Comprehensive Reflection

Reflection of My Teaching Practices in ETC 450

Assessing prior Knowledge
As a teacher, it is important to evaluate what your students know before planning and implementing a lesson. Teaching is more effective when students already know something about a content area and the teacher is able to build off that knowledge to make a lesson meaningful for the students. When a teacher is able to evaluate students’ knowledge, they can better reflect upon the students’ backgrounds and culture. The teacher can then use information gained from assessing prior knowledge, to develop more meaningful connections in lessons to activate interest and curiosity, providing purpose. Throughout this semester, this was accomplished in various ways. K-W-L’s, think pair shares, graphic organizers, and class discussions all were used in order to incise interest in the students and to provide direction of a starting point for the teacher during the lesson.

Planning Instruction
Planning a lesson can be one of the most imperative practices of teaching. If a teacher comes to class unprepared, the students will be greatly affected and act out during the instruction time. Classroom management suffers significantly in the absence of a well thought out lesson plan. Students become bored with lessons that are monotone in worksheets/textbooks, above or below their ability levels, or content is irrelevant to the students. In order to have a successful lesson, the teacher needs to avoid these measures and focus on engaging the students by aligning student-lead activities with the standards. Standards help to make sure that the students are learning all the important knowledge to help scaffold instruction as they age. From the standards, a teacher can then create objectives that can be assessed for levels of mastery. This helps the teacher to reflect on his/her own practices while monitoring the progress of students. During the planning phase it is imperative to incorporate technology into a lesson. This helps to make content more accessible to all students with various needs, and helps to differentiate instruction to increase the effectiveness of a lesson. With the use of technology, students can adapt their work to cater to their strengths, while being engaged in bringing abstract ideas to real-life. Before incorporating technology into a lesson, the teacher first has to explore content of resources available and make sure they are age appropriate while delivering accurate content aligned with the standards.

Designing Instruction and Teaching
Actually implementing the lesson in front of the class can be easy when the teacher devotes the right time and effort into the planning his/her instruction. Standards and objective should be clearly written in measurable and observable terms. Not only does content need to be addressed, but other standards need to be integrated as well to make a lesson well-rounded and time efficient. Core standards, technology standards, and language standards should all be integrated into every lesson. This standards need to be visible throughout the lesson in goals, objectives, methods, and activities. It is also important to make the students aware of what the goal is to accomplish by the end of the lesson. By integrating various standard areas, you are helping your students in academic achievement and literacy of various subject areas.

Instructional Decisions
Teacher should find a balance between whole-group, small group, and individual instructional activities, that incorporate technology, in order to provide opportunity for students to be successful and apply knowledge. Lessons should not be centered around rouge memorization, but instead higher order of thinking skills on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Application, evaluation, and synthesis of content helps to trigger long term memory and allow students to develop intellectually. Teachers need to integrate and align content, technology, standards, objectives, and assessments in order for a lesson to be effective. While the lesson takes place, it is imperative for the teacher be constantly monitoring students’ progress and addressing any concerns or questions that emerge immediately to avoid students drifting from mastery of objectives. As a teacher varying instruction and incorporating various technologies can seem a bit frightening. Privacy, security, copyright, file-sharing, plagiarism can sometimes seem to plague a students and possible teachers. It is important to teach children how to be responsible citizens and technology users. All children should have equal access to technology and it is the teacher’s duty to collect research based technology resources, in order to provide students with knowledge of how to access it correctly. We need to educate them on the world of technology and teach them the legal means of accessing the world through various resources appropriately. Once children have been educated, rules need to be implemented in order to protect your students, career, and academic integrity.

Assessment and Analysis of Teaching
Throughout the lesson, informal and formal evaluations need to be conducted to help comprehend the students’ level of mastery of content. Pre and Post assessments are preferred in order to help establish progress and growth from the help of teacher instruction. Assessment should be directly derived from goals and objectives. It should asses higher order of thinking skills. Assessments can be very diverse and do not always have to be test-driven. Projects, presentations, application of content are only some of the ways to assess students’ understanding, and they can be accomplished with easy through the use of technology. Technology helps to expand assessments by providing multiple means of outputting information in various forms in which the students can have choice in their learning experience. Once assessments have been conducted, then can it can be evaluated by the teacher. Not only do they tell the teacher if the students have understood the lesson, but it also is a reflection on the instructors teaching practices. From data collected, the teacher can then plan future lessons that either scaffold on the content previously learned or remediate instruction for those who need additional assistance. It also, can help the teacher to improve on his/her teaching practices in future lessons by changing their way of implementing or planning a lesson. Assessment provides the foundation starting point for a lesson and the guiding point for future instruction.

Overall Reflection
In ETC 450, I learned how to break down lesson planning and implementation to improve upon my personal teaching practices. I explored numerous technology resources and was able to explore them in real life application of lessons. ETC 450 helped me to learn to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of student learning. I expanded my knowledge on the resources available to teachers and how to use those resources to make content accessible for all individuals in ways that meets their personal needs. Through class surveys from students, I was able to gain self-confidence in my teaching ability, recognize my faults to improve upon, and evaluate my successes for future use. This class helped me to grow as a professional and better prepare me for student teaching. I will most definitely use the skills I acquired in this class to help my students to be successful in their futures, both academically and as citizens in the ever change real-world.

Micro lesson 3: Assesment of Learning

What is your students' level of success in achieving the lessons goals?

• All students reached the level of mastery desired by the teacher. This was apparent from the assessment and  and the teacher asking the students questions. Students individually were able to answer teacher's questions accurately.  

What is the level of success you had in teaching the lesson?

• I feel that this lesson was very successful because the students mastered the content and enjoyed the lesson. I feel that all students were engaged and incorporated in the lesson design.  The feedback survey also reflected that the lesson was successful because questions gained 5/5 from student feedback. 

How do your individual reflections support this?

•  I felt that the lesson went really smooth and that the students really enjoyed it. It felt that each part transitioned smoothly and students understand the task at hand. As the teacher, I was never frustrated or overwhelmed because the students understood the content and my expectations. This helped me to feel that this lesson was designed and implemented well. 

Link to Survey:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/nau.edu/viewform?formkey=dHFKby03akI2S003ZW1Vb1dFbFhkYnc6MQ

Micro Lesson 3: Instructional Decison/Teaching

What you did and learned from the teaching/facilitating process?

•  Students abilities vary greatly. It is very difficult to gauge when students will finish a task early or need additional time.This makes whole-group activities difficult. What do you do when a child finish way ahead of others. You do not want them to be bored, but do not want them to move ahead because you have not given instruction yet. It is difficult to find a balance.

How alignment to goals and objectives was maintained?

•  Alignment of goals and objectives were maintained throughout the lesson because all the activities and questions that the students asked centered around the objectives. As the teacher, I kept the students focused and on the objectives and asked HOTS questions in order to have students elaborate on their responses and master the content. In the end all students mastered the objective and were able to use application to apply their knowledge.

Modifications made for individual needs?

•  In this particular session, no students needed accommodations. The only variations that were noted were on the written article that had the option of speech text or the children could chosen to read. Some children chose to listen to the article, where other children wanted to raed at their own pace. This helps to incorporate all reading levels and make sure that the lesson was measuring the content knowledge and not reading. 

Micro Lesson 3: Planing Assesment

How will your assessment tools demonstrate the performance of linked goals and/or objectives, student engagement in higher order thinking meeting individual student need? 

Assessment of the food pyramid will be accomplished through a rubric. Students will label a word document and then print it. After the document has been printed, student will cut and paste foods and categorize them according to the knowledge learned in the lesson. Their finalized document will be submit to the teacher for grading. Assessment for the BMI calculation will be completed in the same manor. Students will print their document and then clarify it with the teacher one-on-one, before moving on to the next activity. Teacher will use a checklist to evaluate student performance.  The rubric directly relates to the standards and assessment has to do with application of knowledge.

Date: _________________

Eating Right For Your Body

Assessment Rubric

Student Name:____________________________________________________

Objective	Further Skill Development Needed	Reaching Proficiency	Mastered Content
Given a blank template, students will be able to label the food groups on the new food pyramid and categorize a minimum of 2 foods for each food group, with 90% accuracy.	Name is on document Less than 4 Food Groups are labeled Correctly Stairs on Pyramid Side are Not Labeled No Title Less than 4 Food Groups  have 2 Images of a Corresponding Food that is Appropriate for that Category	Name is on document At least 4-5 Food Groups are labeled Correctly Stairs on Pyramid Side are Labeled Correctly Document was Titled “Food Pyramid” 4 or more Food Groups  have 2 Images of a Corresponding Food that is Appropriate for that Category	Name is on document All 6 Food Groups are labeled Correctly Stairs on Pyramid Side are Labeled Correctly Document was Titled “Food Pyramid” Each food Group has 2 Images of a Corresponding Food that is Appropriate for that Category
Provided with a software internet program, student will be able to calculate their BMI index by accurately entering their personal data and interpreting a graph, with 90% accuracy.	Student Calculated BMI correctly Student Data Did Not Appear Accurate Student Was Not Able to Accurately Respond to Teachers Questions	Student Calculated BMI Correctly Student Data Appears Accurate Student Was Not  Able to Accurately Respond to Teachers Questions	Student Calculated BMI Correctly Student Data Appears Accurate Student Was Able to Accurately Respond to Teachers Questions

Teacher Initials: _________

Micro Lesson 3: Designing Instruction

Discuss how your instructional design is contextually and logically organized, uses varied instructional methods that meet individual student needs and target higher order thinking skills, aligns with research based understanding of technology integration.

• The lesson is created on the concept of scaffolding. As the lesson progresses, the content builds off the previous skills developed. The lesson is a step-by-step process in which is easy to follow by students. Student first learn content, apply it in groups, independently practice it, and then test their level of knowledge on the topic. As the lesson develops, less supports are given to the student until they are able to use the content on their own for the future.
• Higher order of thinking skills are used in HOTS questioning. These questions are opened ended and make children think about their responses on a deeper level. Also through the application of skills, children are using critical thinking to apply abstract concepts into real-life use. 
• Technology is incorporated throughout the lesson. Content is provided as interactive software on the internet. For example, students use an interactive food pyramid to learn about the various food groups. By incorporating technology children can better gain knowledge because it is presented in visual and auditory ways that are adaptable to the students needs.This helps to reach more students because everyone learns differently. The more ways information is presented, the more students will comprehend the content.

Micro Lesson 3: Plans Instruction

How your goals, objectives, and outcomes are clearly stated, appropriate for students, aligned to state standards?

• A topic was chosen based off nutrition. Then I found standards in which I wanted to build my lesson around. After finding standards, I thought of an activity that would be interactive for students to learn content with. Once I had an activity, I rewrote the standards to be measurable objectives in which are obtainable by 4th grade students.  All of these aspects kept building off one another developing the lesson further.

• Link to Standards: http://www.ade.az.gov/standards/contentstandards.asp 

Micro Lesson 3: Assessing Prior Knowledge

How would prior experience have been assessed?

• Teacher will asses prior knowledge through a Quickwrite and students will respond in their daily journals.Journals will be typed in a word document and images added to reflect their responses. Questions will include: What is your favorite food and why?,What does it mean to be healthy?,What do you know about the food pyramid?, and What does healthy look like to you?

What would you expect to learn from assessing your students' prior knowledge?

• I would expect to learn what they already know about the food pyramid. I also, would be gaining insight into their personal opinions and perceptions about health and societies image relating to it, as well as learning more about their interest such as their favorite food.

How would this information be useful in the planning process?

•  This information is useful because I can adapt my lesson according to what students need to learn and take out any content that they have already mastered. This also, helps to give me insight into how children today view weight/health and see if these perceptions have changed from when I was younger. As a teacher, I can also use their interests and incorporate them in the classroom to help motivate students.

Equitable Access

What are the differences between "technologies for learning" and "technologies for learners"?

• This difference between the two refers to who dictates the technology use. "Technologies for learning support the interests of the technology designers." Whoever designs the lesson decides what technologies are going to be used to help reach goals. Technologies for learners allow the audience of the lesson to choose which technologies will best help to achieve success. "Technologies for learning are instructor-directed;  technologies for learners are client-directed. "

In what ways does the current use of technology in school create both equitable and inequitable access for students?

•  Technology helps to create equitable access to curriculum because it helps to adapt content to the students needs. It helps to individualize assignment and content to help cater to students strengths and weaknesses. It also can help make a student's weakness insignificant because it provides extra supports. While technology differentiate content for students, in other aspects it standardizes it. Every child is given the same materials for a lesson and the same output of information. For example, if a child was to go through a software program, it is not going to change from one child to the next and they are going to see the same information. Technology also typically incorpoartes a say, see, do technique. This helps to meet more students multiple intelligences helping to create equitable access.
• Technology can also provide inequitable access to core content. Many times technology is accessible through the funds of money. This creates a divide in socioeconomic environments. The well off get extra supports and modern technology, while the poor communities do not have the resources to use to help their children. Also, some students use technologies because they have disabilities or an educational weakness. These technologies are used to help make them more comparable in academics to their typical peers. If the same technologies are provides to all students,  this may result in them still being perceived as behind others. 

How would you change the current system?

• I would educated teachers on the vast technological resources available to them.Teacher need to know what is out there for them to use in order for them to transpire that knowledge to their students.
• Instead of providing the well-off communities with new updated technologies, take funds to buy poor communities to have even some sort of technological resources.
• I would give students a say in the technologies that they are able to use instead of directing them to the ones the teacher wants them to. By implementing choice in the classroom, more students will be able to advocate for their needs.
• I would also increase the frequency of technology use in the classroom.

Source:
https://vista.nau.edu/webct/urw/lc41830614054071.tp44562082975071/RelativeResourceManager/Template/develop/reflection/critanalyses/diverselearners/Halverson_Smith_How_New_Technologies.pdf

Digital Age Best Practice

Describe the original intent and activities of the lesson.

• The original intent of the lesson was to teach children about nutrition. They were to learn about the new food pyramid, food groups, and about the appropriate weight for their age/height level through BMI calculations. In the end, I wanted the children to try and live more nutritiously with their new knowledge on health. 

Describe how the digital age best practice will be used to modify the lesson.

•  Digital age best practices will be incorporated through the use of digital age tools, personalizing to make authentic connections, and purposeful inquiry. Digital age tools, such as interactive websites, are incorporated into the lesson to make it more engaging for students and help keep their attention spans focused on academic tasks. The focus is not on the tools, but instead on the content. The tools just help to enhance the lesson. The lesson also has personalization characteristics to make content more relevant for students.  During the BMI calculations, they can take their own personal data to import into the software making content real because it will output information based on the individual student's characteristic. The data for one student will never be the same as data for another student. This lesson also introduces purposeful inquiry. During the lesson, students will apply higher order of thinking skills to apply knowledge and evaluate content.

Describe how the use of the best practice will promote academic growth and personal meaning for your students.

• Digital age best practices help to promote growth because they cater to the intellectual and social needs of students.  They help to develop a deeper level of understanding content because these practices help to captivate their interest and invoke critical thinking. By using the suggestions from the article, the teacher can use research base practices to help promote learning in the classroom. By incorporating personal meaning, you are reaching more students in the classroom, which will result in higher academic success.

Source:
https://vista.nau.edu/webct/urw/lc41830614054071.tp44562082975071/RelativeResourceManager/Template/develop/reflection/critanalyses/diverselearners/Digital_Age_Best_Practices.pdf

Cyberbullying

What is cyberbullying?

• Cyberbullying is defined as the "willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices." Cyberbullying is intended and occurs over a period of time. These components makes the action bullying and not harassment. It can be verbal or non-verbal, direct or in-direct.

How can cyberbullying adversely affect online learning activities?

• Cyberbullying affects the emotional and social aspects of a child. Due to the developmental stages of a child, emotional stability takes control over other aspects. If the child is thinking about other situations, and does not feel safe and secure in the classroom, then he/she will not be able to focus to learn. Academics comes second to the child's overall well-being. Also, cyberbullying's social conflicts can cause tension in the classroom environment. Group work and collaboration assignments can become extremely stressful for a child. It is important to be aware of the dynamics of your classroom and put the child first, because academics will follow accordingly.

How will you as a teacher protect your students from cyberbullying?

• Establish a learning community where all children feel safe and secure
• Have an open-door communication policy
• Confidential Reporting Box
• Set clear expectations of a Zero Tolerance Bullying Policy
• No cell phones during school hours (Must be left in the cubby or checked at door)
• Teach about tolerance and acceptance
• Hold bystanders acountable
• Have a set reporting policy step by step that is posted in the classroom

What would you do if you encountered a case of cyberbullying?

• Question both parties
• Exemplify disappointment 
• Ensure safety of all students
• Collect evidence if necessary
• Follow school procedure
• Revoke technology access because it is a privliage 
• Document the behavior
• Call parents
• Re-establish classroom relations through discussion
• Teach whole-class lesson on bullying
• Provide counseling opportunities if necessary for the victim

Preparing for Online Interactions

My thoughts and additional rules about online etiquette.

• Online etiquette is very important in this modern age of technology. Our personal face-to-face relationships are diminishing and indirect contact through text and email are our focus of communication. There is no such thing as pragmatics with the use of communicative technology and we strictly reflect off of words instead of how they are conveyed. Online communication tends to reflect speech and lack of formality. Professionalism, and communicative respect are usually not taken into consideration when relaying information online. Online etiquette is a very important topic that affects all individuals in the 21st century. It is a skill that should be valued, yet is rarely taught. Youth around the world needs to be educated about how to communicated effectively online to make themselves more marketable to society and maintain relationships without the efficiency of personal interaction.

The rules or ideas from websites that wouldn't be meaningful in my classroom. What are they and why?

• After reading both article, I feel that ALL the rules and suggestions could be implemented into the classroom to help students improve upon their online etiquette. I do not see one that in invaluable because many of them pertain to respect of others, accountability, and self-reflection which are all concepts students can utilize in real-world scenarios.

The rules my students will be required to follow in my class.

Adapt your language. I like the concept of Toning Down Your Language. The article on online etiquette stated, "given the absence of face-to-face clues, written text can easily be misinterpreted. Avoid the use of strong or offensive language and the excessive use of exclamation points." I believe that this is an important concept to reflect on because people strictly interpret word for word what you type. It is important to note not to use sarcasm and be aware of your audience. Adapt your language to the person you are writing to including vocabulary, tone, and fluency.

Review and Revise. What you type is a reflection on who your are and the type of work you are capable of. I also see a lot of value in clarifying your speech. It is important to re-read what you write and reflect upon how things are worded. Because there is the lack of personal relationships in online communication, it is important to be clear and concise in trying to get your point across. Also, double check spelling.

Respect is required. Make sure you are respectful in what you type and the language you use. Bullying, harassment, or curse words are unacceptable and there could be consequences.

No Netspeak in the classroom. Online language and in-person language are different. Do not confuse the two. Netspeak in acronyms is acceptable in informal online speech and should not be used in conversations, formal email,  handwriting or with adults.

 Be Accountable for Your Actions. Once something is typed, it is documented and can be used against you because it is considered physical evidence.

Sources:
http://online.uwc.edu/technology/onlEtiquette.asp
http://digitallabz.com/blogs/the-11-rules-of-social-media-etiquette.html

Micro Lesson 2 Assesmnet Reflection

Assessment of Learning:

• Describe the evidence you have that indicate your students' level of success in achieving the lessons goals the level of success you had in teaching the lesson.

Students level of success was  measured by them apply their skills and transferring knowledge learned into a document. This document was then evaluated with a set "black and white" checklist to see if specific criteria was met. From the information gained through this assessment, it was determined that all students met the objectives and mastered the content of the lesson, showing the effectiveness of it's design.

• How do your individual reflections support this?

Reflecting on my own teaching practices helped me to improve my skills for future lessons. It allows me to see my strengths and weaknesses and then work to improve my teaching ability  to meet the needs of all my students.

• How do the comments from your classmates support this?

Through the results from the survey, it was determined that the lesson was successful in meeting the criteria that I was looking for in my own teaching practices. Students evaluated all aspects of the lesson with 5/5 demonstrated that it was effective and enjoyable.

Date: _________________

Friendly Letter

Assessment Checklist

Student Name:____________________________________________________

Objective:

Given a letter template, students will be able to execute a friendly letter written to a classmate with the 5 major parts (Heading Date, Greeting, Body, Closing, Signature) tailored to the person addressed in the letter, with 80% accuracy.

•     Heading (date is identifiable and in the upper-right corner)
•     Greeting (salutation is appropriate, under heading, and is left justified)
•     Body (3+ sentences, indented paragraph, and positive comment)
•     Closing (valediction is appropriate, under body, and right indented)
•     Signature (name is spelled correctly, slightly indented from the closing)
•     Commas (comma is used after the greeting and closing)

Total: ______ /6 = ______%   

Circle one:                         Did not Meet Objective                 Met Objective

Objective: Provided with a software internet program, student will be able to create a friendly letter, while navigating through the software tutorial, and print 1 original friendly letter, with 80% accuracy.

•     Student was able to open the URL bookmarked on the internet
•     Printed typed letter was submitted
•     No sections left blank from command prompts
•     Boarder was added around document
•     Student did not ask the teacher more than 1 question on how to navigate the tutorial

Total: ______ /5 = ______%   

Circle one:                         Did not Meet Objective                 Met Objective

Teacher Initials: _________