iPad Lesson Reflection

So the lesson is over!  It went pretty well, considering technology didn't want to cooperate and Brain pop was down for a bit.  But I trudged along, as all teachers need to do when their technology doesn't work, like it did one day in my fieldwork classroom.  Overall, I think the lesson was good.  It is definitely something to use an intro (which I'm not sure I mentioned when I was starting the lesson) since I does not go too in depth and I think it would be a good introduction to the topic and then delve deeper into the causes and reasons of the Civil Rights Movement.

I wish the app had worked because it messed up my group part of the lesson.  I wanted the students to work on the quiz together and in the heat of the moment should have done what my group-mate Chris did; had them answer the questions out loud in groups.  This would have still allowed me to have the element of groups to satisfy some of the requirements of the Partnerships criteria.  However, doing it as a large group still allowed those who got certain parts of information from the video to help those who may have missed it.  Or, in some cases where they had to infer completely, it helped when someone else was familiar with the time period.

And of course, had it been a real class, I would have really pushed the kids to answer the critical thinking questions I asked at the end.  It would also help take the lesson in the direction of digging deeper into the topic and open doors to conversation that we can now have thanks to the laws discussed in the video.

Overall, it went well.  Could it have gone better?  Oh yea!  But this is the first lesson and my first time trying to teach with technology.  It will not be last however!  I'm sure there will be days where the technology will not work in my future classroom, and I'll have to wing it the best I can, sorta like I did today.  Yes, there are things that I wish had gone differently, but all in all, it went pretty well for my first lesson, ever!

iPad Lesson Plans

Here is the lesson plan I will be using with my lesson Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement on the iPad.  After the lesson is taught tomorrow, I will write up a reflection on my lesson.

Rachel Worrall iPad Lesson Plan