Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Chapter 9
This lesson was over song birds and the teacher had the students do a lot of research using different types of technology. Overall, the teacher integrated technology very well in the classroom. She used her available resources and had the lesson very well planned out before she presented it to her students. She knew she only had a limited amount of computers, so she split up the class and had some of them work on the computers while others used different resources. She gave them an approximate time they had to work on each and then had them switch to give each student an equal opportunity to be working on their projects. She showed them where they would record their information and reminded them that they needed to be sure and cite where they got their information from because of the copyright laws. The teacher involved everyone in the class and each student played a roll in gathering information and presenting it as well. The part I liked about the lesson was that they went on a field trip and experienced the birds firsthand. They got a feel for what the birds actually looked like instead of just seeing a picture of the birds. Some weaknesses that I saw in the video was the way the classroom was set up. I didn't like how the front part of the room was set up in tables and the back was desks set up in an L shape. I don't know why, it just looked funny to me and I wouldn't set up my classroom that way. Another thing that I noticed was the teacher kind of talked in a monotone voice. She didn't get excited in her voice and I wouldn't like that as a student. I would become bored listening. I noticed that the lesson was long too. One time I saw the clock in the background and saw it said 10:30 and when the lesson ended it said 12:00. I don't know if that's how long their classes usually are or if they had a break to go somewhere else in between or what, but that seems like a lot of time to me. Nevertheless, this lesson had many more strengths than weaknesses and I enjoyed seeing how the teacher incorporated cameras, handheld computers, computers, and other resources to use in the lesson.
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One of the reasons I chose this video for us to view is because it incorporates so many technologies – and I think the teacher does an exceptional job integrating them. There is always room for improvement (as with all of us!), but overall, I think this video does a great job of showcasing how technologies can make a potentially dry topic more engaging. And quite frankly, I admire anyone who’s willing to have his/her teaching recorded and critiqued.
ReplyDeleteOne area I’d like to point out is the practice of students teaching students. When implemented well, it can be a great way to empower students. But I feel that before we can ask students to teach each other we need to teach them how to teach. And we need to be confident that they understand the skills they’ll be passing on to others – otherwise, we can end up with a version of the game ‘telephone’ where the content can become filtered and twisted. So I’d encourage you to take the time to model for the students how you want them to teach (not just tell them what they should teach) and have guidelines in place to make sure they themselves understand the content well enough to teach their classmates.
I only wish I could promise that you’ll have such great technologies available in your future schools…
P.S. I also wondered about her monotone voice - maybe that was just her nervousness about being taped showing!