. There are so many websites and programs that can build reading skills. I would like to use some of those educational websites in my teaching practice. Each classroom in my school has an LCD projector that is connected to the teacher's computer. I find that using the projector to do even the most mundane task can make it more exciting and engaging. I use the LCD pretty regularly, but there are so many more opportunities to use the technology my district provides that I would hope this course helps me to recognize.