Reading Reflection #6

Reading Reflection #6

1.      How does Technology tools encourage students to be reflective and evaluate their own strengths?:

Technology allows children to become encouraged about things and allows children to interact with things. There are many interactive apps that the students can utilize. Teachers incorporate blogs in their classroom and allow children to have a community where they can talk on a public form. Also using I-clickers in the classroom allow children to be responsible for their own self. They can check in and answer questions and even take quizzes or tests with these. You can then display the correct answer so the children know immediately. When children take assessments this causes the student to be able to feel like they succeeded without waiting for results. This has very beneficial because children can interact with smart board, giving them a little bit more excitement. Emailing is great because so many people have can stay connected. Having like a ProfilerPro is very handy because it lets you see your initial start point and the progress you made. Having students fill out a survey for a project is very beneficial to asking them to rate themselves on a scale before doing the project and having them do one after the project is done.

2.      What are several ways in which we can get students minds ready for a project?

A teacher can prepare the students for the next project by utilizing KWL charts. These get the children involved in discussing what they already know, what they want to know and what they learned. Incorporating field trips, movies, and books are some ways that you can get the children more ready for a project. You can also have the students act out or role play. Researching about something that you will be learning about is a great way to utilize materials, like different texts, medias, and even different technologies. This sets a great stage for a lesson because you wouldn't want to teach a lesson and then realize it was out of the students ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development). The KWL really lets you get a grasp of where your students stand. Concept maps and other visuals are great for the students, because they can see the layout or what is expected.

3.      What are the elements of teaching fundamentals first?

The elements that are required for teaching fundamentals first are being able to scaffold and create a lesson for the children that is in their ZPD. Creating a KWL really acts as a great starting point for the lessons. Also you need to be able to create a rubric so that the children know what they are being asked of.

4.      What are the important steps in preparing students for using technology in the project?

Some Important steps in preparing the students for using technology in the project would be thinking of some way to assess the students and also what goals and objectives the project or plan is aiming towards. Technology use can be very overwhelming for the students. Making sure they don’t feel over whelmed and having them know that you will be willing to assist in ways might make the children feel more comfortable.  I think that as a teacher we should be showing and modeling the use of technology, and then let the children do it.  Make sure that you are aware of the tools that you and the children will be utilizing. Make sure that you are aware of what you have to do, before making the children do it.

5.      What are some ways to promote inquiry and deep learning?

Some ways to promote inquiry and deep learning are encouraging them to just go that extra mile for the deeper understanding, not just the stuff on the surface. Creating that platform for having the students want to learn. Maybe field trips could be a start, or reading some books. Once you let the children see a glimpse of something, then it could be that very instance that triggers their minds to learn more and question why or how. Having good projects is a way to tell if your children dove deeply enough into what you wanted them to investigate. Allowing children to ask questions instead of telling them what they want to do opens up more room for having a deeper learning.

6.       How do concepts in this chapter relate to our topic of gardening?

Student reflection is a thing that the children will be doing while they are recording their observations in their journals. Communication can be done via Skype. Also the children are really expressing deeper learning by asking questions and researching answers. The class blog lets everyone be able to communicate and instantly creates a safe learning environment. These concepts relate to our chapter by utilizing different types of technology in the class. The pod casts allow everyone to hear what the goal of our project was while also utilizing the technology opportunity. The children are also responsible for researching using the web. This ties into the different subjects and also the different techniques that each one uses.  Also having the children actually partake in project based learning and physically creating a garden, measuring the growth of their crops. This really puts the responsibility on the kids and allows them to use different programs including excel for the creation of the data spreadsheets.