Lessons Learned

I have learned so many lasting lessons about educating and the students I have helped within my PDS. Very recently I learned how important it is to be with classroom time management in order to assure there is no lost time. I first saw this when I was coordinating my technology assignment, and had difficulty with load time and finding the website. Because I had no additional assignment or back-up plan for my students, they became distracted and less willing to learn.

I have also learned to be unbiased among the students when grading or disciplining. It’s very easy to assume a student who typically causes problems is the culprit for the actions we as teachers do not catch or see. After learning the term “halo-effect,” this problem is an important habit to avoid. Being unbiased is extremely important in order to give students equal opportunities for achievement.

Lastly, I have noticed that as the year goes on, fewer students see me as the young person within the class and more like a second teacher who will be just as attentive to behavior problems. Though I see why this is a good change, part of me feels disappointed that my status as their “friend” has disappeared. As much as I would like all the students to like me, I have realized that sometimes I must sacrifice this in order to maintain a hold on behavior problem in the classroom.

Action Research

How has learning about inquiry and creating a 'wondering' influenced the way in which you think about what you see at your PDS? Your responses may include your thoughts about teaching, students, student learning, your own learning, or a combination of these. Make sure you consider your thoughts in light of your understanding of inquiry as a way to study your own practice, your students learning, and your own interests or 'passions' as a teacher.

I think creating wonderings and starting inquiry has caused me to understand that there are different ways to teach, and many different approaches to every lesson. I now realize that part of teaching is being a researcher and scientist; I must try to access new information and experiment with different lessons, technologies, and methods. The biggest influence I've felt is the idea that there is not just one way to do something in a classroom. After studying the students at my PDS, I have been able to study my inquiry first-hand. I'd like to investigate what methods work best for retention of content in history or geography, and in my PDS I have seen different methods and tried out some of my own. I have seen how technology, lecture, and visual aids can assist content retention. Overall, I believe that for the grade level in which basic geography is taught, stimulating visuals and pictures that create images in the students' minds so they can associate a word with the image may be the most effective approach. I'm very interested in the cycle of information from a lesson to the long term memory of a student, so I think that my inquiry will definitely have an effect on how I teach. Ultimately, I care most about students leaving the classroom and retaining the information over a long period of time. Being a the PDS only once a week with the same classes definitely allows me to see what the each student retains and how to tutor them to maximize their content retention.

Instructional Technology Integration

Technology Use vs. Technology Integration

I think that though technology use and technology integration both utilize some sort of technology, they do so in very different ways. Technology use implies the standard use of technology for its own sake, not for any specific purpose. Technology integration involves incorporating the use of technology into a lesson to enhance it. Technology integration encourages further understanding of technology usage and can also enhance a student's understanding of a lesson in a more modern way.
In many of my geography classes we have utilized the GoogleEarth technology to better understand locations and coordinates, but in a much different way than simply looking at a map. This type of technology integration is beneficial for any age of geography student.

Action Research Wonderings

This section of my blog shares my wonderings from my classroom experience.