1. Assessing Prior Knowledge
I have always known that it is important to see how much students know before teaching a lesson. By checking for students' prior knowledge, I can determine how much explanation is needed, which will allow me to scaffold my lesson plan accordingly. This will also allow the students to share ideas about the topic, which will promote collaboration and possibly recollection or insight about the material. For example, when I asked students a method they use that helps them remember the state names, one student remembered that there was a catchy song that sings the names of the states in alphabetical order. By sharing this, other students remembered hearing that specific song before, which gave me the perfect opportunity to play the song for the students so that all the students could either remember or experience the song for the first time. I also realized how essential it is to evaluate students' prior knowledge to prevent students from feeling lost or falling behind and to give students an idea of what they will be learning. When I would ask students questions about things that related to what we would be learning, their brains would begin to get exercised, which would then help the students focus better. It would also freshen their minds so that they could effectively learn the new material. I enjoyed having people in my group remind me about components of the material before they taught the lesson because I not only realized what we would be learning, but it made me think about the material and try to remember what I already knew about it.
This may impact my future teaching experiences by gathering a good idea of what students already know and whether or not I need to provide more or less time for the lesson when I teach it. If students do not seem to remember basic concepts that are necessary to understand before learning the lesson I have planned, then I know I need to backtrack and visit this lesson in a day or two. However, if students seem to know a lot about what we will be learning, I may realize that I can briefly revisit those concepts and focus more on other parts of the lesson. By doing this, students will hopefully stay more engaged since the lesson will less likely be too difficult or too easy.
2. Planning Instruction
My understandings of planning instruction has changed based on my experiences because I realized that I planned too many activities and needed more instruction time than anticipated. Therefore, I need to plan for things to take longer than expected so that the students have enough time to learn the concepts thoroughly and to complete their assignment. In a real classroom, however, I would have time the next day to finish up the lesson plan if needed. Next, I realized how difficult it is to find effective technology that is appropriate for both the lesson plan and the grade level. It is hard to think of programs that the school has and whether or not students will feel comfortable using the technology. For example, one of the people who taught their lesson wanted us to narrate an iMovie, however, I had a very difficult time adding text to the pictures in the movie and the teacher did not assist me with learning how to do so. Therefore, I became a little frustrated and ended up not finishing the assignment. This example also ties into knowing enough about technologies and learning to use them beforehand in order to implement them in a successful way, which I realized is vital to make the lesson run smoothly.
This may impact my future teaching experiences by needing to learn how to become proficient with using many different technologies to supplement the learning experiences of my students. Planning instruction will also help me to plan and use the technology more successfully in the future. Finally, I will hopefully be able to make the lessons more successful because I now realize how assignments may take longer than expected and I can use that knowledge to plan more efficiently for my students.
3. Designing Instruction
While designing instruction for my lesson plans, I realized how important it is to use technology that is appropriate for the grade level. Even though a form of technology may seem very fun and engaging, it may be too difficult for students to use. During one of my instructions, I did not explain how to use Microsoft Publisher well enough, which caused one of my students to be somewhat confused. After showing her how to use the program, she seemed more confident about completing her work. This experience showed me that assuming "fourth graders" do not need a lot of explanation about using a program because I think it is self explanatory is a misconception that I do not want to repeat in the future. I also realized how difficult it can be to find technological activities that effectively support the lesson. One of the people who taught their lesson did a great job finding engaging programs and on-line activities that correlated with the lesson and allowed the students to practice the material. I thought it was amazing that she could find technologies that fit perfectly with what the students needed to practice. Finally, I realized that extra time is necessary to ensure student understanding and for students to complete their activities, as stated in the previous section.
These things may impact my future teaching experiences by making lessons more effective for students by avoiding confusion about the technologies they will be using to support their learning and by giving the students enough time for learning and doing activities/assignments. If I spend more time thoroughly explaining how to use the technologies that will support student learning, they will have a higher chance of succeeding because they will feel comfortable with the program and not waste time and energy trying to figure it out. Also, if I plan to give students more time to finish assignments than I feel necessary, I think my students will not feel as rushed and will be able to do the assignment to the best of their ability.
4. Planning Assessment
While planning assessment, it became evident that the assessments should accurately display what students learned and they should be able to comfortably use the recommended technology to complete the assessment. If the teacher has the students use random technology that does not correlate with the lesson just to throw in technology, the students will not reinforce what they learned, hence making the technology useless. However, if the teacher finds technology that supports student learning, then the technological assessment will accurately display what the students have learned. Students should also feel comfortable with the technology they are using to successfully display what they know in order to create a valid assessment, as mentioned above. Next, it is important to plan time to assess students throughout the lesson to ensure that students are participating and learning. For example, while students completed their surveys and graphs for my math lesson plan, I walked around them and their computers the entire time to make sure that they understood the material and were accurately portraying the content from the lesson. I noticed that other people who taught their lessons did the same thing. Finally, as stated before, it is extremely important to make sure the students have enough time to complete the assessment to the best of their ability. If there is one thing I learned from teaching my lessons, it is that time is a HUGE factor when planning all of these six components.
These things may impact my future teaching experiences by more effectively creating technological assessments that are accessible to students. This means that the technology is appropriate for all students, regardless of disabilities, so that everyone has an equal advantage to displaying their best work. Planning technological assessments will also allow students to explore and be creative while demonstrating their understanding. Even if I were to introduce students to one particular program I want them to use for the assessment, I want the program to accommodate all of the students learning styles so that they can display their unique way(s) of thinking.
5. Instructional Decisions/Teaching
Based on my experiences, I realized that I need to ask for more student input, spend more time explaining how to use technologies, make sure that I am proficient in using technology before I introduce the lesson to my students, and provide enough time to explain concepts and instructions more thoroughly. While teaching my social studies lesson plan, I could have spent more time seeing what students already knew about the western portion of the United States. By doing this, students may have felt more involved and could have shared fun experiences that the whole class could have benefited from. I could have also explained the technologies that the students would be using a little better to avoid confusion and time loss, as one of my lessons displayed. Next, I realized that I needed to work on using the technology better to make the lessons run more smoothly. During my math lesson, I had a lot of issues while using the Smartboard. I could not figure out how to go from using the pen, to being able to click things with my finger again. This unfortunately ended up wasting teaching time for my lesson. However, other people that taught their lessons seemed very comfortable using the Smartboard, which made their lessons more efficient and engaging. Finally, I learned that I need to avoid cramming a bunch of content into my lessons because my lessons became much less effective when I did not provide enough teaching time and time for the students to complete their activity.
These things may impact my future teaching experiences by making my lessons run more smoothly, making students feel more involved with their learning, and by making students feel comfortable with using the technology. These three components can make a huge impact on student success and engagement, which are all necessary when teaching an outstanding lesson.
6. Assessment of Learning
During my experiences, I realized how important it is to assist students while they are completing their assessment in case they have any questions or need help with something. After one of my group members assigned the activity, she did not assist me with a question I had about the computer program, which cause me a lot of frustration. If teachers do not assist their students or know how to assist their students, I do not think incorporating that specific technology is a good idea. If students do not know what they are doing, their assessment will not be valid. I also realized how difficult, yet necessary it is to provide accommodations for students. While creating my lesson plans, I made sure that I could find a program that would best suit students with disabilities so that they have an equal advantage to succeed.
These things may impact my future teaching experiences by making the assessments fair for all students so that everyone has the opportunity to succeed. Since I have learned new strategies and technologies that are universal, I feel more confident that I will be able to cater to all of my students and make their learning experiences positive.
