ILP #1

    For my ILP, I decided to complete an interview with a teacher who has used technology in her classroom. This teacher's name is Nicole Lawhon and she is my aunt. The interview took place over the phone. While she is currently not teaching, she was an EBD teacher at Riversink Elementary. Her students varied in grades each year and she used technology a lot in her classroom. 

     One technological tool that was useful for Miss. Lawhon was using ClassDojo. This is similar to an app and it's where she could track her students individually or as a group. It records their behavior and is a point based system that the teacher controls. Not only was this program easy for her to use, ClassDojo also lets the parents see how their kids are doing. After discussing the program, I asked Miss. Lawhon if she would suggest using this program in my future classroom and she highly recommends it for all educators. After she began using it, she ended up being her school's coordinator for using ClassDojo. 

     Next, I asked Miss. Lawhon what other kind of technology she used in her classroom. She taught a special education class, therefore, she had a very small number of students. Due to this, she was able to purchase in-class tablets for each student to  use. These were a privledge for the students. They could play educational games if they earned free time and the tablets allowed there to be an increase in hands on learning in different spots around the classroom besides sitting in a desk. We then discussed how the tablets not only helped them with their academics, but also with their technology skills. Miss. Lawhon talked about how one of the other great benefits of the tablets was how it taught them a sense of responsibility. The tablets were used for a reward, and if they broke or lost their tablet than they were the only ones negatively impacted. 

     A final thing we talked about was the students using the desktop computers for some of their work. They had a program called MobyMax that they had to work on for a set amount of time each day. Miss. Lawhon discussed how the students would get extremely excited when it was there turn to use the computer. We then discussed how like the tablets, using the computer program helps improve their learning and their computer skills at the same time.  While it was often more work for her having to keep up with the online responsibilities, she told me she really believes the benefits in the end for the students are worth it. 

      Overall, after interviewing Miss. Lawhon, I learned that technology so very helpful to have in the classroom. There is so much available to help teach and guide students. Due to the world becoming more technologically advanced as a whole, it is very important for today's students to have basic computer skills mastered when they finish their schooling. There is a lot of technology I can see being useful in my future classroom and I really enjoyed being able to talk with a teacher that has had so much experience using technology in a classroom.