Kate Wampler's Chapter 12 Reflections

3 Learning from the Reading

1. Research shows there are three important stages that teachers should focus their thinking around. The first stage is planning prior to teaching, the second is monitoring and regulating while teaching, and the third is assessing and revising after teaching. I think the most important stage is assessing, revising and reflection after teaching as this is a teacher's opportunity to not only improve their lesson, but improve their teaching strategies too.
2. Teachers should be prepared, flexible and be able to quickly adjust when having to trouble shoot. If a particular technology tool does not work as planned, or even work at all, it is important for teachers to be patient and have a back up plan. If students are experienced enough, they may be part of the trouble shooting process, which would be a learning experience in itself.
3. During instruction, teachers should consider many questions to determine if their teaching is effective. The figure in 12.5 provides many wonderful questions for teachers to consider during demonstration and hands-on lab instruction times. I plan to make a copy of these questions and have them available when taking my students to the computer lab as a reference for assessing my lesson and instruction.

2 ideas for integrating technology into the classroom

1. I plan to spend a whole instruction period in the computer lab showing my students how to navigate their Harcourt math software. I spend most of my time running around helping students navigate, but if I taught students how to navigate themselves, I could spend my time helping students develop specific math skills instead of computer navigation skills. I plan to teach them that the back arrow will get them back to the main menu, the x allows them to exit, and the big NEXT button at the bottom needs to be clicked on for them to move on the the next problem.
2. I plan to use kidpics as a new way to introduce our direct drawings. I do direct drawings of different animals that connect with the letter of the week. For example, when studying the letter P, I showed my students how to do a direct draw pig. Instead of using their journals to draw and label pictures I would have them use kidpics to draw the pictures and the keyboard to label and write sentences about their pictures.

1 concern

1. Although it would work to have older kids help trouble shoot when a particular technology tool is not working correctly, younger kids, such as kindergartners, would lose attention leading to behavior problems and would not be able to help trouble shoot due to experience level. If trouble shooting is necessary when using a particular technology with young children, is it best to just scrap it and move on to another activity?