Blog Phase III: Comprehensive Reflection

Part I – My philosophy of education has changed slightly. It did not take me long after staring this class to decide that I needed to include technology into my philosophy; this would include what technology I would use and how I would use it in the classroom in order to enhance students learning and prepare them for the future.
My understanding of technology integration has shifted from technology to benefit me, as the teacher, to the necessity of using technology to profit students’ learning. Rather than using the SMART Board, document cameras and computers solely for my use, I would open them up and allow my students to use them as resources for learning as well. For example, there are many activities that could be done on a SMART Board as a center or whole group activity. Computers, along with tablets, can also lend themselves to many learning opportunities due to the abundant educational websites available to students. Document cameras can be used by students as well. These may be useful during student presentations and students love using this technology.

Part II – I will fulfill Standard 1 by modeling my thinking out loud therefore students will understand how to do so. I will also encourage students to share their thoughts and thought processes, even when they are wrong because having wrong answers help everyone learn! Something that may incorporate in my classroom are current events, which assigned students will find each day using a digital resource, which we will have a class discussion about. Students in my classroom may have a blog in order to express their thinking, planning and creative processes through writing on a technological platform. A Seesaw may be used for students to interact with each other and me, the teacher, in a virtual environment.
Standard 2  will be met by some of the activities I have already mentioned. For instance, having students having a blog can meet the requirements of sub-strand one. My classroom, as a whole, will encourage students to supplement their learning and explore different means of learning through the technology I provide them; I hope to do this through tablets in the classroom. There are many educational apps designed to allow students to learn at their own pace and level, which I will most definitely take advantage of! Due to this technology-enriched environment, I will not only assess students on content standards, when completing activities through technology, but also the Arizona technology standards.
Modeling digital-age work and learning, which is Strand 3, should come rather naturally considering the technology rich environment the students will be provided. While I use and present technology, I will model how it should be handled and how to use it with ease. This may include physically showing my students how to use a piece of technology while providing tips and shortcuts. I also think I would like to have a class website in order to keep parents, and the public if they choose to visit the site, informed; this would act as a weekly newsletter for those who decide to utilize it. Anther source of technology I would like to take advantage of is the Remind app for parents. I will use this to send out urgent or important information to parents in order to collaborate and communicate with them on another platform besides the website. This will give parents several resources to refer to and stay informed by.
Although Standard 4 may come fairly naturally as well, there are aspects that will need to be explicitly taught to students. I believe that almost all of the sub-categories of this standard should be explicitly taught. These can be taught as pre-mini lessons to the main, content lesson, such as a research project. These are important aspect to teach and point out though. I will be sure that my students are informed about copy right laws, netiquette and online cultural awareness before they are ever allowed to start research for a project. I will also compile a list acceptable websites for the students to use when conducting research. While teaching all of these aspects of digital citizenship is important, I will also model expectations.

Blog Phase II: Reflections on Micro Lesson 2's Implementation

Instructional Decisions/Teaching (InTask Standard # 9):

For the most part, everything went well with the lesson; our classmates/students seemed to like the idea of the lesson concerning using the QR codes. Although it went well, we did have a hiccup during the lesson. Our provided answer key and questions did not match up, as one student pointed out. I believe this could have been avoided if one person did all of the typing or if we had done a more thorough proof reading as a group.

I believe our activity was a fun way to address the chosen standard and did a good job of focusing on and fulfilling our objective. The one modification that did have to be made during the implementation of the lesson was that concerning the mistake we, the teachers, made by not matching the one question and answer. We would need to understand that the students’ answer would not match the answer key due to the wording of the math sentence.

Mechanics:

The technology piece of this lesson required tablets, or smart phones, in order to scan the provided QR codes. When the QR codes were scanned, the students were provided with a math word problem which they would have to solve. The last QR code provided to the students was an answer key; the students were intended to use this in order to grade themselves, realize their mistakes and show how they fixed them. The QR codes were used by both the students and teacher because the students were receiving their assignment through the codes and the teacher was given the benefit of having the students grade themselves. The tablets, or smart phones, were used solely by the students.

I believe my lesson, if fully carried out, would have been within the the correct time frame because it would have taken students an appropriate amount of time to find the “hidden” QR codes, scan and solve them. I imagine the students would not waste much time hanging around one code because they would have the desire to seek the next one.

Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6):

All in all, our students/classmates did well. Given that this was a low skill set for our audience this was expected. Again, the only issue that we had was the word problem and answer which did not match. The answer key stated that the equation was 34 – 25 which would yield an answer of 9, but the actual word problem created the equation (UNKNOWN) – 34 = 9, therefore the unknown the students were solving for was 43. After this was brought to our attention, we expected to have an answer for the fourth equation which did not match our answer sheet. Also, one of the students wrote the equations without using an unknown, which was the focus of the lesson plan. Although this student produced the correct answers, we wanted the process to include equations that represented the unknowns. I attribute this to the lesson being a bit out of context for some of our students/classmates, particularly since we did not teach the full lesson. Overall, I think this lesson would do well in a real second grade classroom.

What did you learn from designing and teaching this lesson and how will you use this in the creation of future lessons/learning activities?

I learned that you should ALWAYS proofread yourself and your lessons in order to prevent confusion in both you and your students. I will absolutely be using QR codes in future lessons. I think they are a fun way to get students moving and excited about learning. They are simple enough to use for both the students and teacher!

Micro Lesson #2 - Artifacts

Micro Lesson Plan #2

Unknown Facts

Grade Level: 2

Standards:

(2.OA.A.1.) Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions.

(2.L.5.) Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.

Objective:  Students will be able to use addition and subtraction to solve equations using unknowns by writing them on their flashcards page.

Procedures:

1. The teacher will present an example problem to the whole group for the class to complete.
2. Once students have grasped the concept, other centers will be explained.
3. For this center, students will begin by using class tablets to scan the QR Code from card one. They will transfer the objective from that card onto their page.
4. Students will repeat the process, transferring the story problem into equation form and solving.

Assessments:

Formative: The teacher will have 1-2 example problems at hand. As a whole group, students will work through the problems on their whiteboards. When completed, students will hold the board facing their chest. Once the teacher sees that the majority of the class is finished, she will prompt them to flip their boards in her direction so she can check for understanding.

Summative: As students are completing the center activity, they will complete their flashcard page. This page will include the lesson objective on card 1 and also each problem transferred into equation form from story problem form.

Conclusion:

This lesson was created with the purpose of being a math center used in second grade. Students will enjoy the level of hands-on activity that is involved through the scanning and writing of each problem. This activity will work even if the classroom only has access to 1 tablet, as students can take turns scanning (all will have to write the problems down on their own page). This will be a different and engaging activity for all students.