Interview Number 2!

Today I had the opportunity to interview a former teacher of mine, Mr. Fritz. He currently teaches two 9th grade Regents Earth Science classes with a total of 48 freshman. Then he teaches 2 classes of AP Environmental Science with 11th and 12th graders. Between the 2 sections, there are about 42 students. In all, Mr. Fritz teaches 90 students a day. Mr. Fritz is a devoted iPad user, although his students are not equip with iPads. This does not stop him from using technology to improve his classes!

    Some of the apps Mr. Fritz uses on the iPad in the classroom are: google earth  for the 9th grade Regents Earth Science class, and vernier for the AP Environmental class. He also uses ebook with both of his classes. His personal favorite app is the google drive app because it has endless possibilities!

Mr. Fritz
9th grade Earth Science teacher
11th and 12th grade AP Environmental teacher
Yorktown High School
Technology featured: SMARTboard, iPad, document camera, MAC laptop,
and a LabQuest Vernier Probe

Mr. Fritz also uses Web 2.0 technology in the classroom. He uses e-chalk everyday to list the homework and he also has a homework dropbox  for all assignments. For regents review, he will also have the students use clickers to answer questions for assessment purposes. Mr. Fritz also told me that he attends 'Tech Tuesdays." The school has been running Tech Tuesday for about 6 years now, and the teachers go to these meetings to learn more about technology. The teachers specifically learn about: Web 2.0, the iPad, MAC OS, and SMARTboard technology. 

   Mr. Fritz also has the same opinion Mr. Carrig has about SMARTboard technology. They both believe that the SMARTboard games and options are geared more towards Elementary students and find it difficult to use in the classroom because the students are not engaged in the activities. Mr. Fritz believes that iPads for every student would be more beneficial to all of their learning. Although, he is worried about how he will control how the students use the devices. 

Now two teachers have officially taken my survey and allowed me to interview them. This is a great start to my research and I cannot wait to start interviewing teachers from the Middle School and Elementary School!