Chapter 3- Lesson Development w/ Technology
Lesson development is a process of creative design and informed decision making by teachers that entails what to teach, how to teach, and how to know what students have learned. Lesson development refers to activities that teachers do as they create, teach, and evaluate lessons with students. Teaching goals are the reasons why the lessons are being taught in the first place. Assessment of student learning should be an ongoing process. Student learning objectives are intended outcomes of instructional activities. In a UDL unit plan, essential questions enduring understandings are the concepts that teachers seek to teach. Performance assessments encompass products, publications, and presentations done by students that show what they know and what they can do with that information.
With technology...
Thinkfinity and PBS are online lesson development resources that allow teachers to view how other professionals have designed lesson plans for their students. Electronic grading software allows teachers to calculate and store multiple forms of student performance data. RubiStar and QuizStar help teachers create online rubrics and quizzes.
A few thoughts...
On the topic of technology, I have been learning SO many new programs this semester to help organize, develop, and assist my legwork in this field. I am required to do more work and submit more work electronically than ever before. All of my classes this semester are on Blackboard and in each one I need to demonstrate that I have done my readings through the use of blogs and posts on discussion boards (forums). For my research class I needed to take a course online and pass a series of quizzes to prove that I am well-versed on the ethical codes of research. I have watched videos online, downloaded a PDF program that highlights text, utilized electronic databases to locate peer-reviewed articles, and downloaded Zotero (a program which classifies, organizes, and stores research articles). In another class, I am doing group work online. There is a separate space on Blackboard that has my group listed, where we can all post on threads to communicate and submit work. I do not even know what my group partners look like. We are also expected to research common core standards for NYS online. In this course, I have already created my first blog, started an e-Portfolio and viewed videos. I'm really starting to grasp how important it is to be "in the loop" enough to be exposed to new programs, websites, and other technologies that will make our lives easier. I almost wonder if fighting it would leave me behind. If I don't learn the programs that make everyone else perform so much better and faster, won't I get left behind? The bottom line is that the teacher that gets the job is going to be the one that is IN THE LOOP.
Questions
1. Is it legal/ethical to use lesson plans that have been created someone else and posted online?
2. How can we use technology to make formative assessments?
3. How can teachers stay "in the loop" once they begin their careers? Are there websites that specifically contain new options for teachers to enhance their lesson planning?
How your question about if it is legal/ethical to use lesson plans that was created from someone else, I think it's fine were you brainstorm or used the idea that was from that lesson plan. If you think about it, there must be similar lesson plans out there; maybe just word differently or some details are different. In my opinion, I think it's fine to use the idea of another lesson plan or even "borrow" the lesson plan as long as you have the person's permission.
ReplyDeleteWith staying in the loop with technology, I think of it as 50/50. 50% comes from workshops that your school or DOE provides. The other 50% is where you keep up with technology by yourself such as using computer, new cell phones, trying out new technologies (iPad, etc).