Mini-Lesson

I believe the thing that went the best in my lesson is that I was clear with my instructions. I gave "my student" very clear and define instructions so they knew exactly what they need to do and when they needed to do it. I also made the instructions clear because I made it a step-by-step process for my learner.

What I would have done differently is to have the student do the lesson in the context of my WebQuest assignment. That way the student could apply their new learner directly to their poster. This would make the learner more real for the students and easier for the student to connect their new knowledge to their poster.

LifeSaver

What are the attributes of inquiry learning?

The attributes of inquiry learning is that you first must come up with a question that needs to be solved, and then you give your prediction of what the answer to the question will be. After that you must write down how you will collect the data and then how you will control the data with any rules that are necessary. Then you complete you experiment that tests your questions. Then you must record your data and come to a conclusion to whether your prediction was right or wrong and why, you must also address any further questions you may have. All these steps must be completed in this order which is what was done within the LifeSaver lesson.

I have found the inquiry process very freeing. Evening though there are a set of rules that you must follow you are given the freedom to find your own question within the assignment. It is a great way for the students to work through science problems that are necessary for their learning. I have enjoyed the process myself and found it much easier than the earlier scientific process that I used in high school. I also believe that it is a useful tool that can be used across the curriculum and doesn't have to be a tool that is only used in science.

Scaffolding

The "Brainstorming" document gave me a starting off point for my thinking. It helped my group narrow down or topic into something that would work with the perimeters given to us in the assignment. The "Problem Filter" allowed us to "test" our idea to see if it was something that we could actually solve in the school system. The "Action Plan" document allowed us to come up with a step by step process for what needed to be done. By doing it electroncially it allowed us to change our thinking and steps easily without having to do much work. It made the final product of the "action pan" much cleaner than it would have looked on paper because we were able to cut, and paste items into lower rows as needed. I prefer to work with this method eletrontically because it allows for that freedom and doesn't require students to waste so much paper. When using the powerpoint slides with your prompts in them it allowed us to tailor our thinking for each slide to what was needed. It was a great time-saver and organizer for us to have them there to refer to. I appreciated the fact that they were there because it allowed me to think only about the subject that was at hand instead of what I was going to do overall throughout the whole slide show. This was the best tools for organization in this lesson and I believe that students as the learners will turn in higher quality of work because they will know exactly what you want from them and how the powerpoint should be organized. It does offer structure but also allows for freedom at the same time.

Widget

In what ways do you envision discovery learning as part of your teaching and curriculum?

I envision discovery learning to be a great learning tool in my classroom because it will allow students more freedom in their learning and to explore and find what is interesting to them. I would like to use discovery learning in my teaching to have students work through projects and activities collaboratively and therefore building a sense of community within the classroom. However, I do believe that this cannot be the only method used because not all students will work well using this teaching strategy. As a teacher we need to be able to identify what methods work well for each of our students and then find which teaching methods would work best in our classroom. Along with this students may not feel comfortable at the beginning of the year, doing discovery learning with their new classmates, so we as teachers need to be senstive to this matter. One tip, might be to in the beginning to allow students to choose their groups until you have built a safe community in your classroom.

I do believe that discovery learning would be a great teaching method for social studies when learning about countries or for science when learning about new topics. These are just a few of the basic ideas, but there are many other applications that discovery learning can be used for.

Beliefs and Technology

“What are your beliefs about teaching and learning with technology? Describe how technology has supported learning in classrooms you have observed?”

My belief about using technology in the classroom has changed over the last couple of months. I now am more aware the the many using that the Internet has, as well as the many uses within programs on basic computers. I believe that in order to make our students well-rounded individuals we need to teach them the technology skills that will be pertinent to their life's and their future careers. I also believe that we need to make students aware of the different programs and their uses in and out of the classroom, so they grow up to feel comfortable using these programs in their life's.
Technology has supported learning in the classrooms that I have observed in many different ways. One way that I have seen it used in the classroom is through the use of PowerPoint's when giving presentations. I have also seen it used for researching various topics within the classroom. I believe that as classroom teachers we need to find new and exciting ways for using technology in the classroom.