Teaching and Learning
Course Artifacts
Field Experiences
For the wiki reflections I wrote responses about technology questions as well as reflections about the technology that was being used at my school.
For the Educational Psychology paper I wrote about the challenges facing many teachers today and the importance of teaching reading to our students. I chose four of my students and discussed how to meet the needs of the individual student, setting goals, and how to motivate each one of them to read.
My final project was to design and implement a lesson that integrated technology. The TPACK lesson design needed to be followed for the develoment and implementation of this lesson. For this lesson the students researched a European explorer, filled out a packet, created 10 multiple choice questions from their research, and used Kahoot to create a quiz. The students were put into groups where they presented their quiz to the other group members. It was a student-led lesson that the students enjoyed and benefited from being the leaders in the classroom and learning from their peers.
Socrative
I conducted a training session with my fourth grade team of teachers about the features and benefits of using Socrative. We wer all struggling with the idea of grading large assessments, analyzing the data, and then using the data to help guide our teaching. I recommended using Socrative which I have been using for the last couple of years to my fellow teachers. We agreed that it sounded like a tool that would help us achieve what we wanted, so I trained my team of teachers how to sign up and use Socrative.
Kahoot
I have been using Kahoot for a few years now and recently I convined my wife to use it in her class. She was hesistant at first because she is at a large school and it is difficult to get lab time or chromebooks. She was finally able to coordinate computer time with a lesson she wanted to try using Kahoot. She used Kahoot as for a lab safety review and to introduce the solar system. She, her co-teachers, and the students really enjoyed using Kahoot. Her only regret was that she wasn't using Kahoot earlier.
This was a technology project we needed to create for this class. I created a wiki page about Kahoot and how to use it in the classroom. My professor with this class challenged me to discuss more of the why instead of the how to. She wanted my presentation to discuss more about why we should use Kahoot and how it benefits learning. This presentation will help answer the questions as to why we should use Kahoot, how it keeps learning moving forward and how it benefits the students.
​For this paper I wrote about the importance of teachers and the impact they have on students and how technology can play a big role in education. Even with the importance placed on technology, teachers still have the biggest impact on students and their learning. As a teacher I want to use technology in a way that inspires curiosity and creativity. I want to impact their lives in a positive manner.
Philosophies of Education ( 5100:604 Topical Seminar in the Cultural Foundations of Education) was taken in place of Philosophies of Education.)
For my main paper, I needed to write a preliminary research proposal known as the Problem of Practice. The proposal focused on keyboards and touchscreens and how they should be implemented in grades K-5. It was completed through a collaboration with other members of the class. The purpose of the main paper was to demonstrate my understanding of the research methods and concepts I learned during the semester.