Vocabulary Lesson

Vocabulary Lesson Plan


Vocabulary Lesson Video

A week and a half ago in our classroom we were asked to create a mini lesson about one vocabulary term or concept related to our content and teach it to a small group. This assignment was especially difficult for me. I felt as though I didn't have a clear focus or direction as to what to teach about. Consequently I spent so much time thinking about what topic to choose, I was not able to put enough time into my lesson. Overall, this is not my favorite lesson I have ever done and I was not particularly happy with my final product. The lesson plan goes over my idea of how I wanted to present the material to the class, while the video is actual footage of me teaching the lesson. As I stated before, it is not my best lesson and upon watching the video, I have found quite a few things that I could improve on.
  
This lesson experience most closely relates to the following pillar in our mission statement:

          

       "Our graduates are reflective and contemplative practitioners. They thoughtfully implement curriculum and assessments, drawing from a solid theoretical base to guide their instruction and leadership decisions. They balance action with reflection to stay centered and purposeful in active environments, offering a role model for students. "

While it is not my best lesson, I take this experience and learn from it. Teachers, just like students and all human beings don't always do their best, and sometimes make mistakes. Being able to recognize what you did well on and what you can improve on as a teacher models a reflective behavior that all student's should have. Of course students should not be overly critical of their work, but as any human there needs to be a strong balance between looking and  assessing your own work. What did I do well on? What could I improve on next time? Yes of course the teacher's opinion is important to an extent, it is a student's self reflection that is most crucial to their learning. Not only are they learning more about themselves but they are growing as a student.

   I know I have a lot of hard work ahead of me and I am not always going to get it right, and I am not always going to get an A+ or Proficiency with Distinction. I do know however that these experiences such as a bad lesson are going to help me grow as a teacher and a person, and I can only hope that an experience such as this will shape me to be a role model for students and prove to them, we don't always have to do our best work to succeed or improve and it is possible to learn from your mistakes.

While I am not happy with the final outcome of my lesson, I have learned a lot about myself and how I can improve my teaching. I know that I am learning and I can't be expected to be a perfect teacher just yet. I need to be more confident in what I say and what I do. My voice is quiet and I am not interacting with my students as much as I would have liked. I was so nervous and anxious I ended up standing behind the podium the entire time. While my discussion questions looked good on paper, they did not receive a good response from my students. The questions were too easy and only elicited one word or no answers, proving that my questions were just a tad elementary for my audience. While I am very disappointed in how my lesson unfolded, I did have one small victory, I did not say "um" (yay!). This is definitely a lesson that I can learn from (no pun intended) and I am hoping that my teaching and confidence will improve by the end of the semester.

   In class we practiced writing fair use contracts and letters home for a hypothetical 1:1 technology initiative in our school. Below are links to both our fair use contract, and our letter home.

Letter Home

Fair Use contract


Each of these were difficult to write, because there were so many aspects to each. I personally was afraid that something might be left out or come across the wrong way. We did however successfully cover all topics related to the use of the technology including disciplinary actions and how we as educators expect student to effectively use the technology.
    
    Our future students will be digital natives and surrounded by a world that will one day be completely digitalized. Our students ability to be digitally literate begins with how they are taught to use technology in schools. It is our job to teach students how to effectively use the technology given to them, ensuring it opens doors for them. This relates to :
Performance Criterion 10.1: Candidates are prepared to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure student learning.
As a future educator, it will be my job to ensure that students are aware of how technology will aid in their learning. It will also be important for teachers, parents, and the school district to all be on the same page and collectively agree on how technology will affect the students learning, and what is expected of students to ensure that they are effectively using technology to increase their learning capacity.

    Technology will soon be incorporated in every single aspect of education. With the new 1:1 initiatives, smart boards, apps, eBooks, etc., there will soon be a day where our students might not even use a pen and paper to write anymore. While the idea of technology excites me, it scares me as well. Of course technology will open many doors for students and they will be able to explore different modes of media and learn things that a encyclopedia might never have been able to tell them . Students are now able to skype with other classrooms from around the world or watch movies or Facebook live videos that pertain to real world news or what they are studying in their classes. At  the same token there are a lot of not so good things that come with technology . Excessive screen time is detrimental to health, there are also a lot of important things that cannot be necessarily done on the internet, like writing a letter or communicating with a person in human. Yes, I am excited for technology but I fear that the humanness will become lost because of it. I am hoping my class room will use technology effectively to learn, but my students will also be able to go back to pencil and paper and having face to face discussions with one another. I also feel that the more complex  the technology gets that my students will have to start teaching me the ins and outs of the hottest new  apps. It will be difficult to keep up with all the new digital discoveries, I look forward to having a group of young digital natives to keep me in the loop.