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For my observation, I chose a former teacher of mine that I knew used technology daily in her classroom. That was Mrs. Joan Reichardt, a high school history and social science teacher in Augusta Kansas. She has been teaching for almost 20 years alongside her husband, Steve who is a paraeducator at the high school as well. I had her for one class, which was World War II and absolutely loved it. She was one of the reasons I am pursuing a career in secondary education of History. During the 5 hours of observation, I watched her with 3 different classes and 2 different subjects.

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The first class I observed of hers was Advanced American History, which was composed of mostly seniors.  They were continuing a lesson over World War II and the fight in the Pacific.  For the technology aspect, she uses Canvas to have the students turn in assignments.  This is new for the school, they had not used it when I was attending.  An assignment was due before the beginning of class but she gave them some slack in turning it in a little later since they had just returned from a week of snow days.  Afterwards, she began to teach her lesson, using a powerpoint she recreates every single year.  She constantly adds events, removes stuff that isn't as important, she is always changing.  That is good in a classroom.  When she is explaining where a battle or event went on, instead of using a image or website, she has a giant stand with maps from all different parts of the world where fighting was going on during the war.  It gives the students a few minutes break from looking up and staring at a powerpoint.  After about 30-35 minutes, she stopped the powerpoint and began a movie.  It was a documentary called "One Survivor Remembers" about a Holocaust survivor and all the hell that she endured during Hitler's reign. Below is an example of one of the maps she has in her room.

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The next class was another set of Advanced American History students. They went to lunch first so I sat in the room discussing with Mrs. Reichardt about the lesson facilitation I was doing in her last class. In the previous class, most students were writing notes instead of using their computers that are issued to them.  This class was the opposite, most had their computers out, ready to type.  They went over the same slides as the previous class and watched the same video.  The main differences I noticed between the classes were that less people were involved in the discussion than the previous class.  She likes when a student can say the answer before her asking 4-5 times.  This class seemed to be bothered that class was back in session or that it was only Wednesday.  Mrs. Reichardt during the powerpoint mentioned her World War II class multiple times, trying to advertise that is was a good class if the war interests someone.  Below is the survivor in the documentary, her name is Gerda Weissmann-Klein.

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The last class I observed was her World War II class.  This class is composed of Juniors and Seniors. This was the class that I did facilitate, I will go more in depth about that in the next project. I went over the slides that we prepared and explained to students what events they should know for their upcoming test. After I was done, Mrs. Reichardt had another assignment for them. It required them to use Google Translate to read these stones called Stolperstein. They are commemorative stones made of bronze that are placed were a Holocaust victim or survivor had lived before the war.  A lot of the stones translated to death at a concentration camp, but some were even worse.  One was an entire family committed suicide by inhaling smoke due to the family all being Jewish except the father. Mrs. Reichardt traveled to Germany and took pictures of some of these. She handed out the images and translate what they said. While working on this project, Mrs. Reichardt walked through the desks, asking students if they were needing help or got the assignment done. They then presented quickly what their stone had said. It felt that the students were more involved since they were able to use computers to do this assignment. The stolperstein below says that Arthur was tortured and killed by the Gestapo.

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Mrs. Reichardt said that the future is guided with technology. All of her lessons are now easier to teach and also easier to learn by using a computer. She can add images, videos, etc. to help teach the subject she is needing to. She also allows for students to access the same powerpoints she presents. Canvas is also a huge step up from when I was in high school. Most of the graduates from Augusta that want to go to college start with Butler. Canvas is a big part of Butler's teaching technics. As stated earlier, some students still used pencil and paper to take notes, but that may be how they learn. Mrs. Reichardt also used her maps she had throughout the classroom, yet that is still visual learning.

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Pros:
1. Interaction, your students interact with you and with others a lot more with technology.  If a student is sick, using something like Canvas can allow them to turn in an assignment still.
2. Visualization, a lot of students today learn best from examples.  Videos, images, websites, etc. can help teach a subject.
3. Experience, students grow up nowadays with knowledge of computers and phones.  Using what they know can be an easier way to learn.
Cons:
1. Slacking off, a student could be "doing an assignment" when they are really on another tab playing a game.  I'll admit I have even done this.  Paying attention to students while using technology is essential.
2. Dependency, using too much technology could potentially get rid of the social aspect of school.  I take as many online classes as I can and dreaded that one of my classes this semester was a blended class.  Turns out that it was just what I needed.  I am very shy and with having a class being in a classroom, it has helped me express myself more.  I know what my passion is and that I'm following the right career path.