Teaching+With+Technology+Week+3

=Week 3=

===This was a challenging week. Part of the assignment was to complete a UDL lesson. Our groups team plan is to focus on ELA in middle school. So, I focus my UDL lesson on ELA. Since I teach computer, I tried to create a lesson I could also do my computer classroom. My lesson is for the students to create a superhero using online resources. They will also explore different hero characteristics with online. Students will then create a short story about their superhero. They will transfer their story into an ebook.===

I created an ebook using http://bookbuilder.cast.org.
Click on the link to see my ebook. [|http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=view&book=41535&page=1]

To see the lesson, click on the file.


= Discussion = [It will be] to advise, guide, and encourage students wading through the deep waters of the information flood. [Educators] will thrive as mentors, tutors, backseat drivers, and coaches. They will use the best skill they have. . . to nudge, push, and sometimes pull students through the educationally crucial tasks of processing information: analysis, problem solving, and synthesis of ideas. These are the heart of education, and these are the activities on which our time can best be spent. (O'Donnell, 1998, p. 156) "  I really like a few keys words in this quote; advise, guide, encourage, mentors, tutors, backseat drivers, coaches, and nudge. Instead of students regurgitating information, educators need to provide time for students to analyze and problem solve. I think some teachers feel overwhelmed with the amount of information the students need to learn. This creates an urgency of time. Some teachers just push and push the information and not the students. They feel no time can be "wasted". What they don't realize, is with proper planning and activities, the students will learn more than when teachers just push information through worksheets.    I feel the new age of worksheets is when teachers put students in front of a computer with a software program that does not challenge students. Yes, students need time to practice skills, but the major of time should be letting students analyze and create. The students will use basic skills plus higher order thinking and problem solving when they have to create and complete projects. Combining my thoughts with the quote above, teachers do need to teach and reinforce skills. Teachers, then need to become the "backseat driver" and "coach" that pushes students to their best potential. Expectations should be set high to push and pull students to allow students to process, practice, and expand the student's learning. When I was reading and analyzing my thoughts, the quote "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink." You can pull, tug, and lead the horse but if the horse doesn't want to drink there is nothing you can do. So, instead of pulling and tugging, you make the horse want to drink. This relates to students as well. You can give the all the information in the world, but, if you don't create and entice the "want" of students to learn, you are wasting your time. Rose, D. & Meyer, A. (2002). //Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age.// Alexandria, VA. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Retrieved March 10, 2011 from __@http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/chapter1_4.cfm__