Looking back this semester, I have learned a lot how to improve my teaching practices and how I can strive to be a better teacher. As we learned by reading Dervin, our society has often a miscommunication with each other due to people not asking the right questions and not truly understand the needs and wants of the person asking for help. As teachers we tend to forget this important fact and for us to reach our students and help them grow we must understand their background and behaviors more often. Reading Clark's work, her writing reaffirmed the notion that teaching the concept is more important than just teaching the facts. Teaching concepts what social science is about, where concepts are constantly repeating themselves, just like historical events.
When this new school year starts I will try to implement more technology in the classroom but also see what little things I can improve from my old lesson plans. Just like what Baggio was talking about in her book, “Knowledge can be developed by learners and shared without necessarily having to first pass through an instructor. The teacher is the “facilitator.” The idea is that students need to be part of the process, not just receivers of information. I at times catch myself talking to my students, rather than getting them more involved in the lesson. If I want to get my students ready for the 21st century I must do this more within my classroom. The new tech I am really excited for is to try Powtoon and Screencastify for next school year. Powtoon would be really fun to use and I believe my students will be excited to try to use this too making learning fun. Drawback is the Powtoon only allows a few free projects and has a 3 minute narration limit on its free version. To upgrade to the next level from the free version is a total ripoff and the price is way too high. Screencastify also seems to make learning more fun and get the students more involved in their learning. Screencastify's drawback is that there is only a 50 project limit and then you are not allowed to make anymore projects. This semester's readings and work has really opened my eyes to new ideas and re-energized me to upgrade my old lessons. Just like our students, we teachers must "keep moving forward". `Walt Disney.
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As we draw to a close of Class 791 I have learned a lot from the multiple readings in regards to my teaching and to my driving question. Making Sense of making sense refreshes the idea that we teachers don't know everything despite we may have been teaching for over a decade. We, as teachers, need to grow just like our students in our own crafts and in our own subjects. Yet, we teachers also need to grow with our students trying to understand each one of them and how they individually think, how they individually learn, and how they individually interact within their school and their communities. By understanding this can help bridge the gap of miscommunication and both teacher and student can easily and quickly reach their goals and full potential.
By integrating technology into this concept will help bridge the gap between teacher and student. TPACK, or Total Package in teaching with Technology, is a great concept to use within the classroom. To "keep up with the Jones", technology can not be used just to be used. Technology within the classroom must be used with purpose and meaning, which is TPACK. It is the meeting point where content, pedagogy, and technology is where true "intelligent integration of technology" happens where the use of technology within the classroom has purpose and true meaning. To get our students ready for the 21st century and the demands of the new technological age, teachers must inter grate the concept of TPACK within their classrooms to not bridge the gap between them and their students, but to also prepare their students for the future. So far in this summer session the reading has been very intriguing and refreshing compared to last semester's reading. I feel I am learning more on how to prefect my craft as a teacher and polish my skills from the readings such as Dr. Bobbe Baggio to Daniel Pink's book. In Dr. Baggio's book I relearned the idea of polishing my visual presentations using the CRAP idea. The idea of Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity can upgrade my current presentations with more meaning and more "umph" to my lectures. I didn't realize how these small factors in presentations can make such a large impact. As for Dr Pink's book, I am learning so much about the right side brain and how we need to bring our society back to this hemisphere of the brain. He discusses about "true" happiness and the different levels of workers effort based on this "happiness". I can see that within my classroom because I see more effort and better scores when my students are "into the lecture" while my other boring more out of the book lesson plans my students are just going through the motions and not really learning to their fullest potential.
How will I use this new information within my new DQ seems pretty straight forward. After talking to Brenna and how I can use an old project to answer my DQ seems so much easier rather than recreating the wheel. I will use the new concepts I have learned from Baggio and Pink and upgrade my project and presentation to give it a new face-lift to answer an old problem. How can we get more students involved in our society and how to get students more proactive within our government. Or in other words as stated in my newly reformed DQ, How can we use technology to promote more empathy from today's students. With this new found concept from what I have been learning so far in this summer session it will force me to think more outside the box to upgrade my old lesson plan and old senior project. What dilemmas I have face so far is the same old story since the first semester in the Spring, trying to find the time in our busy schedule of work, family, and life within this program. It would seem so overwhelming, especially when conflicting words of advice is given to us as students within this program, but my cohort and I are plugging along and doing our best at every turn. For example, I am sacrificing vacation time and family time and making things work because I believe in what we do as teachers and how we need to improve ourselves for our students. Granted, it is pretty cool being able to do this HW while on an Alaskan cruise, but it is a sacrifice I have to make for this program and what I believe in. In the end, I know that my cohort and I will be better teachers for ourselves and for our students. |