Month: February 2017
My career goal is operate my own preschool in the future based upon exploration and hands-on learning while supporting children’s desire to be life-long learners. It is important to me that every child feels at home and comfortable in their learning environment.Round Robin App Share
Ohio Standard 4.7: Teachers use resources effectively, including technology, to enhance student learning.
Justification: These technology driven apps enhance learning and keep students engaged. These apps reinforce lessons that are discussed in class with immediate feedback, mini-games, and/or student progress statistics to aide students through the learning process and helps teachers assess progress to ensure student understanding of topics. If these apps are used in an effective way, they prove to beneficial for student learning.
Science of Learning and Instruction
The science of learning and instruction connect by the way a student is presented material and how students learn it. While teaching a subject, there are multiple considerations to keep in mind while creating a lesson plan. The first step is to think about the learning objective and the short-term and long-term learning outcome. The second step is to think about how to engage all the students in the subject and determine the predicted outcome and what you want your students to take away from the exercise. A way to improve intellectual engagement is to create projects that appeal to student’s interests or that inspire their curiosity. Most importantly, it is crucial to keep in mind the student’s cognitive load because the working memory has limited capacity. When devising a plan make sure to eliminate all extraneous material and focus on intrinsic and germane cognitive loads. Some ways to improve learning is to limit extraneous material, highlight essential material, do not add on-screen text to narrated animation, place printed words next to corresponding graphics, and present corresponding narration and animation at the same time (Mayer, 2009, p. 763). Lastly, it is imperative to embed long-term goals into short-term plans to get students to subconsciously think about the long-term goal in every assignment they do. Ultimately, the way you teach is the way the students will learn and it is important to keep in mind the connection between the science of learning and instruction when creating lesson materials.
Ohio Standard 4.3: Teachers communicate clear learning goals and explicitly link learning activities to those defined goals.
Ohio Standard 4.4: Teachers apply knowledge of how students think and learn to instructional design and delivery.
Justification: Science of Learning and Instruction focuses on making clear learning goals and communicating those goals to students when making learning materials. Science of Learning and Instruction places a heavy emphasis on cognitive load theories when creating and delivering an effective lesson plan. Therefore, stating learning goals and making instruction explicit, without extraneous material distracting from the intended learning goal, enhances student learning.
Google Lit Trip
I went on a Google Lit Trip using the program Google Earth and it let me explore the whole city of London, England from my laptop! So what exactly is a Google Lit Trip? It is essentially a program that lets your students pick a book from any grade level and lets them follow the book’s setting around to the different places the book takes the characters. Instead of looking at illustrations in a book your students will get a real-life experience by using Google Earth with the book. For example, I chose the book “A Walk In London” and toured places in London the characters actually went. By using Google Earth, I toured the Buckingham Palace, the Bank of England, and other landmarks right from my laptop. Google Earth not only shows real-life pictures of these landmarks but it can also give a brief tour and information about them too. On my trip, I started at Buckingham Palace, traveled through Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, and then onto the River of Thames where the trip ended. I learned not only that the Covent Garden is called the Royal Opera House but also learned that reading can be both interactive and knowledge-building for students about important landmarks around the world. Google Lit Trip surprised me by how many books there were to choose from according to grade level. At any grade level, Google Lit Trip is an interesting and fun way to spark up the classroom by going on a virtual tour while following a book. In an elementary classroom, I might use Google Lit Trips with students in the future by picking a book from the large selection it offers and go on the journey as a whole class. This way not only are the students practicing reading but it would also introduce students to important places around the United States and the world. Using Google Lit Trips gives reading a whole new dimension and twist into the classroom that will engage students to learn in a fun and interactive way.
Ohio Standard 4.7: Teachers use resources effectively, including technology, to enhance student learning.
Justification: Google Lit Trip utilizes technology effectively while helping students learn better. Children, in grades K-3, will have a better understanding of geography, historical landmarks, and cultures while practicing their reading and comprehension skills. Google Lit Trip enhances student learning because it gives them concrete evidence of the places that a book mentions and increases student engagement.
Jessica's Education Blog 