Blog Phase II---Reflection on Lesson #1 Technology in the Classroom

Blog Phase II--Reflection on Micro Lesson #1

Jonathan Robb Gambrell

Lesson Plan

SEESAW 

...an online classroom program

Introduction for Students 

Journal Creation Initial Entries

• Instructional Decisions/Teaching (InTask Standard # 9):

I believe that my lesson implementation went really well. As i introduced the program and began to solve some more than expected issues with logging onto the program through different internet browsers, I could sense the excitement of my students as they began to figure out how to "work the program" and starting making posts in the online classroom. As i walked the students through the steps of the lesson, the excitement grew as they began to enjoy the program more and more.

The only thing that I may do differently next time, (which would have been hard over ITV), is to limit the students activity within the online classroom to hold there attention throughout my teachings. Once the students figured out how to begin posting on the class feed, I lost there attention as they were enjoying the Seesaw program. 

• Mechanics: 

The technologies that I chose for micro lesson #1 is an online classroom program called SeeSaw. Within this classroom the teacher can choose from many different pre-installed lesson plans or input their own lesson plans.

I chose to use this technology for the students by creating a lesson plan that utilizes the SeeSaw classroom to begin an online journal created by the students. This online journal will allow the students to show their creative writings, completed assignments, and display projects in any class subject.

The SeeSaw classroom technology i included in my lesson will be used by both the students to benefit the students as well as a tool for teachers, Administration, and parents or guardians as they can monitor the students progress throughout the year.

My lesson was within the correct time frame because I was sure to give a brief view into my lesson and not cover all of the materials. This allowed more time to create our digital artifacts using the technology incorporated.

• Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6): 

Digital Artifact #1:

This first digital Artifact is exactly what the lesson plan objective is supposed to look like. The student began to introduce themselves and started the creation of their online journal.


Digital Artifact #2:

The second digital artifact also demonstrates the learning objective described in my micro lesson #1. This artifact demonstrates that the student has found and understands the paint tool in the SeeSaw program.

Because of the quality of the artifacts that I received, I believe that I was successful in the teaching of my lesson. The students created quality artifacts that I would consider to be passing through my assessments.

• What did you learn from designing and teaching this lesson and how will you use this in the creation of future lessons/learning activities.

Through creating and implementing this lesson, I feel that I have learned how to use technology in the classroom to the benefit of the student as well as the teacher. The importance of directing the students to actually use the technology and not just a crutch for the teacher is very high. Too often do we see these classroom technologies used as babysitters while the teacher is busy. This method is not allowing the students knowledge of classroom technology to grow and blossom, but rather remain stale as they are playing the same games or using the same website over and again. 

I would definitely use the SeeSaw program (or similar program) in my future classroom as I like the year long portfolios that they assist in creating. The ability to see growth throughout the school year is not only important for assessments, but also keeps the students interested in there improvement but also wanting to improve throughout the school year.