Micro-teaching Lesson Plan

1.      Learners – kindergarten

2.      Learning Outcomes – students will be able to recognize and identify specific shapes

3.      Assessment – Students will be given a worksheet where they will be required to identify specific shapes and color them.

Activity

1.      I will begin by asking the students to tell me some shapes that they know, and I will draw and label them on the smartboard. Next, I will ask them where they see these shapes during the day. I will then show The Shape Song

2.      Next I will demonstrate the differences of triangles, squares, circles, pentagons, and an octagon. By using GeoBoard I can efficiently demonstrate the sides and point of a shape. As I teach, the students will follow along on pages with the shapes, and they will trace the edges in one color and the points with another.

3.      For individual assessment, I will give each student the attached worksheet where students will be required to recognize and identify a given shape.

4.      Reflection

a.       How well the use of this technology may support your teaching strategies in this activity? By using the “The Shape Song,” I can appeal to the student’s visual and auditory needs through the fun pictures and catchy beat. Also, by using Geoboard.com, students can take home a resource where they can practice their shapes. Geoboard also gives an opening to appeal to kinesthetic learners.

b.      How effectively the use of this technology may enhance student’s understanding of and learning from your particular content in this activity? I do think that the technology is effective. However, I could have demonstrated the use of the Geoboard better to the students.

c.       What are your strategies and why do you think your strategies are appropriate to teaching this specific content?  What makes you believe it would help your students comprehend this particular content? I think the use of tracing the shapes as we learn about sides and corners is appropriate for Kindergarten age students because they are so hands-on already. With these young students, a teacher cannot expect them to sit still and listen to a lecture, and that is why I had them come to the board and help me, along with keeping their hands busy on the pages.

d.      What would be some conceptions and pre-conceptions that students of different ages and backgrounds bring with them when learning this particular content? What would you be concerned about students' prior knowledge, experiences, motivation? While some students may be exposed to the world of shapes, many children are not. During this lesson, I asked the students to show me what shapes they already knew and if they knew what they were called. Most of the students thought of circles, rectangles, and squares. These are the most basic shapes that we see every day, and yet there could be students who do not have a connection to those shapes to think back to.

e.       What main instructional strategies would this technology use serve in your activity? How would using the technology support the way you teach this activity? Please give examples and be specific to your described activity. Think about your main teaching strategies that this technology would support. Because the students are so young and have short attention spans, I needed something that could bring their attention back to me every few minutes. Like with the video, I would stop it and have the find shapes before playing it again. Also, when drawing on the SmartBoard, I was using the students as helpers which would also bring their attention back to me.

f.       What different classroom management strategies you might need to consider when using this technology in the activity? Give examples and be specific to your described activity. Because the Geoboard could have also been used on iPads, I could have given each student his or her own. If this would have happened, then I would need to pay closer attention to the students, and walked around the classroom more to monitor their activity. Also, because we were using markers, I would need to be sure to monitor the students to be sure they were only marking on the papers.

g.      How would using this technology enhance the way the content is represented in your activity (e.g. demonstrations, explanations, examples, illustrations, analogies, and etc.)? That is why you think the selection and the pedagogical use of this technology may enhance what you teach (the content in your activity). Give specific examples from your activity to support your answer and keep in mind the learning objectives that you stated previously. By using “The Shape Song” on YouTube, it gave real-life illustrations of where certain shapes might be. This increased the real-world applications that students could take out of the classroom and use. Also, by using the Smartboard for drawing the shapes, students where gaining muscle memory for drawing shapes.

h.      In what different ways students practice or understand the content in your activity that would otherwise not be possible without the use of the technology? In addition to motivational benefits, what else can students do with this technology as they are learning the content? One thing about using YouTube, is that there are hundreds of videos over one topic, and that includes shapes. There are multiple “shape songs” that the students can watch at home to get better acquainted with shapes. With YouTube, the students can be exposed to many more different shapes than I can cover in one class period. Also, because GeoBoard can be used in an app or on the web, students can have access to shape practice wherever they go.

           

3-D Technology

3-D technology and printing has become more popular within the last few years. While there has been debates about its functionality in our world, it is being used all around the world. One of the best examples of this, is by the Smithsonian Museum using it for their exhibits. They are able to recreate many of their exhibits without even touching the original fragile artifact. Also, many of their pieces are brought to them in fragments or missing large portions of it, and with the 3-D printer they are able to reconstruct and complete the original piece. Nevertheless, this technology can be used by the common folk. If a person has access to a printer, they are able to print out parts that have broken on almost everything. 3-D Printers can be used to fix, create, and copy items in our everyday life.

3-D technology has also become a dominant presence in many classrooms. I think that this is helpful to the teachers and students both if they have access to the equipment. Teachers can use the printer to create hands-on lessons or even tools to help their students learn. One of the great things about this technology is that it can be used in all subjects whether it is math, art, or reading. On the other hand, students are exposed to other ways of learning and new experiences. They learn through the hands-on activities provided by their teachers, but if they are allowed the chance to use the printer, then their minds will grow even more - and maybe an interest will grow.

TPACK and Khan Academy

The Khan Academy video that I chose was Ancient History and the Old Testament. I found this very interesting because of my love of history and my religion. During this video I learned that the ancient Egyptian pyramids were already about 500 years old by the time Abraham, one of the first people talked about in Genesis, came along. It was crazy to me because I always the things in the Bible happened before the pyramids, when in reality it all kind of came along before or at the same time as the Old Testament.

When it comes to educational videos like Khan Academy, I personally feel like I learn better. Many online classes today strictly have textbook or article reading before the assignments, but some students have a hard time with the reading and need to hear it and see it before they can do it. For example, in my Structural Concepts: Primary Level class, it is all completely online and only has a few pages of explanation before we are required to complete the assignment. I am struggling in this class because I need to see the math examples explained to me because I do not have enough background knowledge to know what the textbook is telling me. However, I think that with videos like this, I could be able to see an example and compare it to my assignments. Because of technology, students now have a wider variety of resources that can help them learn.

With TPACK becoming a large part of the classroom, teachers are needing to find new ways to incorporate technology into their class, that they themselves know how to operate. I think that Khan Academy would be a great application to add into the class in order to have more technology. The videos only require to press play, so they are not learning a whole new program, and the students would enjoy having the extra activity. Because there are video for almost every subject, you can use them for any subject. Khan Academy has created video that can help the teacher fill the zone of proximal development for their students. For example, if a student understands the lesson, but there is one part that they cannot grasp, then the teacher can pull up a video and if he still needs help then the teacher can walk through the video with them. Khan Academy is a useful application for any teacher who is struggling with changing her class to accommodate more of TPACK.

Article Reflection

• Teaching and Technology - Apple
• Does technology make learning easier or more difficult for a student?
• How do you appeal to kinesthetic learners through online education since it is not necessarily hands-on?
• TPACK
• As teachers and parents of the technology generation, how do we teach students to not be dependent on technology?
• How can we expand our own knowledge of technology in order to better teach the new generation?
• Net Generation
• Social media is being used as a form of communication and many schools ban teacher-student interaction on social media. Is this acceptable for the new generation?
• Since technology is constantly changing and upgrading, will teachers' roles be replaced or lessened? 

Google Classroom

When using Google Classroom as a teacher, I can upload any assignment for my class to do, and it will be easily accessible for them at anytime. Also, it can be a way to keep the parents updated on our assignments, and if their child is struggling, then they can go back to the presentation or instruction part of the lesson in order to help their child with homework. As a student I can use this for when I am absent and need to do any make up work. If my teacher has posted the day's work, then I can have easy access to it, and I can get it, so I am not behind on classwork. Moreover as the parent, I can use this to help my child when it comes to helping them with classwork. Also, I can keep up with class announcements and teacher's notes.

Google Classroom is a valuable resource to have as a student, teacher, and parent. Classroom can be used for students to have easy access to their assignments, whether they lose their the hard copy, they have been absent, or they are one the road. Students can access this on most forms of technology, and are able to do their homework virtually anywhere. Furthermore, as teacher we are able to post the assignments for the students to have when they are gone. For example, if a student tells us they will be gone for a sport, then they will have their assignment ready to do on Google Classroom. This helps to decrease the amount of missing work. Lastly, as a parent, we are able to see what the teacher is teaching and have access to the teacher and what our children are learning. If the teacher posts the syllabus then we will have constant access to it if we have any questions.

Now, I do know that some students may not have the access to the internet at home, but if they will go to a local library, they will still be able to log onto Google Classroom and work on their homework. Classroom is not limited strictly to school use. Google Classroom is becoming popular in many schools around the country because of the technology centered generation. As teachers, we need to stay up to date on new technology in order to keep the students engaged, and Google Classroom is one of the next steps.

Technology: Good or Evil?

Throughout the years technology has been in the hot-seat, and society cannot decide whether it has been a beneficial element of our world. I think like all things there are pros and cons. As citizens of this tech-crazy world, we need to learn from the cons so we can alter our ways and maybe make pros out of them in the future.

Technology has changed our lives in more ways than we realize. Everything from our interaction with friends and family, our medicines,  our education, even down to our everyday transportation all revolve around technology. Now, many of these things have made life easier and more pleasing. We can now talk to our family and friends, who live across the country or even the world, within the push of a button; there is no waiting weeks at a time for a letter. Also, our medicine has advanced greatly. We now have vaccines that have reduced ,even eradicated, deadly diseases, amputees now have full functioning appendages to run marathons with rather than old, wooden peg legs.  We live in a time where a disability does not have to limit a person, because technology has allowed them to live their lives like everyone else. We live in a world where a double amputee veteran can run a marathon with no problem, and the little girl in second grade can finally understand what she is reading because her teacher was able to get the right dyslexia help. All of this is accessible because of technology. But like all things, there are consequences to the never ending advancement.

Whle there are so many wonderful achievements, the main victim of technology has been raw human interaction. No one sits with their family and friends for hours on end to talk undistributed. Walk into any restaurant and you can find that at almost every table, there are phones out. I ranges from the baby in the highchair watching a movie to the teenager or parent on social media. Family bonding has been effected due to the hand held devices. Also, if those devices were to be taken away or hindered in any way, there would be a tantrum thrown. Like the video about the pepper grinder that turns off technology, the teens in the video grew angry at first, but then the sad thing was the panic that set in. Teens are so addicted to their screens that they panic if they do not have it for more than ten minutes. We live in a world where a lost cell phone means the end of time. I have done this too, and I am not proud of it. Also, like the Nature Valley video, the children did not have near the experiences that their parents and grandparents had. While their ancestors played baseball with the kids on the block, built forts, gardened, and connected with nature, the children of this generation stay inside with their eyes locked to a screen for hours at a time. Kids these days do not have the same knowledge their parents have because they are not outside being exposed to those lessons.

Now, while I could go on and on about this, there is a solution if we try hard enough. As we get older and have our own children, it is our job to show our children life beyond the screen. We need to show them the things we did, try to sooth crying with things other than a tablet, teach them to love the outdoors or art. Let the screen time be limited, something they do not think about because they are too busy outside; and like my mom says, "a busy kid is a good kid."