In preparation for teaching in the future, I have learned a variety of strategies for seeking out resources and networking with people in the field of education, which I have already found to be extremely beneficial in some of my courses and my work with the Michigan Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (MI GEAR UP), a pre-college program, at Michigan State University. I believe these resources and relationships will only enhance the quality of my lessons and my ability to teach efficiently and effectively in a classroom someday. Even though I have learned a great deal up to this point and have accumulated a large collection of resources, there are still so many online learning tools and programs that I have yet to discover, which is actually really exciting! In this blog post, I have focused on discussing some of the ways in which technology can be utilized to enhance the learning experience for students. I have also shared some important goals and expectations I have set for myself, in order to develop and enhance my ability to teach technology-integrated lessons in the future.
Even in classrooms where funding is limited, as long as you have a computer with internet access and some sort of overhead projector, you can still find a wide variety of ways to incorporate the use of technology into your lessons. One of my favorite subjects to teach is mathematics, so I decided to create a simple 3rd grade level mathematics lesson about time and show how easy it is to incorporate the use of technology by both the students and myself (or the teacher). In the process of designing this lesson, I actually began searching online for one easy way to allow students to interact with the information I will be teaching in this lesson; but instead, I found a couple different ways I would like to use online resources and a projector to enhance the learning experience for students.
In the past few years, I have heard more and more about the TED Talks movement in education, as well as many other fields of interest. These lecture series and presentations were initiated with the intention of providing professionals and the general public with the opportunity to share their experiences and knowledge in specific topic of interest. Now there are many TED Talks categories, one of which is TED Talks Education, which focuses on a wide range of topics in the field of education. In this blog post, I have shared three TED Talks Education videos, which really spoke to me as a future teacher and educator.
When I think back on my teacher preparation thus far and tie in some of the wisdom other, more experienced teachers have shared with me over the past several years, I have concluded one thing, for sure - teaching is a very time-consuming field and requires a lot of hard work and dedication! Even for those of us who are willing to dedicate the majority of our time and energy to creating fun, cross-curricular and multidisciplinary lesson plans, there is still a limit to how much one individual can do on their own. This is one of the reasons why the advances in educational technology are so great! In addition to collaborating with colleagues in the school, we are now able to rely on a much more diverse collection of experiences through teacher and educator websites, online learning programs, educational tools, and last but not least, virtual conferences!
One of my favorite ways to engage students in learning new concepts is to expose them to a variety of hands-on and visual experiences, so they are able to interact with the information in multiple ways and identify more personal connections with the material. I can't think of any better way to do this, than taking them on a field trip to visit some of the local zoos, museums, nature centers, science centers, art galleries, historical centers, and/or other educational organizations. Living so close to the capital of the State of Michigan (Lansing, MI), as well as the Michigan State University campus (East Lansing, MI), has its benefits! Both of these areas contain a wealth of educational resources, most of which can be visited for FREE as part of class field trips! I have provided a list of eight local resources and links to these organization's websites below, so you can take a look for yourself and see what they have to offer! Below the list of resources, I have also included a lesson plan called "Potter Park Zoo: 'Sensational Zoo'," which incorporates activities both inside and outside of the classroom, as well as a class field trip to the zoo, including one of the many educational tours/programs the zoo has to offer!
One of the things I love to do when creating lesson plans is to integrate multiple subjects and approaches to teaching the material because I want to increase the ability of each student to access and find connections with the newly acquired information. By integrating subjects and utilizing a variety of methods to present students with the material, it also provides them with multiple ways of experiencing what they are attempting to learn, which increases their ability to process and retain the information. This approach also encourages students to experience the information in ways that activate multiple areas of their brains, allowing them to make more connections between the newly acquired information and what they already know (background knowledge), which tells their brains the information is important to remember; therefore, it is more likely to be stored in their long-term memory!
In this particular lesson, students will have the opportunity to interact with a variety subjects through hands-on and interactive experiences. The lesson focuses on blending life science, language arts, visual art, and technology standards. Students will actively participate in a Citizen Science project, where they will collect data just like real scientists and then compare the data with the class; after which, the whole class will submit data to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Celebrate Urban Birds online database. Students will also have the opportunity to view a collection of data submitted by thousands of other people across the United States, which they will be able to compare with their own data and visualize where the bird species have been sited. At the end of the lesson, students will participate in a visual arts activity in which they will create a bird mobile with the other students in their groups. Students will also have the opportunity to share their findings and the information they learned about a specific bird species through group presentations. In order to educate students to the best of my ability as a teacher, it is necessary to keep an open mind about the different learning styles of each of my students and adapt my instruction accordingly to include a variety of strategies and tools to enhance their learning experience. Over the past several years, there have been many new technological devices, online instructional programs, and learning tools, which have been introduced and made more readily available for teachers to use in the classroom. My own adventures and experiences with learning about and utilizing these technologies in the classroom have just begun; however, there are a variety of teachers all over the United States and the rest of the world who have already put these devices, instructional programs, and learning tools to use, which they have found to be extremely beneficial. In this blog post, I have shared the experiences of one teacher in particular because she described her use of technology in full detail and provided feedback on how those instructional tools helped her in teaching a lesson about mathematics.
Hello students, parents/guardians, and educators! I am feeling very excited to share my first blog post with you. I hope you will find this information to be helpful and I invite you to share any comments, questions, or concerns you may have regarding the information I have presented. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and it will help me adapt my approach to sharing information in the future, so it will be more beneficial and accessible to all of my readers!
Our world is becoming increasingly dependent on the use of technology in our classrooms, homes, businesses, and even on our own person, with the use of cell phones and other small devices. There is an app, website, activity, game, or computer program for just about anything you can imagine, which is truly a great opportunity for all of us as learners! Even though we have all of this technology available to us at our finger tips, the quantity and variety can sometimes be overwhelming. It is my goal to help eliminate some of the stress and confusion, by providing some examples of online teaching and learning tools I have recently discovered, which I have found to be helpful and would like to use in my own classroom! |
Mrs. Nico
One of my favorite aspects of being an educator is having the opportunity to collaborate with others. Sharing ideas, experiences, strategies, and resources, allows us to become better advocates for student success! Archives
April 2015
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