Reflection 2

My main takeaway from using the TPACK diagram to help me look at the ways I can incorporate technology into my lesson planning is that it's really important to stick to the content you are trying to teach your students. This is why I think it's important to understand the objectives you want to address first. You need to ask yourself, "What do I want my students to understand by the end of my lesson?" before you start planning how you are going to teach the lesson and go into the logistics! While technology can be fun to work with in the classroom, it can also be distracting and unnecessary at times. By getting a good understanding of what you're trying to teach, you're setting yourself up for the types of technology that can be of use to you and your students! So instead of saying, "I really want to work with robotics this week with students so let me try and figure out how to work robotics into this week's lesson plan".... I need to step back and ask myself if the technology is really enhancing or supporting student learning. I need to look at the content I want to be covered first and see if the technology aligns with that content. If the answer is no it's not, then I need to push robotics to the side and figure out a different way to reach my students! I think this contributes to being a good "designer" for your classroom! 
I feel most creative looking at this diagram because I see different avenues for my students to be creative with each other! Instead of using direct lecture as a prominent form of instruction, I am giving the students opportunities to engage with one another as they go through this unit of Creative Storytelling together. Students can actively engage with one another using JamBoard and Google Docs. They can come up with their own Creative Story working on JamBoard together as a class! I think what makes this lesson most effective is that I'm giving my students the time to re-create and re-create time and time again. They can begin by taking notes of the kinds of characters they want to include in their stories (using thinking maps and Evernote), share those ideas about those characters with their classmates and myself, and get the chance to "tweak" those characters by engaging in discussions on the google docs with peers. They get to go through the process with their peers what it's like to create and revise their creation to make it stronger.
I especially like the idea of students using coding as a way of bringing the stories they have created to life and sharing their work with people in their community by hosting a "Digital Storytelling" night. This is work that students can be proud of! Their stories are unique and personal to them as they have had the help of their classmates and me revise their finished product. Ultimately, the students got to make the big decisions when it came to their stories though! Giving them the opportunity to re-create their stories via coding is such a fun way to bring their "make-believe" setting, characters, and dialogue to life. The finished product wraps up the unit and leaves students with a permanent coded story that they created and can be shared with others!

The decisions that were made that exhibit creativity by the teacher show how the teacher plans each section out based off of what results are needed to assist the students in mastering reading skills like the one that I had done (setting). I feel that the lesson is effective by how students are not only participants in their own learning but leaders as well. The decisions in the process have been an example of a teacher taking on the role of a designer by how each part is very intricate but also flows and moves with flexibility with the students and how the students learn to master skills.

Creativity is increasingly viewed as an important 21st century skill that should be taught in schools. this emphasis on creativity is often reflected by having students engage in open-ended, project based activities and assignments. a key challenge faced by educators is how such assignments are to be evaluated. My decisions have shown teacher creativity based off of how I chose my standard and then what I am wanting to implement into my lesson. The creativity comes with not just doing textbook readings and lectures. The creativity comes from the video calls and the creative of simulations or virtual worlds. With creativity, we must make sure we are implementing N.E.W aspects. That being (New, Effective, Whole) Teachers are designers in the aspect as we must create and design ways of learning. We must create a way of teaching that best fits our students. 

My decision to make my lesson more creative is by giving the students a visual of their heart rate instead of just them feeling their pulse. When they see the information they can understand their different levels of heart rate and I can explain to them why each level is good or bad. Since there are more than 20 people, trying to get each heart rate would take hours, but with the monitors and the screen we can see all of them at once! My lesson is novel because the students will remember getting to use this technology and actually seeing the data themselves. My lesson is effective because they get to do the activities while tracking their heart rate and they can see how their heart rate changes as the activity changes. Therefore showing them how heart rate works. This lesson is whole because it teaches them the basics, has them do the activity, and then show their data at the end. Then we can use this data for other activities or use it again at a later time to see if their heart rate has become different. My decisions in the process have shown myself as a designer by giving the students a different way to look at their heart rate and apply it to different aspects afterward. By having the little ones I would be limited to how far we can take this information, but it would be interesting what ways we could create together.       

Planning this lesson from start to finish utilizing the processes given was easy at the beginning, but then challenged my creativity.

I believe thinking through SAMR pushed my creative boundaries, especially when trying to come up with ways to make a math lesson NEW. However, I do think I was successful in doing so.

Typically, we often take slope-intercept form, give students equations and have them draw the lines. Introducing technology was a bit creative, but where I feel the most creativity came into play was as the SAMR process progressed. 

When trying to think through how to redefine learning I wanted students to utilize technology, explain real-world problems and have conversations with peers. It is in this way that I believe my lesson is Novel, Effective, and Whole. Students are using technology to complete a simple task. Yet, they have to dissect the steps and explain to their peers the process of drawing a line. Students also must present slope-intercept form in a real-world problem, such a cell phone bill with a base cost and price per minute, or a start balance in a bank account and how long until it hits zero. Students then will be engaging with one another, asking questions and explaining their understanding through the comment section of YouTube. 

I believe I have been a designer through this lesson because I have thought through what makes this lesson novel, or new and different from a typical slope-intercept form lesson. It is effective because I have created ways for students to explain and question each other's thinking. It is whole, because I have used technology in a way that gets students interacting, creating, and inquiring about the process behind slope-intercept form and answer the ever present of "When will we use this in real life?" that is so often heard in the math classroom.

This was a good example for me to see that perhaps I can look beyond what I would typically do, in terms of set lesson plans. I can go outside of my norm and be even more creative than I am (or have been in the past). What I presented was novel for me in terms of stepping away from my usual way of teaching, I see that I can become a better teacher and that can only help the student.

How have your decisions in the process been an example of teacher creativity? 

Teacher creativity is all about using the most out of the resources you have. Also, teacher creativity allows the students to grow in their creativity as well. Students can grow their creativity when they create their own questions for the interview. How is the lesson Novel, Effective, & Whole? 
The lesson is novel by immersing the students in unique experiences. Students are more likely to remember Skyping an astronaut rather than completing a worksheet. The lesson is effective because it fulfills Indiana Standard 5.ESS.1. Lastly, the lesson is whole by having meaning behind incorporating technology into the lessons. Students are using the technology to expand on their knowledge and ask questions. 

How have your decisions in the process been an example of teacher as designer? 
Students are a part of authentic learning by sharing their learning with the jig saw activity and interviewing the astronaut. They can see how their learning can go beyond the classroom.  

This lesson has teacher creativity because it includes different ways to allow students to control their education. This lesson is novel because it brings the students point of view on the sewing machine a spreads it out to the community. This lesson is effective because the students are learning about the sewing machine and how the parts function, while also communicating as a group and spreading this new information for others to see. This lesson is whole because it fits in the atmosphere well. The act of recording a video of themselves describing what they had just learned fits in the atmosphere of education, and can be useful in the community. I designed this lesson to further the student's knowledge of the subject matter and to give them an opportunity to share what they have created with others. 

Integrating technology to create an effective lesson requires a high level of creativity.  The decisions I have made to construct the lesson with this model show creativity because I was able to find new ways to reach the higher levels of SAMR. 

This lesson is "new" because it takes a common academic standard and gives it a new way to be learned other than guided notes or lecture.  It is "effective" because it allows the students to take the lead and collaborate to illustrate plot elements in their very owns stories.  This lesson is "whole" because it combines direct instruction, discussion, group work, and technology. It takes the content, pedagogy, and technology and integrates them together to redefine the learning process. 

Teachers are often forced to be creative and find new ways to do old things. I think this is now more prevalent than ever thanks to COVID. This lesson I created was a simple one that I did in preschool, but adapted it to include technology. The process allowed for me to be creative because I tried several different forms of technology but not all of them reached the redefinition level. At first, I thought just using the whiteboard app,  but that was a mere substitution. I then realized that I need to incorporate more technology to reach the augmentation then the modification. I had to re-design a lesson that was, I thought, perfect. It was difficult because I was critical of my adjustments and I had to really modify many aspects to achieve the level of redefinition. The lesson is novel because students usually can't collaborate as easily over single assignments, particularly now with remote learning, which further adds to the effectiveness. Students are able to work independently, then together with their peers to truly reflect on the story we read. Overall, the TPACK and SAMR models are really useful in creating an effective lesson.

I feel that to have a successful lesson, there has to be some sort of creative aspect included. My teacher creativity is very present in this daily lesson because I developed the lesson with the help of my previous kindergarten teammate. As a team, we noticed that many of our students were not starting kindergarten with any prior knowledge of letters and letter sounds. Without this knowledge, kindergarten english language arts material is very difficult for many struggling students. Knowing the letters and their sounds is essential to have the opportunity to grow as a reader and writer and to have a strong literacy foundation. The original creation of the ABC book was in a paper format that had every letter (capital and lowercase) and an object that started with that letter on it. The books letter objects also corresponded with the YouTube video/song Learning Letter Sounds by Jack Hartmann. Pairing the ABC book and the YouTube video allowed the students to learn the letters and their sounds in a fun and creative way. This lesson was very successful for me for the past two years, but every lesson can always use some tweaks to make it new/novel to catch the students attention year after year. To make it novel this year, I changed the lesson from paper to digital. This new version includes many YouTube clickable links for extra assistance. Many students enjoy using their iPad in class, so creating the book into a digital version allows them to use technology. This digital version also allows them to access it anywhere and everywhere which is new for my students because in the past, they were unable to take the book home to practice. I feel that this lesson is very effective, because it allows my students the opportunity to learn their letters and letter sounds in a fun and engaging way. Many of my colleagues still are using old methods like flashcards and tape recorders to teach letters and sounds. These methods may be effective but are not engaging for the students. I feel if the students are not engaged in learning, they will not gain deep understandings of the material. My lesson is whole because my students are learning in new ways and are using many different pedagogical strategies to learn the letters, letter sounds and things that start with each letter.