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

STEM Lab Reflection

On Tuesday we Google Chatted with Kevin from Northfield Community School who runs the STEM lab there.  It was quite interesting to see how much technology has changed since I was in the 3rd grade.  I was fascinated to see the use of Smartboards and Chromebooks and that the children knew how to use them so efficiently.  I think back to my days in elementary school and for us to perform a task like they were with the paper that day, all we would have had to reference would have been the video he showed them.

It's really good to see this technology getting used in the classroom because it helps the kids learn the lesson faster and it makes it more interactive for them.  It also helps them in the long run because by the time they're all grown up, they will have a good handle on technology and how to use it to it's best ability.  These children are growing up in the technology age, learning to do things we never even imagined doing when we were their age.  It really is fascinating to see how much the curriculum has changed to accomodate technology and makes me excited to work with it in my fieldwork and in the future in the classroom.