This experience was
very enlightening. I learned how to create lessons using technology. Another important
skill I learned over the course of the semester is how to create these types of
lessons, without it turning into a lesson about technology. I learned how to
use the standards to guide what I should teach and what my lessons need to
build onto. One important thing that I learned in this class is that sometimes
you have to change your lesson in the middle of it to cover material that
students need. Having one of my lessons backfire on me is going to affect my
future teaching in a positive way. I will have an idea of what it can be like
to have to change your lesson while you are teaching it. The feedback that we received
from our peers after teaching was really insightful. It was really nice to have
feedback right after teaching to have an idea of what happened while I was
teaching.
Standard 1
Teaching
the lessons I create for this class really helped me to see how I can use
technology to encourage student creativity and creativity. Knowing about the
subject matter is very important. I figured this out when I was teaching my
first lesson which was on negative exponents. I knew the basics about how they
worked, but I found that I could not answer questions that my “students” were
asking. Because this happened, I made certain that I studied the next lesson’s
topic thoroughly before presenting the lesson. In my first lesson I did not use
technology in the lesson because it was not something that would have made the
lesson better. The second time we taught I did a lesson on the digestive system
and we used the computer to watch videos, and I feel that this was a much
easier way to hold students’ attention. Using both the technology and having students
physically create something was what I think made my second lesson successful. Working
with both the virtual world of the video and the physical words of drawing and
writing our own stories really seemed to help the “students” connect with what
I was teaching.
Standard 2
This
course, along with other courses I have taken in the College of Education have
really helped me be able to develop and design successful lessons for elementary
subjects. Working with technology is always great, and I really liked how this
course showed us how to use technology to supplement lessons and not just teach
lessons about technology. Using interactive programs such as kidsiration and
pixie can go a long way into making an experience authentic for students. Using
these tools is not only a great way to teach, but can be used as a great
assessment tool as well. In one lesson that one of my classmates did, we took pictures
of geometric shapes we found around the room. This was a great activity for
kids to do, and collecting the pictures for assessment was a great plan.
Standard 3
The
lessons that I created throughout the semester realty show the growth I made in
using technology. I did not use any type of technology at all when teaching the
lesson on exponents, but in my lesson on the digestive system I have technology
integrated in the presentations that the students would have performed if I
were teaching an actual second or third grade class. My lessons included using
tablets or camera to video tape the performances, uploading them onto a
computer, and showing the students the finished product. Students were also able
to use any resources they wanted to perfume the functions of the digestive
system. When using this method for teaching and assessing, it is important to
know that we have to be very careful when putting anything one the internet or
on a computer that more than one person can access. I learned so much about
digital citizenship in this class, and I hope that one day I will be able to
ensure that my students are good digital citizens.
Standard 4
Working
with technology can be dangerous if proper “etiquette” is not followed. It is
important that anytime we are having students use the internet for projects,
papers, and research that we teacher them how to give the proper people the
credit for the work. I believe that the biggest reason that plagiarism happens
in schools is because kids are not taught how to properly cite sources. Doing anything
digitally can have its problems. Things do not download, do not post, and sites
go down unexpectedly. It is crucial that we teach our students how to think
through any of these problems that they may face. Being digital responsible is
something that I take, and believe that everybody should take very seriously. I
feel that sometimes we don’t remember that whatever is said, done, or posted
online is next to impossible to take back. It is very important that we, as
teachers, teach our kids how to be responsible when using these types of
technologies.
