Reflection

OER Commons is a great website with many useful resources for lesson planning. I have already used it to help find primary sources for a lesson plan in one of my other classes. Although not all of the units are very comprehensive, they provide a great starting point to help develop lesson plans. 

I couldn’t believe it! I searched for Latin lesson plans hoping for maybe the scraps of some poetry project or re-enactment lesson plan—the artistic bottom of the Latin curriculum barrel—but I found an extensive lesson plan for upper-elementary students learning Latin word roots using the 5E structure and involving multimedia tools and collaborative projects to create a deep linguistic understanding. What’s even better about this is that Greek and Latin word roots aren’t given adequate coverage in elementary language arts classrooms, or at least not on mine. What probably took up two weeks of instruction in my entire elementary career is a 5-step, in-depth, collaborative language arts project that not only teaches these roots, but helps students identify the value in learning roots! Okay, okay, I’ll stop fangirling now. Other than being something I could incorporate into an elementary language arts unit, the links to the song, Google doc, and slideshow are all applicable to first-year Latin and would be a great refresher of root meanings as well as a diving board for deeper understanding of the Latin words they derive from. 

I loved the idea of a complete archive created for and made by educators. It seemed as though for by subject, social studies, there were not a lot of teacher-made lesson plans and most sources seemed to link just to a direct website which held for little use. I had to make use of the options in the left side bar which narrowed down my search and I was then able to search through useful topics. This will definitely hold use for when I become an educator and need ideas for lessons or even want to post some of my own to gain useful feedback and critique.  

This resource would be a great way for me to see how other teachers are covering material. I could use and build on their lesson plans to make my classroom and teaching better. I think it would be especially useful when I’m struggling with how to teach something. Additionally, I could potentially help other teachers by uploading my own lesson plans.

I will definitely use this website to find lesson plans because it expands my resources and opens up so many new resources. It also gives me a chance to post my own lesson plans to get feedback and constructive criticism, especially as a new teacher. 

This resource seems enormously useful! Educators collaborate and borrow from each other all the time, and I’m sure that it gets difficult to discern which resources are good, and even which are legal/ethical to utilize. Not only are the resources on this site available and free, but other teachers have rated and reviewed them according to very specific guidelines. Some of them seem like they could be used on their own, easily, and with little to supplement them. Others, like the website I examined, seemed more likely to work well as a supplement. I could use this in my future classroom to help me find things to help teach a specific topic I might be struggling to find ideas for on my own. 

Sifting through the OER commons made me realize just how much work educators do outside the classroom to enrich others teaching in the same field. I never knew just how much was out there, free to use and at my disposal. As an educator, I will actively use, and contribute, to the body of work on the OER commons so that I will be able to focus more time and energy on actually teaching my class instead of collecting and organizing materials. OER commons is such a great example of what can happen when individuals collaborate to build a better world for young people and for themselves. 

I like being introduced to resources like this. They are good to keep in your back pocket for a later date. Whenever I am stuck or need some different ideas for a lesson, this is a great website to use. I can also learn from others and change what they made to fit the needs of MY classroom. Finally, this is also a good place to share ideas I have myself.

I’m extremely grateful that we were exposed to this website as preservice teachers. It is helpful and encourages creative ideas. In order to be a great teacher, one must be willing to share new ideas and alter lessons. OERcommons.org is a great resource to find new topics and provides opportunities to modify preexisting material. For this specific lesson, the teacher shared their lesson on the differences between the myth Hercules and the Disney animated version. I cannot wait to utilize this website in my future classroom.

This lesson plan would allow for my student to gain more hands and gain a better understanding of how to observe. I would use this in my class the way the author of the lesson planned laced it out. 

This is relevant for my future classroom because I can use this website to get lesson plan ideas. I could use the different resources to add to my plans and also add in my own lesson plans to give other educators ideas and resources for their classroom. I think this is a good website for educators because it is very useful when it comes to creating fun and interactive lessons for different subject areas. 

This website is relevant to my future classroom because I can use to to bring in fun and technology based lessons that also address other standards. The lesson that I found combines core subjects together to discuss healthy eating and nutrition. Unfortunately that lesson did not include technology but I would revise and remix the lesson to use technology somehow. I really enjoy scrolling through sites like this because it is teachers helping out fellow teachers.