Rebecca

**I currently teach Year One at Nazareth Catholic Primary School in Shellharbour City. I have three of my own children. They are 10, 8 and 6.I enjoy computers and learn best by trial and error. I know a little about lots of computer skills and applications. I help staff members with technical computing questions and I would like to further develop my skills so that I can help others. Teaching young children poses many problems. Children need to be taught skills. Teachers are currently focussing mostly on developing skills in basic applications such as word processing. One of my goals is to expand this development so that children from a very young age are comfortable working with multiple applications. I hope that this course gives me practical suggestions that will help me be able to do this in my own class teaching. I also hope that this course will give me an extensive knowledge of cutting edge technological advances so that I can better support staff. I have recently had a Smartboard installed in my classroom and have been using it constantly throughout the day. I use it for lesson introductions and I prepare activities relating to KLA content. Children can create sight words and letter formation. Once the lesson has commenced then guided groups are able to use the board to consolidate or extend learning. Web resources are also used for the children to work on various skills. I have previously taught Stage Two. During this time we encouraged children to use myclasses to receive notes and complete homework. We also had children producing imovies, podcasts and using GarageBand. Sadly these items were only ever published and shared amongst the stage. Our school has a bank of 12 laptops available to Stage One. We participate in specific skill developments for each stage once a week. I feel competent teaching across applications including iwork. I have been trying to encourage the use of iwork across the school for its integration capabilities. I am thinking of presenting at a staff meeting.
 * Rebecca