Introduction

My name is Katie Trafton and I am from Joliet, Illinois. I received my Bachelor’s in Elementary Education from Illinois State University and I now teach second grade in the Troy 30C School District. This is my fifth year teaching second grade at Troy. I am very comfortable with using technology in my classroom. In my classroom, I have seven Chromebooks and three iPads. I also have access to our school’s iLab which contains a class set of Chromebooks, Chromeboxes, iPads, and a green screen. I am able to sign up to take my class to the iLab during any openings throughout the day but I also have an hour built into my weekly schedule. At this time, students are able to complete literacy centers using technology. One of my favorite ways to use technology in my classroom is through Google Classroom. I love that I am able to assign items and check in with my students as they work. I also love that they have plenty of student choice while using Google Apps for Education. Another application that I use frequently is Seesaw. Seesaw is a digital student portfolio. Students can take picture of their work and annotate and add audio recordings. Their parents, peers, and teachers are then able to view it and leave comments. It’s a great tool to help my students reflect on their work and collaborate with one another. Through this course, I  hope that I am able to find new ways to integrate technology into my lessons. Technology can very engaging but can sometimes be overwhelming for students to use in a primary classroom. Therefore, I am excited to learn new ideas from this course to try in my own classroom.