Final Project Paper

While drafting this final project all the content of this course came together seamlessly. I came to see a clear connection between the standards, NETS for both student and teacher, and the curriculum. The most important realization I had was that in order to fulfill any of them, everyone teacher must have a deep understanding on how to integrate all the different pieces to the curriculum.

 I really liked the idea the article mentioned of having an inventory of all the technological resource available to teachers at the school. This is something that I will most definitely be doing when I get a permanent teaching position because it will come in very handing while planning activities and writing lesson plans. If there is a technology teacher or specialist in the building, he or she would be of great help. Once all that data has been compiled, it is only a matter of filing it for easy access.

I selected a lesson plan for 9th grade Spanish on the climate that I had previously worked with in another class. Students would learn the vocabulary in Spanish to have a simple conversation about the weather. They would learn to say, for example, that the day is rainy, cloudy, cold, hot, sunny, etc. The first step was to create a Power Point presentation to introduce the new vocabulary to students and a brief simulated conversation about the weather between two Spanish speakers. Shortly after this, student would pair up for a written exercise and to practice pronunciation. I would then show them on Youtube a clip on a weather report in Spanish. They would use this model to create their own weather report in groups of three. After they organized their ideas and wrote the report, they would share it with the class. The homework was going to be to actually film the report and email it to the teacher.

The core curriculum standards were already listed in my previous lesson plan so I placed those in my first column. I then went in the website to look at NETS for Students to include in the first column as well. After that, I made an inventory of the strategies I had already listed for the lesson and placed them on column number two. That's when I realized that the majority of my strategies were teacher centered and that put students in a passive role. I think that this was particularly important because in order to be proficient in the use of technology, students have to actually do hands-on work rather than just see technology at work. Whereas I had parts of the lesson structured so that students were in touch with technology, they were merely being viewing technology rather than actively using it.

I chose to modify this flaw by having students produce a weather report of their own, present it to the class and later film the report as part of their homework. Looking at the NETS for both students and teachers made me constantly question if more could be done with the lesson to foster critical thinking, creativity and student's involvement with technology. I think all educators should be self reflective professionals and this activity helped me take a second look at a lesson plan I had already written and question how I could make better use of technology and also how to have the students play a more active role in their own learning.

After having the first two columns done, I just had to list all the technologies I would use to execute my lesson. There would be a computer and a Power Point presentation to open the lesson. I also put down a smart board because it would be helpful to organize the new vocabulary in a chart with images to display for students while they work on their assignments. If computers were available in the classroom, I would use those to have students type up their weather reports rather than hand writing them. Via internet, they would also have access to translators during the drafting process. To film the video for homework they would use either a camera phone, or a video recorder. Once they get the filming part done, they would just need email access to send the file to the teacher.

Overall, I had a really good experience working on this project. It put all the content of the course into action and perspective for me. I only had a bit of a technical problem adding the Spreadsheet to the blog. It took me forever to figure out how to do it! Once I finally figure it out, I felt so accomplished!