Friday, November 15, 2019

TPACK Lesson Plan and Reflection Questions


TPACK Lesson Plan

Peyton Zielke

First Grade

Math- Addition Facts up to 10


Overview: The purpose of this lesson is to engage students in solving addition facts up to 10 in a fun and active way. (Students should already have previous knowledge on how to do basic addition facts.


Objective: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to demonstrate that they can do addition facts up to 10.

Materials and Resources:

§       YouTube Video- Addition for Kids

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ou9VvyJNOY

§       Smartboard

§       Quizlet

 https://quizlet.com/443644026/addition-facts-up-to-10-flash-cards/

§       Color-By-Code Worksheets

 file:///C:/Users/Jake/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/TempState/Downloads/ColorByCodeAdditionto10withAnswerKeys%20(1).pdf

§       Color pencils, markers, crayons

§       Scratch paper and pencil

§       Color-By-Code School Assessment Worksheet


Instruction-

Introduction: To begin this lesson, I will start by having a small review with my students over addition. I will start by asking who remembers what it means to add? How do we add? Can anyone give me an example of adding? What does equal mean? After this short review, I will then show “Addition for Kids” YouTube video up on the Smartboard to get the students engaged in the lesson. While the students are watching, I will be visually assessing the students to see which are trying to solve the problems along with the video and which have previous knowledge of this skill. After the video, I will ask the students how they feel about adding up to 10 and if they have any further questions. (Auditory, Visual)


Instructional Process: To begin instruction for activities, I will give a brief overview of what we will do throughout the lesson. We will begin by using flashcards on Quizlet as a class to give the students practice, check student’s knowledge, and to check for understanding. After Quizlet, I will then do a demonstration up on the Smartboard for the worksheet we will be doing in the next activity as well as for the assessment. During this time, students will be given the opportunity to come up to the board and do examples as well. Then we will do our ice cream Color-By-Code worksheet and another which is optional. Lastly, we will do a different style of Color-By-Code worksheet for the assessment.

§       Activity 1- Quizlet- In order to check for student’s knowledge and understanding before giving a worksheet activity, I will have the class do some addition flashcard facts up on the smartboard. I will then let a couple students who volunteer come up to the smartboard and play a game on Quizlet. (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic)

§       Activity 2- Smartboard Demonstration of Color-By-Code- I will start off the demonstration by having a Color-By-Code addition facts up to 10 worksheet up on the Smartboard. I will explain to the students what the purpose/point to this worksheet is and then I will solve a problem and color in that piece for demonstration. After I solve a couple problems, I will then call on students to come up to the board and solve and color in a piece. (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic)

§       Activity 3- Color-By-Code Worksheet- I will pass out the Ice Cream “Color-By-Code” worksheet to the students. I will then go over the instructions to this worksheet again. I will explain to the students that they first need to solve the problem to discover which color goes to that specific piece. The students will be given a piece of scratch paper that they can use to solve a problem or problems if needed. The students can choose to color this worksheet with markers, crayons, or colored pencils. (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic)


Closure: Once the worksheet is completed, each student must bring their paper to me and I will look it over to make sure the student has completed and solved the problems correctly. After the students have finished and gotten it checked by me, they will get to choose another Color-By-Code worksheet of their choice between a cactus, bear, or flowers. During this time, the students will ask any questions they might still have.


Assessment: Students will be assessed on their ability to demonstrate addition facts up to 10. This assessment will be done with a different style of Color-By-Code worksheet. This assessment will show the teacher where the students stand with their addition facts up to 10. This will also give the students more practice and give them a different view/method to solving the worksheet. The students will turn this worksheet in for a grade. 



Reflection

1. How well the use of this technology may support your teaching strategies in this activity.

I believe that this technology will strongly support my teaching strategies because by implementing technology in my lesson, I am able to reach more of my students through differentiated instructions. I am one that loves to provide visually and verbal methods to all lessons, so everyone is able to learn. This also allows my students to learn in a fun and engaging way.



Technology helps me as a teacher to reach all my students. I am able to lecture to my class and then show a video on YouTube to help sum my lecture up and allow those students to get a different view of the same material. Technology is an amazing tool and benefit to have and use in the classroom.



2. How effectively the use of this technology may enhance students’ understanding of and learning from your particular content in this activity.

This is very effective as it provides differentiated teaching to meet every student’s needs. Every student learns differently and with technology, it is easy to differentiate instructions to meet all the learning needs. Not only does technology allow easy opportunity to meet every student need, but it also brings more engagement which sparks the student’s interests. It is easy as a teacher to teach a lesson when your students are interested, and it is easier for a student to learn the material when they are interested. With technology, students who are visual learners are able to watch videos for example to meet their learning needs, whereas students who are kinesthetic learners would learn better by playing games. Technology is an easy tool that can be used to meet visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning needs.



For the technology side of my activities, I started with a YouTube video to draw my student’s attention from the start. For the topic I chose, I was unable to find one with a catchy song, but the video I did find allowed the students to dive right in and answer math facts with the dinosaur. My first activity, Quizlet, is a great tool all around for both the students and the teacher. Quizlet provides the students with a great study and practice tool and it provides the teacher with an easy assessment tool. I used Quizlet to practice math facts as a class and then I let students volunteer to play a matching game to test their understanding and to bring some fun to the lesson. My second activity, Smartboard demonstration, allowed me to pull up a sample worksheet and model what I am asking my students to individually do for the next activity. Smartboards bring so much to the classroom as it allows teachers to use multiple resources to enhance student learning.



3. What are your strategies and why do you think your strategies are appropriate to teaching this specific content?  What makes you believe it would help your students comprehend this particular content? Give specific examples from your described activity.

I have a couple different strategies when it comes to teaching. My first strategy being, fun and engaging. I am all about trying to incorporate fun activities to bring engagement and excitement to the students. When the students are excited and engaged in a lesson, the learning outcome is better. My next strategy is to always keep my students interested in the lesson I am teaching. In order for me to do this, I use a variety of teaching methods and tools such as YouTube videos, Quizlet, coloring activities, and more. By teaching with a variety of sources, I meet different learning needs and I also keep the students engaged and on their toes. The students stay on their toes because they don’t know what the next step/activity of my lesson is going to be. With that same aspect, I feel that this also leads to better comprehension over the lesson because students are fully engaged and paying attention.



For this particular lesson some of the strategies I used included starting with a brief review, then a YouTube video, next Quizlet flashcards and a matching game, and lastly a color-by-code worksheet. I like to start with a review to check where all my students stand with the material to the lesson I am fixing to teach. By starting with a review, I am able to check student’s comprehension by checking their prior knowledge. YouTube is a great tool to incorporate into any lesson in my opinion. This is an easy and fun way to catch the student’s attention for the lesson from the start. Most videos allow the students to be active and engaged. For example, this lesson of mine, the video allowed my students to solve math problems along with the video. Quizlet is another great tool to use for practice and for checking student’s comprehension. Lastly, any worksheet provides a great way to see exactly what the students learned and comprehended from the lesson. For this lesson, I chose to use a coloring activity worksheet because young children love to color so they engage better when they have something fun to add with the addition math facts.



4. What would be some conceptions and pre-conceptions that students of different ages and backgrounds bring with them when learning this particular content? What would you be concerned about students' prior knowledge, experiences, motivation? Again focus on the content and your teaching strategy, not the technology!

Some pre-conceptions would be, do all my students have an understanding of what addition is and means? Do all my students know how to count to at least one hundred by this point? At what age did my students learn their numbers? At what age where they first introduced to addition? Do any of my students already have addition mastered and need a little more challenge than I have planned?

           

Every student learns differently and at a different pace. It is my job to figure out where each student is at before starting every lesson so that I can make sure to meet every student’s learning needs. At this point, I would have already discussed addition and as a class we would have already worked with the very basic addition facts prior to the lesson I taught for this. So, my students should have basic prior knowledge at the start of my lesson. Like I stated previously, I have to meet all my students’ needs, so I will start by doing a pre-assessment/review to see where all my students are at with this specific lesson and build from there. I will start my lesson with where my student’s problem areas are at and then move forward from there. Without doing a pre-assessment of some sort, I would never know where to start with my lesson.



As far as the experience and motivation side of this, I too will need to learn this during the student’s pre-assessment. For a student that has previously struggled with math, they more than likely had a bad experience and will more than likely have a negative attitude to start the lesson. It is very important for me to diagnose this and figure out a solution for this student or students. For a student that has had a bad experience with math in the past, I will need to get an understanding of what lead to this experience so I can try to make a difference and fix it before continuing on with my lesson. For the motivation side, I feel the best result for motivation is a positive environment. I would want to make sure to have a positive classroom environment to boost my student’s motivation towards learning. I feel like comes with also stressing to the students how important learning and school is. Students need motivation in order to get the best outcome from every lesson. If I have a student that isn’t motivated, then they aren’t going to focus and dive into my lesson. One way I like to tackle this problem from ever happening, is to start my lessons with an engaging YouTube video.


5. What main instructional strategies would this technology use serve in your activity? How would using the technology support the way you teach this activity? Please give examples and be specific to your described activity. Think about your main teaching strategies that this technology would support.

My main instructional strategy for this lesson would be the smartboard. I used the smartboard to demonstrate examples and also to show my other technology sources through. Without the smartboard, I would have a harder time getting my students engaged and involved with this lesson like I would like to. My educational apps are another instructional strategy source. For this lesson, I used a video from YouTube and Quizlet. The instructional strategy from YouTube would be gaining the students interest and getting them engaged into the lesson and to also gather information for the lesson. The instructional strategy for Quizlet would be to supply the students with math facts to practice as a class but to also use to practice individually at home. Another for Quizlet, is to also utilize the matching game so the students can challenge one another to bring a different side of learning such as critical thinking. Both of these educational tools provide great instructional information to my lesson.



With all the technology sources and instructional strategies discussed above, this allows me to have more student engagement with my lesson. For example, during my video for this lesson, the students were able to solve math facts along with the video. Another example is the use of Quizlet. Quizlet allowed my students to get to come up to the smartboard and actively play the matching game against other students. Technology supports my methods of teaching because it allows me to use so many different teaching qualities to again meet every student.



6. What different classroom management strategies you might need to consider when using this technology in the activity? Give examples and be specific to your described activity.

One of the biggest management strategies I would need to enforce with this lesson is to stress to my students that they can have fun and get engaged but they do still need to remain in their seats unless otherwise told. Kids tend to get really eager and excited when dealing with technology, so when they are told that they will get a chance to come up to the board they are going to get even more excited. This is why it is important for me to stress the rules at the beginning of the lesson. I will also need to stress the rules of when we play the matching game that it is okay to compete, but we need to remain respectful to one another and be responsible and respectful with the equipment, smartboard. The last rule I would want to stress on is to keep an inside voice. During the video, game, and coloring activity, the students are going to get excited and so it is important to remind them to keep their voices down.


7. How would using this technology enhance the way the content is represented in your activity (e.g. demonstrations, explanations, examples, illustrations, analogies, and etc.)? That is why you think the selection and the pedagogical use of this technology may enhance what you teach (the content in your activity). Give specific examples from your activity to support your answer and keep in mind the learning objectives that you stated previously. 

I feel that using technology would really enhance the content because it reinforces the information provided in my lecture. This allows my students to not only get auditory learning through listening to me during lecture, but they also get to visually learn through the technology tools used in my lesson. Technology also enhances the instructional process of my lesson for my students by being able to display, model, demonstrate, and provide examples. Technology in my opinion allows me as a teacher to stray away from the traditional way of teaching and to instead bring more life and fun to my lesson. All in all, this in my opinion leads to a greater learning outcome and the learning objectives are more successfully met through the addition of technology.



From this lesson, my YouTube video is a perfect example of how technology enhances my teaching and lesson. I started my lesson with a review and introduction to introduce to my students what we are going to be learning today and then I used the video to give my students a visual understanding of what I just discussed with them. Technology can give every lesson that extra support and boost to get the point of the lesson across to the students better.



8. In what different ways students practice or understand the content in your activity that would otherwise not be possible without the use of the technology? In addition to motivational benefits, what else can students do with this technology as they are learning the content?

For starters, without technology, my students would be less engaged, and my lessons wouldn’t be as fun for the students. It would also be harder for students to see the activities modeled in different ways, for example with the use of YouTube. The modeling and content are both still there but its just not as effective or exciting to the students like it is through technology. Another example from my lesson is the use of flashcards. Yes, my students could handwrite their math fact flash cards instead of using the technology-based ones on Quizlet. The only thing is, students tend to not use their paper flashcards, but they will use Quizlet.  

As for motivational benefits, technology bring more motivation and engagement to a lesson. Students can visually see what they are learning. Technology also supplies the students with so much more than what you cover as a teacher in a lesson. If you have a student that is still struggling with a lesson after teaching, you can give them other videos to watch or educational games to play at home to help them improve in this struggling area. Technology supplies students with easy access to help at any time, in school and outside of school. With all the different resources that technology provides, it can accommodate students of all different types, ages, and learning abilities. Lastly, technology bring interaction, engagement, excitement, and fun to the classroom for the students.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

3D Printing


3D printing brings a whole new perspective to technology. I am truly amazing over the thought of this form of technology. Like I have said in previous post and class discussions, with everything there is always a positive side and a negative side, and this does as well. I do see more positive from this than negative. The only negatives I see to this is the expense being the biggest issue, the lack of training, network and technology issues, and time with certain designs. Now for all the amazing positives of the 3D printer. For starters, this has brought so much advancement to the medical side of our world. With 3D printers, we are now able to print human organs to use as transplants for all the people in need. Instead of some people losing their lives over not being able to find a match from an organ donor or people having to wait months or years for a match they can now get one printed. This is beyond amazing and an incredible invention. Now how does something such as a 3D printer benefit the educational side of our world? 3D printers bring such a great tool that teachers can benefit from and utilize in their classrooms for all subjects and many lessons. I see this being very useful in elementary classrooms. With this amazing tool that can bring lessons to life, bring students imaginations out, bring more engagement to the classroom, and really activate the visual side of learning. A 3D printer can be used in all subjects and help bring a lesson to life. A 3D printer can allow teachers to bring a character from a story to life for students to visually see, print shapes and tools for different math lessons for children to get a visual understanding, print skeletons or other models to tie to science lessons, and print models and landscape types or figures for social studies. All of this will bring fun and engagement to a lesson and I strongly feel that so many students will benefit from the use of the 3D printer. The tinkercad link is something else that I really enjoyed and feel that many students would love as this site allows you to create your very own designs/inventions to print.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Khan Academy and TPACK


The Khan Academy video I chose to watch was over grammar. My video explained how to identify a nouns direct and indirect object. I chose this to help me better understand this topic for a current class I am in. I found this short video to be helpful. It didn’t go into a lot of details, but it did explain and show simple examples. With this, I was able to get an understanding of how to solve and dissect direct and indirect objects from sentences. I have included a link at the bottom of this post for the video I watched. 


I am one that personally loves to be able to visually see how and why something works the way it does. Being a visual learner, I love educational resources such as Khan Academy. I feel like this is just a perfect way to further educate and explain a topic. Khan Academy covers all subjects and all kinds of topics. A lot of classes require students to read a portion of their textbooks or read an assigned article, but what about those students that have a hard time comprehending what they read. I know I was one of these students when I was younger. With Khan Academy, students can still read the assigned material, but then they could go and watch a short video that gives them the visual explanation to further understand and comprehend the lesson.


Now how does Khan Academy and the TPACK article connect, simply through technology. TPACK is becoming more known in education and seen more often in the classroom. It is a framework for the integration of technology in classrooms and how teachers can successfully incorporate technology. TPACK is the framework of integrating technology into the content and pedagogy of the classroom. Khan Academy is a perfect and easy way to incorporate technology into the content and pedagogy. It is a simple website that is easy for all ages to use. A teacher can turn to Khan Academy to add further explanation and examples to their lecture, to help a struggling student, and to give extra practice to students to master a topic. Khan Academy can also be used at home by students, so if a student runs into a homework problem, they can search that topic/subject and get a video explanation right there at home. I honestly feel that Khan Academy is a perfect resource to bring TPACK in the classroom.



Link of Khan Academy video-

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/syntax-sentences-and-clauses/subjects-and-predicates/v/subject-direct-object-and-indirect-object-syntax-khan-academy

Monday, September 16, 2019

3 Articles

TPACK
  • Technology is becoming an issue when it comes to communication. People are struggling with communicating without the use of technology. As technology continues to grow, do you think this issue will continue to grow with it?
  • With how fast technology changes and advances, how are teachers supposed to keep up with it in the classroom?
  • How do teachers learn to properly apply skills from TPACK?
  • With the advancement in technology, how can we as educators stress to our students not to become dependable on technology?
  • Will teachers still be needed with the rapid growth of technology?

Net Generation
  • What is the best way for people that were born before 1984 to learn how to use all the sources of technology?
  • Should social media be a communication source between a teacher and a student or parent?
  • How do teachers effective teach using technology if they are not properly taught how to use it?
  • Will technology replace teachers in the future? 

Teaching and Technology-Apple
  • Does technology make things easier or harder for students and teachers?
  • Students all learn differently, some are visual learners, others are auditory learns, and some are kinesthetic learners. With technology playing such a big role in education, will it take away from differentiating learning?
  • A question that arises throughout this article is, who benefits?
  • What happens if technology takes over?
  • What does this do to teachers? To students? To parents?
  • Will teaching eventually be done entirely online in the future?
  • With all the advancement in technology, what does one do that doesn’t have access to technology outside of school?

Google Classroom


Google Classroom is a great tool for the classroom. It is a great place for the teacher, the students, and the parents. From a teacher’s perspective, Google Classroom offers so many great options and opportunities for the class. Through Google Classroom teachers can store class materials such as class syllabus and class rules, make announcements through which students are notified about through email, post assignments and quizzes directly on the site for students to complete right there, grade assignments and comment on students work, stores and keeps track of student’s grades, stay organized, and more. Another great aspect of Google Classroom for the teacher is assignments can be created at any time. Teachers can create an assignment they will need for the next day or create future assignments and save them. Not only can assignments be made at any time, they are easy and fast to create. Grading these assignments is done instantly and automatically so that takes the stress of grading some assignments off the teacher’s plate. From a student’s perspective, Google Classroom brings engagement to the class, keeps students organized on assignments as for when assignments are due and upcoming assignments, and allows students to keep up with their grades. From a parent’s perspective, Google Classroom allows parents to view their child’s accomplishments, view class announcements, receive summaries on their students progress which includes missing homework and upcoming assignments, and they can view class activities. One great benefit that Google Classroom brings to all, the teacher, the students, and the parents, is a communication tool. Overall, I can definitely see myself using Google Classroom in my future classroom. I love all the benefits and options that are provided through this tool.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Technology Reflection


Technology is the way of today’s world. Like everything in life, there are pros and then there are cons, and this goes with technology. Technology is beneficial in many areas such as education, medicine, communication, and just life in general. But, with that in the same areas as it is beneficial, it can also have disadvantages depending on how it is used. Albert Einstein’s quote is a perfect example of this. His quote, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” I personally think technology is intriguing and beneficial in many aspects but with that it is making us “idiots” so to say in a way. For instance, some people no longer know how to carry a face to face conversation anymore, but they have no problems communication over technology. Communication is a simple task in life, so if one struggles with that, what else are they unable to do without technology?


Technology in education has completely changed the outlook of learning. It has brought so many advantages all around when used properly. Technology allows access to books and learning resources, tutoring anytime and anywhere, learning apps, and so much more. There are so many learning opportunities right there at almost everyone’s fingertips. In the classroom, technology has brought smartboards, Kahoot (one of many educational games), improved engagement, encourages individual learning, encourages collaboration, and so much more. Technology also has disadvantages such as more access to cheating since everything is available on Google and it can lead to distraction. Cell phones are a big distraction in the classroom.



Technology in medicine has led to improving quality of life in my opinion. Technology has made it easier to diagnosis and treat illnesses. With technology, surgeons are now able to perform minimally-invasive surgeries, there are better monitoring systems, and scanning machines such as X-rays, CT scans, MRI’s, ultrasounds, and more. Technology has also brought hearing aids to those who are hard of hearing and it has brought prosthetics to those who have lost a limb. If technology is used right, then it is full of advantages. But there are so many people in the world that abuse the use of technology. One example is, charting is done on computers or tablets now instead of paper so some nurses and doctors focus more on the technology than on the patient and can overlook an issue. Another example is the article about the gene edited baby. I believe technology is being overused in this situation and will lead to more problems in the future than it will lead to good, such as what the article said about it could change the lives of future generations.



Technology in communication is the one area that I personally see more disadvantages to than education and medicine. I say this because I see so many people lost in their phones and missing out on the people around them. The video “Technology hijacked the family dinner time” did an amazing job at showing how technology has destroyed a major key in life, communication. In the video, you could see how lost and angry people get without technology. In a sense, they act like the world is coming to an end when that’s not the case. Some restaurants, like Applebee’s for instance even have tablet devices located on each table that allow people to purchase games to play while waiting for their food. To me there is no reason for that at all. All that is doing is allowing disruption to the table and contributing to destroying communication. But with everything in life, there are advantages to technology in the communicating world. The biggest benefit is technology allows us to communicate with family and friends at any time and all over the world. I have family I don’t get to see very often but with technology we can keep in touch with one another more conveniently than mailing letters back and forth. Technology also gives us as students easier opportunities to communicate with teachers outside of the classroom. The video “Technology hijacked the family dinner table” had a statement in it that I loved. This is, “When families disconnect, they reconnect.” That is very true and well said and really makes one think.



Technology is seriously everywhere around us, so it plays a huge part of just everyday life. The first video we had to watch “One Simple Question”, shows how technology has hurt generations over the years. The video asked these people what they did for fun as a kid and it is amazing how nature gets lost over the years. The first generation answered with responses such as picking blueberries, growing a garden, and fishing. The next generation responded with playing hide and seek outside, building forts, and playing baseball. The last generation all responded with playing video games for hours, being on their phones, and watching videos. The video had a part that said “Nature has always been a part of childhood. Let’s make sure it doesn’t stop with us.” This really is an eye opener. I know myself as a parent with two little ones, I always try to make sure they are limited on their tablets. But I also know my children are the first to want to be outside either helping in our garden, helping at the farm, doing cattle stuff, just playing in the yard, riding bikes, and more. So, I know I am one that doesn’t want to let nature die as part of their childhood.



Technology is a topic that can be talked about for ever and ever, but in my opinion it all boils down to one thing. This being, technology is there for the good in all areas, but it must be used properly and have limitations. Without either of those, technology won’t be for the good, but for the worse.