Episode 3 Kaylee Ashlyn

In this episode, Ashlyn and Taylor discuss the curriculum content and standards related to technology and art integration. They mention three North Carolina Central Standards, including applying creative and critical thinking skills to artistic expression, using personal point of view and experiences in creating art, and using technology tools and skills to reinforce classroom concepts. They also discuss how teachers can benefit from art and technology integration, such as using SMART Boards for interactive activities and incorporating technology in reading lessons. They mention both the benefits and challenges of using technology in the classroom, highlighting the importance of creativity in both art and technology. They also mention using interactive platforms like Kahoot for student engagement and the role of modification in helping students with long division. Overall, they hope that listeners have enjoyed and learned from their discussions on art and technology integration. Alright, welcome back to episode 3. I am Ashlyn once again, and I'm Taylor. And today we're going to recognize, or re-recognize, shall we say, our curriculum content and standards. Although they are the same, we can see how each standard is equivalent to technology integration and art integration, but I want to go ahead and reiterate these standards with us, so that way we can kind of keep them in our mind and remember what we're talking about throughout our episodes. So the first North Carolina Central Standard that we chose was the Central Standard to Apply Creative and Critical Thinking Skills to that Artistic Expression. That clarifying objective was to create art through a process that includes generating ideas, planning solutions, and producing original art. The second North Carolina Central Standard that I wanted to create was that same Central Standard to Apply and Create Critical Thinking Skills to that Artistic Expression, but I wanted to back it up with a different objective, and the objective that fit with that was the use of personal point of view and expressed experiences. I'll get that out in a minute, Kaylee, thank you for waiting patiently, as sources for creating art. Our final and last essential North Carolina Standard that we have chose is for the other technology-integrated point of view, and it is the use of technology tools and skills to reinforce in a classroom concepts and activities. We use this technology as a source of various ways to collect data, organize data, get your information, and all of that. Okay, and speaking furthermore on art and technology integration, we have talked among ourselves when we were focusing on what we were going to talk about during this podcast, and we think that the idea of the art and technology integration is great for teachers, and we also discussed our own personal experiences and first-hand, like, seeing how these teachers at our photo experiences use this art and technology integration. All right, now, Kaylee, I did want to pause for a second and just ask the question, as your teacher or that person that you observed, whether it was art class or regular class, how else did they use technology? Okay, so in both my art class and my actual fifth and fourth grade math class, they used technology for a lot of things, like her whole SMART Board is determining if the kids answer the first question as soon as they walk in for the day, and she does all of their problems that they have to solve on their whiteboards on her SMART Board. It's all technology-based, and then the kids don't use the technology, but they are, like, seeing and getting their information off the SMART Board. Right? And I think another way that teachers could benefit from this, and the teachers out there may can agree with me who is listening to this, but I think having technology is beneficial, but it can also be crucial at the exact same time. A way that I think my, the original teacher that I'm observing, besides my art teacher, is that teacher can pull up the reading lesson plan or the curriculum book that they have. I think it's called, like, the CLK, CKO book, but regardless, at that point, the kids have that book in their hands, and they're following along, but she pulls up on her SMART Board the chapter that they're reading, and it reads aloud to them. That way, kind of like, I hate to say wasting time, but, you know, when I was growing up, I don't know about you, Kelly, but my teachers would, you know, take the time to read that out, whatever. Not that this teacher won't do that, but having that technology and being able to use that standard is very beneficial to her, because the man or the little mouse or whatever reads to them, and then she can pause it whenever she wants, ask a question, or perform an activity task. Does your teacher, in any way, kind of maybe benefit from that, or could they benefit from that? Yes, I think so, but also a thing that I noticed is they also, it's like a mix, they use technology a lot, but they also use, they have books where, since it's a math class, they use the books to answer, like, math questions, and she can pull them up on the SMART Board and tell them, hey, you're wrong, or hey, you got all these right, and it's a challenge for the kids, which is very good for the kids to learn. I think I know the way that my teacher that I'm observing, and the teachers that are out there throughout the whole world, they can benefit from this, because you're incorporating art as well, so when you go to design something or whatever, you can just be available and understanding to each child in how they want to be creative. I think some challenges and benefits, you know, what if the computer froze? You know, like, what would you do? How would you go to paper and pencil? I know when COVID hit, computers, technology, it was everything. Definitely. All that we did was on big computers. Definitely advanced, exactly. So it can be beneficial considering that, but at the same time... And just like the Zoom calls, Zoom isn't that big until... Exactly. You have it and you want to meet a person. Yeah, and maybe, like, just pulling up a simple game on the SMART Board or something like that, you definitely have a bigger way of communication, and your teaching methods are definitely bigger as well. Speaking of technology integration, I remember from this class where we talked about, like, different ways to get the kids interactive on technology, so like Kahoot, and then there was a bunch of different other ones that, like, the kids would pull it up on there and be able to put in their, like, experiences or their answers or a question and upload it online so, like, everyone could see it. It was really cool how we talked about that. Right, and I've actually used Kahoot myself when I was in elementary school, even middle school, honestly even high school. You really don't see it in college as much now. Not Kahoot, but we used other things in this technology class that had to do with online, like... Right, and a way that I found in my arts integration class was you're able to use your imagination, so where I think, oh, I don't have a creative mind, I actually could never come up with that, there's been times where I've had to create lesson plans or, you know, make up something as similar as an imaginary friend as something that I chose, and, you know, I was able to be creative in that, but I could also take that creativity and say, hey, when I become that teacher or when I'm in this teacher's shoes, I'll be able to perform those different skills, and I just think that's amazing, too. I did want to point out one thing, though, my teacher, they're going through modification problems, because they are third grade, and you said you're observing fourth grade math. Fourth grade, yes. So... They're currently doing long division, and they're having to break it down, and it's kind of a big old mess, but the help of her using technology to show them helps so much. Right, so she uses modification, so she's able to take the cards, you know, whatever, and they take a test on their laptop, and they're able to show what's right and what's wrong versus her having to sit there and kind of give a test to the whole class. They can take them individually, be done, be done, or wait a little bit, wait a little bit. Technology and being creative, you have to be creative when it comes to technology, and you also have to be creative when it comes to art as well. We hope that you have definitely enjoyed these episodes. We hope you have definitely learned more, and those teachers that's out there listening, we hope that you appreciate us explaining and what we thought of it and our theory and our practices that we've used or that we've seen.