Over the last month, I had the opportunity to learn more about incorporating technology into the classroom. In some ways this was definitely something new for me. In some ways it is also very challenging. I didn't realize the importance of incorporating and implementing various forms of technology into my daily teaching curriculum until reading Lynne Schrum and Barbara B. Levin’s book Leading 21st Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement. As I reflect back to previous lessons and unit plans that I created and taught, technology was definitely implemented throughout the entire process but was seen in a different. I strictly incorporated technology into the class to provide the students with different forms of instruction to ensure class participation and engagement. And it definitely worked.
During my student teaching experience, I had the opportunity to implement a three-week unit performance based unit on the American Identity. I originally created unit for 11th and 12th grade United States History II courses; however, I modified it so that it could be used for my 7th and 8th grade Gifted and Talented students. The entire unit was primarily based on group work, projects, class discussion and 80% participation. The unit started with a very simple but broad question “Who is an American?” Many students thought this was an easy question until I “shot” their answers down, as I played devil’s advocate I wanted them to think. This unit was created on the basis of high-order thinking through group and class discussion. The students did get upset and frustrated because I didn’t take “simple” answers, this only forced them to think harder and explain and articulate themselves thoroughly.
Some of my favorite activity during this unit was song analysis. Independently, in groups, and class instruction, we analyzed three American songs: America, the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates, God Bless America by Lee Greenwood and The Star-Spangled banner by Francis Scot Key, along with Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing (also known as the African-American National Anthem) by James Weldon Johnson and Dreaming by Selena. While analyzing these songs the students were forced to “read between lines” to find the underlying message in the song. For example, “Dreaming” by Selena is considered a love song (even though it never mentions love in the lyrics), I had the students think about this song in terms of success and the “dream” of succeeding. After we analyzed the songs, to ensure deeper understanding, I then relied on technology and youtube so we could listen to the songs to better understand everything that we talked about.
Overall, the entire unit was a success because I found a way for students to develop skills of historical empathy and perspectives (using their ability to see things from the perspectives of others) by expressing themselves through writing in their reflection journals every night during the twelve-day unit. Also while the students were taking their Language Arts benchmarks they used the vocabulary that I taught them in class (like acculturation and assimilation) to describe people’s ability to adapt or combine cultures.
I think if I had more knowledge and definitely knew a lot of things that I am learning now about online blogging and class participation, instead of keeping journals, providing students to online blogging would give the students the opportunity to talk to other students and myself at home rather than wait until the next class day to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the class assignments.
While I think online class blogging is a wonderful idea and a great way to encourage learning all time, I have students who do not have access to computers, let alone the internet; however, I still believe it is a great asset in assuring and promoting education.
