Blog #2: Lessons with Technology

Developing Lessons with Technology

While reading this chapter on lesson development I definitely felt knowing the three parts of it was key because as teachers, and future teachers we need to know how to take the lessons we already might have an adapt them to fit the needs of the students of today. Knowing What to Teach, How to Teach, and What the students have learned helps to create an effective lesson which also includes feedback. While I was in undergrad I remember learning all about assessments and how they were the most important part of teaching because it allows us to see if we are effectively teaching our students. However, as I have continued to learn more about teaching and more about myself as a teacher, I wouldn’t say it’s the most important aspect of it. Indeed it is important, but not the most important. I feel being able to integrate all of the parts of a lesson makes a successful lesson, because if we don’t know our content, or how to teach it in a way that is engaging and meets our students’ needs then it doesn’t matter how we assess the students because the lesson itself wouldn’t have been effective. However, that is just my opinion does anyone have any stories or examples that might agree or disagree? Or do  you think that any one of the three (what to teach, how to teach, what they have learned) is more crucial than the other two? 

Another part of the reading that I was able to relate to from my student teaching experience was the section on meeting educational standards. The text states “As they consider “what to teach” for their lesson plans, many teachers list the essential ideas, key information, and important skills they want students to learn. Questions arise in choosing what to include and what to omit from the list, stemming from the reality that there is too much information in every curriculum area that students need to learn.” (p. 66). This is true because when I did my student teaching during the fall semester my senior year I began the school year with the students and by the 3^rd week of school was teaching about ¾ of the lessons. As I began my social studies unit I went to my host teacher for guidance because it seemed as if there was so much material to be taught in so little time, and the way I saw it was I didn’t want to teach to much to fast that the students learn nothing, but I also didn’t want to teach them only one portion in depth and leave out the rest. It was then I learned that sometimes we have to omit some lessons because there are just not enough hours in the day or days in the year. During that placement I learned so much about teaching that one never learns in a college class, because until you actually experience it you never really understand. So a question I ask to the class is if you were in this situation what would you do? Would you omit certain lessons? Would you try to fit everything into one school year? And do you think something should be done in order to prevent teachers having to omit from the curriculum? If so any suggestions?

For the remainder of the reading due to my course in undergrad, which placed assessments on a high pedestal, I was able to breeze through it without much thought. I was also glad to be able to learn about a variety of assessment tools that incorporate technology into the mix of it all, however, I began thinking if it was the best decision to use electronic grading software for recording these assessment because what if the program crashes or the system is down one day. I feel it is a great advancement and tool but I also hope teachers, or entire schools, do not rely on it too much and that they also keep a hard copy record as well, because just like with cell phones how many times have we had our cell phones break or suddenly reset and erase everything and we then have no phone numbers and have to post a status saying “Lost contacts text me or message me your numbers.” Thankfully we have social media, which helps us get these contacts back for the most part, but with grades and assessments it wouldn’t be as easy to retrieve if lost. Therefore, even though technology is helpful and very useful we as a society need to remember that it is still just technology and things can happen such as crashing, systems being down, getting erased, etc so no matter what at the end of the day we cannot be replaced and should always have a plan b and a backed up copy of all materials.  


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