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!