I fully appreciated the Punya Mishra presentation about the TPACK and how it showed a broader view of what technology and innovation can look like in a TPACK lesson. I have often shied away from technology in the classroom. I suppose it is because it does not come easily to me and that makes me intimidated. I have often found that while it can make my life so much easier and learning so much more engaging, it often fails me at the worst moments. There is nothing that can start me (internally) cursing more than planning a lesson around technology only to find it to be malfunctioning, loading too slowly, or simply having the wifi down. That said, I understand how important it is to integrate technology into my curriculum and classroom culture. My students love it and it is a comfortable tool for them.
What can I do in my classroom to engender 21st Century skills? Currently, my classroom is piloting a new Language Arts program which contains an online component. I have been able to use the online books with the students and this has created better use of choral reading time. The actual books are used too, but in reading whole class it is difficult to note where each student is on the page or if they are in fact attending to the print. This simple adaptation is effective and easy enough for me. There are other functions of the online program and I hope to attempt them this week. Students use iPad apps to practice phonics, read books, and develop various math skills. In thinking of my next steps, I am going to need to research how to use the iPads in a more meaningful way. I plan to look for videos on teaching sites that highlight TPACK lessons using iPads in a kindergarten classroom. In bringing my classroom to the 21st Century, my deeper focus is in creating an environment that promotes collaboration. By using sentence frames that encourage academic language, I hope to promote the students' abilities to
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www.teachingchannel.org/videos/criteria-for-success
Targeting Learning with Success Criteria Grades K-2 A. What is the nature of the case? The case study is a video of an evaluative part of a writing lesson in a kindergarten classroom. Writing is an extremely important focus in all areas of our curriculum and it is these early years where teaching needs to be explicit and student friendly. B.Descriptive Details The teacher used the students' work to guide the lesson. The teacher used technology to project the student work onto the wall. Students read their own piece and then listened to helpful feedback from their peers. The students had been trained in a productive way of evaluating peer work, as they were precise and polite in their comments. All feedback was given with a positive comment and then a suggestion to improve. As the teacher states in the video, "When they are giving the feedback they are articulating what they can also focus on in their own work." The teacher then wrote the important suggestions on sticky notes, so that the students knew how to edit their own work. C. What new and useful information did I learn? I think it is clear that the teaching of writing needs to be quite specific, even if the developmental or language levels of the students vary. I thought that this was an excellent example of a 21st Century lesson, in that it captured the use of technology as a means of helping the students to meet the purpose of the lesson-that being to look collectively at a fellow student's piece of writing. Also, it was collaborative, self evaluative, and creative (writing tends to be). Students knew that their friends counted on their support and comments. They all seemed invested in helping each other to become better writers, which I think can be seen as a great way to teach citizenship. D. Could you potentially use this lesson? I will absolutely begin teaching the elements of this lesson. It was clear that the students found great meaning in what they were doing. I loved that it was student based and that the collaboration was student driven . I will be creating the rubric that she used with her class, as it was in simple language, but standards based. I particularly liked the class' way of describing spaces, "Meatball spaces between words and spaghetti spaces between letters." Rate the film experience 1-5 I give this film a 3 rating for usefulness to my grade level, simplicity, and for being student centered. It was very engaging. I understand that this lesson did not include an innovative use of technology as to earn the TPACK 'Sweet Spot' rating, however, by simply projecting the student work in a way so that it could be evaluated and discussed by all at the same time, was what made the collaborative piece all that much sweeter. |
AuthorJennifer Wade ArchivesCategories |