Professional+Learning+Community

**//Professional Learning Community: Teaching Literacy using Technology //** ====Lauren Marrocco, 2013 Teacher of the Year, addressed a gathering of future teachers on April 18th at the College of New Jersey about her educational philosophy and the importance of technology in the classroom. For my Professional Learning Community assignment, I choose to explore 21st Century Learning focusing on ways to teach literacy using technology. Integrating technology into the curriculum is important because students will show enthusiasm for learning and they will obtain the skills to help them become lifelong learners. Children learn through explanation, practice, experience, and moving on to more advanced material. As an educator, I believe that students should learn from the application of content, but also encouraging creativity and independent thinking. When children are engaged with technology they are able to quickly gain a better understanding of the concept and apply it to their everyday life. ====

====We as teachers have an obligation to prepare our students for their social responsibilities and molding them into lifelong learners. Teaching and learning must be designed to student’s physical, emotional, and intellectual development. The current generation of students is growing up with more technology than in the past. As a teacher, it is important to enhance knowledge about technology advancements by attending workshops and listening to professionals. Teachers in various school districts continue to use the same curriculum year after year, causing many difficulties. Therefore, students are not learning about material that will help them in this new technological era. When I teach, I will incorporate different teaching styles and differentiate the different content learned to allow creative thinking. As a teacher, my main focus will be the children, developing their passion for learning by using technology to support their enthusiasm and curiosity they portray, sculpting their minds to reach their full potential. ====

====In my Kindergarten classroom, Ms. Kamm uses technology in every lesson and although some argue that technology can be detrimental to students I would disagree by stating, “technology is a tool that should be utilized to help accelerate students learning.” As teachers, it is important to share technology resources to give students a better educational experience. In this micro-workshop, I utilized Edmodo to collaborate with my colleagues about technology but also exposed myself to new resources in the technology community. During this workshop, we found a website called Tumblebooks, which is a website with interactive books incorporating games for students to comprehend the story. Using iPads in the classroom is another way to teach literacy using technology because there are several interactive books and games focusing on a literacy topic. In Ms. Kamm’s classroom, she uses interactive books for her students to use during their free choice and their reading workshop. Giving students multiple resources to understand literacy is important to support different types of learners. ====

Finally, teaching literacy using technology improves student engagement and gives them the preparation they need in this new technological era. There are various technology resources available to teachers and it is important to share these resources in Professional Learning Communities to support each other in our professional development. Professional learning communities is important because it helps us teachers in supporting children's learning. When teachers gather, whether it is based on literacy or even by grade level, it gives teachers the opportunity to share about what is happening in their classroom giving additional resources and experiences to help their teaching. It is important to have a group of teachers to reflect about what has been successful in the classroom and what has not been successful. Therefore, when teachers collaborate with their colleagues they are helping their students succeed in every lesson.

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//This is a great way to collaborate with your fellow teachers using social media. During our professional learning community, we were able to share different resources that we discovered about using technology in the classroom. Not only can you use this site to collaborate with your colleagues but you can also discover different resources through different communities about various topics.//