ABC Community School

Rainier Pascual 10/11/2020

 As you may know, the School Board wants to cut down to discontinue the use of
technology in our classrooms and concentrate solely on instruction related to subjects for passing
standardized multiple-choice tests. Personally, I believe that technology in schools is essential.
Without technology, we would have trouble with student engagement, and students would be
unnecessarily handicapped in a technology-rich world. Technology is a significant part of the
world today. With the inventions of cell phones, computers, tablets, and other technological
devices, technology had been integrated into the lives of nearly everyone in the world.
According to the Pew Research Center, “the vast majority of Americans (96%) own a
cellphone of some kind” (Pew 2019). Furthermore “nearly Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults
now own desktop or laptop computers while roughly half now own tablet computers and roughly
half own e-reader devices” (Pew 2019). Technology is active in all parts of the world connecting
us to people, our loved ones, and even other employers. Teaching students how to use all of this
technology and what programs they can use is essential to their futures. Without the use of
technology, students will only be detrimental.
Cutting out all technology in schools in favor or instructions towards standardized testing
will not help them. How will they know how to type their documents, create presentations,
organize information, and find reliable resources for anything they may need. Technology is also
a significant part of helping exceptional students. Programs and technology provide educational
staff with a way to help students learn and accommodate their disabilities.
Additionally without the use of technology in schools how will students be engaged in
their work. Forcing students to continue to do worksheets and listen to lectures is not the best
possible way for them to learn. Technology provides a multitude of different ways to present
information to students from gamification, to interactive presentations, and provides places
where teachers can put recorded videos, helpful links, and list anything that students need to
learn or take account for.
From experience with the current pandemic, what would we do if we ever faced another?
Students and parents have been struggling to receive the education that they need to be from
home and everyone understands that we cannot have students do in-person learning right now.
COVID-19 has been a change for everyone and without technology in classrooms, we wouldn’t
be able to educate students at all. Technology allows us to keep in touch with our students, check
on their progress, and facilitate their growth in knowledge.
We all know that the conditions for distance learning aren’t ideal especially for younger
kids like Kindergarteners but how will we prepare for standardized tests with children in the
pandemic. If we were ever to have another pandemic we wouldn’t be able to do standardized
testing and prepare our students as we could in classrooms. Focusing all of our attention solely
on subjects for testing isn’t the way to instruct students.
Abandoning technology entirely in favor of solely learning about standardized testing
subjects is counterproductive to the growth of our students into full-fledged adults. Students
nowadays are already immersed in technology. Without teaching and learning with technology
we will not be meet the needs of students as teachers and as entire schools. We need to be as
immersed in technology as our students are.
By solely focusing on standardized testing we aren’t worried about what they need to
learn as productive citizens but instead worried about tests that in the end will not matter to them
in the end. What our students need to learn about through our classes is general education with
technology integrated into it so that they can become the people that they are meant to be in the
future. Teaching and learning with technology is what we should keep not throwing away.
 The technology standards for the state of Nevada and the national ISTE standards are

very similar but they do have slight differences. The standards for the state of Nevada are

creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency,

critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision making, digital citizenship, and technology

operations and concepts. The standards on the national level are empowered learners, digital

citizens, knowledge constructors, innovative designers, computational thinkers, creative

communicators, and global collaborators.

Right of the bat we can see that both the national and state standards talk about

innovation, digital citizenship, are the same right off the bat but within the rest of the standards,

there are a lot of similarities. For example in the creativity and creative communicator tabs

“Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new

creations” and “create original works as a means of personal or group expression”. From these

standards from both the state and national standards, both of them want students to be able to

create original work but with the use of technology. There are slight differences between these

two standards being that while they both want original work the national standards including

repurposing resources and the state expect more from student’s individual or group in expressing

their topics.

For my lesson plan on the next page, I plan to use the national standard, Standard 6,

Creative Communicator, “Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the

desired objectives of their creation or communication.” Through this standard I want my students

to be able to choose software that will fulfill their needs by having them recreate something from

their favorite show, digitally outlining it, and making a PowerPoint about how they created it and

why they chose what program they used to do the outline.

Name of lesson: Cartoon Creations
Grade Level Appropriateness: 3rd-5th Grade
• Technology Content Standard Addressed: “Students choose the appropriate platforms
and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.”
• Other Content Standard Addressed: Reading: 3.0 Students read to comprehend,
interpret, and evaluate literature from a variety of authors, cultures, and
• Objective: Students will be able to find appropriate design tools to reach their goals
and be able to explain them in an organized way.
• Materials needed to facilitate the lesson: Microsoft Powerpoint, Digital Paint, Blank
Paper
• Suggested group size: Students will work on the project individually.
• Procedures:
1. Have students brainstorm their favorite cartoon shows, or shows that they really
enjoy watching
2. Afterward, have them choose an item to recreate from that show for example if I
was going to do one about Ben 10 I would choose an item from the show “The
Omnitrix” and digitally recreate it with Paint or Powerpoint.
3. Have them use either Paint or Microsoft Powerpoint whichever they feel more
comfortable using and have them start trying to make it themselves.
4. Microsoft Powerpoint and Paint have the ability to use shapes that will make it
easier for students to create the object of their imagination. There is not a
requirement for what it is but they should try to recreate it the best that they can.

5.
6. If they finish creating their recreations have them start making a Powerpoint
Presentation (on Microsoft Powerpoint) explaining these different things
a. Why did they choose the software that they chose?
b. Explain what they created, what show it is from, and its importance in the
shows story?
c. Was there anything they had a hard time recreating on the program?
d. What did they have an easy time doing?
(How students can create new presentations from Microsoft word)

Creating slides in google is done from the top left.

Assessment: The project will be graded on how the student explains their creation and
reflects on the project. The project check-ins will be done and feedback will be given to
students so that they can fix their digital recreation. The grading will not be done on how
accurate the recreation looks its about the effort put into creating it and learning how to
use the digital tools and shapes to create their selected object.
One Complete Lesson Plan
Student Sample