Susan+Williams

Hi! I am Susan Williams, a teacher at Rutherford Early College High School (REaCH). I teach Spanish. This was the closest content area to my subject. Our school is on the Isothermal Community College campus. We are in our fourth year as a school and began the 1 to 1 Initiative in March. The teachers are learning all that we can about technology so that we can better assist our students. Having taught for 32 years in a traditional high school, retiring, and then coming out of retirement to fill the position of Spanish teacher at this innovative school is an "eye-opener" for me. At times I feel overwhelmed, because my age group did not even have calculators in high school.

Wow! I needed to answer the question about "how" I use the technology in my classroom. Well-planned lessons and monitoring the students by using DyKnow seems to keep students on their toes. Dealing with students frustration with not having total freedom to do what they want to do is a constant problem.

Reflections There is so much to learn. The iCue and Google Lit Trips session offered wonderful links to integrate into lessons. I had never used the GoogleEarth site so the Lit Trips tours of where stories took place was impressive. Also, the news, current events, composition tips, etc. will be a valuable resource to bring multi-media sources into the classroom. I really enjoyed this session. I plan to share this information with my fellow teachers.