This semester I was given the opportunity to learn many things and explore different technologies and materials that will be very useful to me as a future teacher. Before taking ETC 450, I had a very broad idea about what assessing prior knowledge was. I thought that it had to be in the form of a pre-test or discussion. ETC 450 opened my eyes to many new and different ways to assess prior knowledge. I was also shown how important assessing prior knowledge is to designing, planning and teaching lessons. A new way to assess prior knowledge that I learned and found to be most beneficial was blogging. Having the students blog about what they already know about a subject gives the teacher a direct idea of what the students know. Blogging gives students the opportunity to search their brains for what they can remember and write it down. This gives teachers adequate information about what their students already know, what they can build off of in their new lessons and what they need to teach the students.
Prior to designing technology lessons I would always look up a standard and then create a lesson to go with it. ETC 450 allowed me to see that there are a vast amount of activities and lessons that incorporate technologies that can tie into many different standards. I had an awesome experience planning these lessons because not only was I forced to step out of the box and discover new activities and learn how to use new technologies, but I was able to actually teach things that I was interested in and find standards that were incorporated in it. Exploring that new technologies that I used in my lessons taught me new ways to check for understanding and keep students engaged, as well as meeting objectives and goals. Integrating technology into lessons was a new concept that taught me how to effectively plan my instruction for the benefit of myself and the students.
Creating these lessons gave me a lot of incite to what modifications I may possibly have to make to lessons to target students individual needs. In all of my lessons there was always at least one student who was slower than their peers. It was my job as the teacher to modify the lessons right then and there to meet that student’s individual needs and keep them from falling behind in the lesson. This semester I was able to see that technology offers a countless amount of ideas and activities that can be modified and adjusted to meet students’ individual needs and encourage them to use higher order thinking skills.
Planning assessments for my lessons was my favorite thing to do. Prior to this course I had it stuck in my head those assessments had to be physically documents and boring. In having to integrate technology into lessons plans I was able to discover fun, interactive and engaging activities that could be used to assess my students’ knowledge. In one of my lessons I used an interactive assessment on a smartboard document. I created an interactive worksheet in which students had to move the different planets to place them in order, and then match the planets to their corresponding facts, by moving them as well. This assessment kept the students engaged, gave them a different form of assessment, used visuals to help them understand and could be turned in and evaluated by the teacher. Before taking this class I would have never thought to use technologies to assess my students’ learning.
One if the most important things that I learned by integrating technology into lessons is the instant modifications I may have to make. There were plenty of times where the technologies had glitches or students were unable to access work. These incidents kept me on my toes and caused me to take quick action so that my lessons were not ruined. Prior to teaching these lessons I never had to do anything like that. It gave me a realistic experience that I could now plan for in the future. I was also able to see how vast technology is. There are countless amounts of activities and programs that can be used to modify lessons and create goals that align with the chosen standards. Technology gives teachers so many different options when making instructional decisions.
The Google forms in which our peers evaluated our lessons were so helpful. I have never had my teaching evaluated by others prior to taking this course. Having the comments by my peers about each lesson was extremely helpful for me. It showed me what changes I would need make prior to teaching those lessons again or showed me all of the positive qualities that my lessons possessed. I was able to see that majority of my lessons were successful which was very motivating to hear. It made me feel like my lessons were beneficial and would actually be successful when teaching actual students of the specific grade level. The comments also allowed me to see that my peers met the learning goals of my lessons. I believe that feedback is the best tool for learning so having an assessment of learning such as Google forms was a great idea.
ETC 450 introduced me to a cornucopia of new technologies, lessons and ideas. I was able to step out of my comfort zone and learn and experience things that I never have before. This course was rich in knowledge and has truly inspired me to use technology integration in my future lesson plans. I am so thankful I was given the opportunity to experience ETC 450 this year.
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