Phase 3

My understanding of the Technology and Global Citizenship Standards, different from the standards I have studied for the past 2 years, was limited when I began this class.  These Technology Standards include:

Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
            Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
            Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
            Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

As the semester progressed, I have realized that the students’ learning is a priority when designing lesson plans.  Thorough planning is key to a successful learning experience.  Content may be unfamiliar as a new teacher, but careful planning, varied learning techniques, and differentiated assessments will help facilitate understanding and personal connections for each student.  Using technology as an attention-getter, a tool for modeling, a way for students to expand their understanding, and as a learning tool can assist students develop their learning in a familiar learning environment.  Today, students have more access to technology than in previous years and has become integral in their lives.  As a teacher, it is important to incorporate this advancing tool into the student’s learning.  It supports individual learning and encourages collaborative group work making assignments accessible to many students.  Using programs such Glogster allows students to be creative as they independently assess their own learning.  It will also be important to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility by teaching and repeating rules that keep the environment safe and productive.  These rules will include proper websites usage, responsible use of information from web materials, and proper social etiquette to discourage cyber-bullying and improper behavior.

Students’ understanding increases with technology that engages students with visual and hands-on learning.  Games that can connect learning with understanding encourages struggling students and also gives excelling students an opportunity to develop critical thinking skills such as applying a concept to a personal project or reflecting in a writing assignment what has been learned. Technology mixes auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning to provide varied options for progressing learners. 

My peers gave fresh perspective while collaborating many ideas for team lessons. When working in groups, it is important to realize that each individual needs to communicate in a positive manner ideas so that as a group, ideas are carefully considered for a complete project. Each person has a different work ethic as well as a different approach based on individual experiences.  These qualities add to a positive experience when collaborating on a group lesson.  There needs to be an attitude of cooperation, adaptation, enthusiasm, and compromise when creating an innovative lesson that will appeal to all types of learners.  Within a group, lessons need to contain detailed directions, alignment between the standards, objectives, and formative assessments, and creative techniques to engage each student.  Feedback, both positive and ‘changes’ becomes important as a teacher reflects on the impact the lesson had on his/her students and the connections that were made. 

As a future teacher and life-long learner, I am excited to incorporate technology within my lesson content.  Most students have interacted with computers, smart phones, or tablets by the time they begin their schooling.  Technology incorporated into the classroom via reading, writing, and extensions in other subjects will engage the students in their learning.  With websites such as Weebly and Blogger, I can connect and interact with not only my students, but also with their parents and caregivers.  I look forward to using technology in my classroom to enable my students to have a positive and exciting learning experience.

Phase 2

Instructional Decisions/Teaching

My lesson plan was very detailed, allowing for me to explain each step of the lesson.  For young students, it will be important to keep the instruction simple as one objective could be broken into two or three mini lessons.  Young kindergartners and first graders will not  have much “prior experience”, so it will be important to establish a foundation for further understanding.  I started my lesson with a short, animated video that introduced the concept of graphing data and the definition of “graph” and “data”.  This would help facilitate understanding as the objective of organizing and representing data with categories is met.  The goal of collecting and recording data is simplified as students count and record with manipulatives the animals that have ‘escaped the Zoo’, something most students would understand.  Even at a young age, most students can identify animals and give them their proper name.  Those who struggle with vocabulary could easily learn the name of four animals with proper words and corresponding pictures.

Assessment of Learning:

Assessment would be continuous throughout the lesson.  In the pre-assessment stage, I would  make sure all students participated as they were grouped according to what they ate for breakfast.  I would have visual pictures on the board of different breakfast foods to help with vocabulary connections.  As we created a class graph of our “data”, I would ask various students to help create the graph, both using the Unifix cubes and also on the wipe-board. As we collected and graphed the animals, it would be important to go around and talk with the individual groups, making sure they understood the connections between the number of animals and the Unifix cubes that represented that same number.  As a class, I had planned to combine the group numbers and complete another class graph of all the animals.  After reviewing my peer comments, I would modify this part of the lesson.  For first graders, this might be confusing when they moved on to the technology part of the lesson which asked them to make their own graph of the escaped animals.  Another suggestion that I would incorporate would be the coloring of their own graphs with the data of the smaller groups.  This would also help with the transition to technology.  To meet the needs of those struggling with the spelling of the animals, another suggestion was to include an image in the middle of the circle along with the name of the animal.

Assessment Examples:

There are two separate assessments that would assist me as a teacher to make sure that there is a solid foundation of organizing and representing data.  The first would be the colored charts of the group’s collected data.  The second would be the print-out of the website graph.  The end results of both should be the same.  As I looked over these assessments, I would be able to identify which students needed more instructions and also provide me with feedback on how to proceed with various parts of the measurement and data standards.