Technology Essay

Technology Essay

          I believe that technology can be useful in the classroom but it can also become a distraction from learning. Technology is becoming so advanced now that students must have it taught in their education. It is wonderful what people can do now with the use of technology and what we have achieved through it, but I grew up without a lot of technology and I personally think that I can find better ways to use my time than some of my peers who grew up with technology. As a high school student it can be difficult in some classes where technology is incorporated in the lessons very often. I find myself having to ask a lot of questions and I don’t always see the point of working with technology when I could do a perfectly good project without using the computers.

            When I am required to use technology for a class I do enjoy learning about the different things you can use the computer for and I like using the different features to create something amazing. I think using technology in the classroom can be very helpful to students who work very well with technology and also for students who need help with it. I like the incorporation of technology in the classroom but I also feel like students can do things the old fashion way, paper and pencil.

Lesson Planning

Journal Entry: Lesson Planning

            I have noticed that my mentor teacher is always very prepared before the school day begins. She has the materials she needs for the lesson before she starts the lesson and usually has enough time to teach and allow the students to work. Since her kindergarteners are working on a lot of reading and learning sight words she has a lot of ways to incorporate that into her lesson. She has the schedule for the day in short sentences on a special board. For math and reading lessons she usually has large pieces of paper that she uses to write the activity on and points to the words as she reads it aloud to the class.

            My mentor teacher is very organized and teaches her lessons with a lot of enthusiasm. She collaborates with other kindergarten and lower elementary teachers to enhance the curriculum and come up with new ways to improve the student’s education. The kindergarten teachers are working on a new math curriculum that involves a lot of new material. Instead of having a lot of hands on activities with the students they also have workbook pages that the students must complete. My mentor teacher is not sure if they will continue to use this math curriculum next year or if they will go back to the previous curriculum. I think she prefers having the students learn using hands on activities rather than worksheets but I suppose a lot of teaching can begin with a great deal of trial and error.

            

Learning Preferences

Journal Entry: Learning Preferences

            My mentor teacher and I have discussed a lot about different learning abilities in her classroom. If you are watching for different learning preferences you can almost tell which students might prefer which learning style. Some children are much calmer and quieter than others that need to move around and be active. Most students enjoy talking and playing with their peers but other times they like to read or work on an activity quietly. You can see which students can be more patient during a lesson by their body language. The children that are content are watching the teacher and sitting quietly while the students that are ready to work on the activity become very anxious and start blurting anything and everything out.

            Some students prefer just to listen and observe the teacher while others are trying to mimic the teacher in order to understand what she is explaining. Some students can read about a topic and understand what it is saying and other students learn better with a hands on approach. My mentor teacher tries to adjust her teaching based on the different learning styles so that all of her students can learn effectively. For math in particular the kindergarteners use worksheets as a guide to their lesson but must get up and move around the room to measure or weigh different objects then they usually return to their seats and draw what they did. You can tell which students understand by listening, which students need to visualize what they are doing with pictures, and which students learn best by moving around and actively working on an activity.

Delivery of Instruction

Journal Entry: Delivery of Instruction

            There are a lot of factors that go into how teacher should teach. Should they be mostly student-centered or teacher-centered? A strict teacher or a goofy one? It depends on a lot of different things such as, class size, teacher’s education, teacher’s beliefs, and the students that make up the class itself.

            My mentor teacher says that she is about 60% teacher-centered and 40% student-centered. She says it is hard sometimes to cut down her instruction time and increase her student’s work time, but it is something that she is trying to improve. She uses mostly demonstration and direct instruction in her classroom. She also says that being student-centered or teacher-centered depends a lot on the students in the class and their abilities. Also the lesson that is being taught makes a difference because it can be difficult to allow kindergarteners to take a lot of responsibility for their education because they have not been taught how to learn yet. Kindergarteners can also have some trouble focusing or getting a job or assignment completed without being reminded to do so.

I think that more student-centered instruction would be useful in secondary education but elementary students need more guidance and not such a great deal of responsibilities at younger ages.