// 21st Century Teaching \\

Reflection on lesson

            On March 31, 2016 I did a lesson that integrated technology that allowed students to interact with the technology. The technology that I used furthered enhanced the students understanding because it allowed the students to be in control of their learning. It allowed the students to be leaders of their discussions rather than the teacher leading it. Using QR codes the students were to scan the code with the iPod and a video along with discussion prompts based on the video. If I hadn’t of used technology then the lesson might have been much more dry and uninteresting to the students, but when I gave the students the ability to manipulate the technology themselves, it becomes much more engaging to students.

            Prior to this lesson, I have used technology before but I had never given the students control of the technology. Since I have included videos within my lesson before I really wanted the students to be active in the technology in order to enhance their learning. When I began the idea of using the iPods I was really excited to incorporate them; however, as the lesson quickly approached, I became worried about the management of using them.

There were many problems that I faced the day of my lesson. In the beginning of the day, I found out that the schedule was changed due to the testing of other grades. Because of this obstacle, I had to change around the time of the lesson. After this challenge I had to test the iPods to ensure that the QR codes would work for the students. When I did this I found that the iPods did not have access to the video, therefore I had to ask the substitute if she had access to the teacher laptop. The substitute had to ask the media specialist for assistance because of an issue with the Wi-Fi connection. After about 10 minutes or so—while the students were in specials—the students returned and the laptop was set up. I was still able to utilize the iPods for the students to do the discussions, after the students would watch the video on the laptop.

Initially when I walked into the classroom carrying the box of iPods, many students enthusiastically came up to me and asked if we were using them. Throughout the day, the students would ask when when we were going to do the technology lesson. While the students were using the technology within the lesson, they all were very excited and appeared to be enjoying it. The formative assessment that I chose to use was based on the students’ reactions. Through the use of emoji’s and explanation, I saw that the majority of the students had positive reactions to the lesson.

Knowing what I know now, there are a few things that I would change in my lesson. First, I would have expectations when using technology already ingrained within my classroom. Since this was the first time really utilizing technology, most of the students didn’t stay on task and got distracted by the technology. Additionally, if I did this lesson within my own classroom, my students would be used to using technology, so it wouldn’t be a brand new “toy” given to them. Another thing thing I would change in the lesson, would be to have the students filling something out throughout their discussions, thus making them accountable for their independence. This would also disallow the students to rush through their discussions. The last thing I would change with the technology portion of the lesson, would be to have some way to oversee what the students are doing on the iPods. I noticed that many students got distracted by the camera and settings on the iPod, which caused them to be disengaged in the actual content. After the use of technology, I played a game with the class and even though the students had a blast with it, I would make some adjustments. The game began slow, but as the students started to find matches much quicker, I became overwhelmed with the amount of students wanting to switch their cards. With a crowd of students around me I was unable to visualize every student. To solve this, I would make the card swap more student led. I would check the match and give them their letter, then the students would go to a pile to change out their cards. Doing this would decrease the amount of jobs that I was doing, which would then decrease the overload that I experienced.

During the beginning of the lesson, the class was split into two parts. In one of the sections the students had to go through a PowerPoint to discuss with their group. Although both groups went through the PowerPoint and discussed, they seemed to rush through the questions and some of the student were left out of the group discussion in side conversations. When I came into this station and asked the students some higher order questions to discuss, the students were more motivated and gave better answers because I was standing there. The other group appeared to be engaged and motivated while watching the video and doing the QR code discussions, however, it may have been misleading because I couldn’t see what the students were doing on the iPods. During the game portion after wards, the students were so engaged and engrossed that I became overwhelmed with the amount of students with matches and wanting to get more matches.

In order to visualize what the students are doing on the iPods, having some sort of technology that would allow that would be beneficial to keep an eye on the students and keep them on task. Additionally, setting classroom expectations on how to use technology in the classroom would support the management problems that I faced in my lesson. It would also be beneficial for the students to instead of using the QR codes to take them to just the discussion prompt, it could take them to an educational discussion website that allows the students to write in their discussions. This would allow the students to still utilize the technology, but by giving them an assignment that keeps them accountable for their discussions and learning while using technology. I think that these other supportive additives would make the lesson run much more smoothly.

When rating the lesson’s use of technology on the TIMS matrix, the most appropriate descriptor would be constructive adoption. Although the students were to discuss and collaborate with other students, they were not actively using the technology in order to share their discussions. The students task was to use the technology to scan the QR codes that would bring them to the video and the discussion questions. My job in this situation was more of a facilitator because the students were in control of their learning. Through the discussion the students were building upon their prior knowledge and the new information in the video to construct meaning. In the constructive adoption approach to integrating technology, the teacher makes the choice as to what technology the student use. I thought that the task that the students were to complete in this lesson, this kind of technology integration would be the best choice.

Reflection on Student Academic Success

            Learning about the community and how it works is always exciting to the students because there is a natural intrigue in this topic. When I was asking the students the higher order questions to get them thinking and to visualize their comprehension, the majority of the students were able to change the mold of their initial thoughts of the community through the discussions. The level of engagement overall in the beginning of the lesson—while the students were using the technology—was about a 6.5 out of 10. While playing the game the students level of engagement was about a 9 out of 10. The students came up with matches so often that I ran out of the corresponding letters. Through the higher order questions that asked, I was able to visualize that the students were building new meaning about the community and how it works. One of the questions that I asked was “what do you think about the arrows on the map?”, the first group answered that money moves around in a circle. The second group I had to guide the students think about money in this way because they thought it had to do with the pictures that were inside the arrows. Another question that I asked was “Do you agree with the idea that every business uses trade? Explain.” The discussion that followed this question began with a student saying no because grocery stores and firemen don’t trade, but as more students began to collaborate, one of the students made the point that the trade that firemen provide is their service. Having the technology in the lesson affected the students learning both positively and negatively. Independence and responsibility was an underlining message in this lesson because the students were in control of their learning. Some of the students, as I observed, were fully capable given this duty; however, I also observed that some students were unable to preform adequately because the technology distracted them. After the lesson, I had the students fill out an emoji exit ticket that displays their feelings toward any part of the lesson. One of the students replied with a heart shaped eye face and her reasoning was “I chose this emoji because it was really fun to use the iPods and do the slide with each other and also doing the game was fun.” Another student didn’t feel the same way because he chose an angry face and his reasoning was because of the group he had worked with. The exit ticket was purely to reflect upon the choses that I made and to see how the students understood the lesson. Part of the teaching process is reflection and looking at the students’ work allows teachers to make adjustments.