Mandy Copeland

Midterm Reflection
Directions:
Reflect and answer the following questions. Your responses should be well supported. In other
words, no one sentence answers.
This should be submitted as a post in your blog, You will need to submit the URL for this
specific blog post as well as attach a Word document (with the same content) to this post. Name
your files as R1_ your last name_ initial of your first name. For example: R1_Shoffner_M
1. How has planning technology-integrated lessons affected your believes in role of
technology in education? Why?
When I planned technology-integrated lessons, I did not realize all the steps teachers
had to go through in planning to use technology in their classrooms. Steps such as
researching the different available technologies, determining what fits the curriculum and
lesson the best, assuring that the technology is affordable or available for the students to use,
planning the time needed to explain both the subject matter lesson and how to use the
technology are all needed before integrating the technology. Technology is very important in
a classroom; we are in a technology era and students can learn more through technology than
with a teacher just talking to them. Technology lends itself to both group work and individual
learning. Along with saying that, I do not feel technology should be the only way a child
learns. There needs to be medium ground between the two extremes. Technology should play
a part in the classroom, but it should not overcome the personal learning styles. If one goes
too much into technology, it will make the students and teachers too dependent upon
technology.
2. What is your theory of how you learn? How do the ways you learn affect how you plan
to teach?
I learn by listening, observing, and participating. I have to have all three learning styles
incorporated in most lessons to truly understand the concepts being presented. For some
educational lessons, I learn better one way and in another lesson I learn in another. For
example, I can hear teachers explain literature and totally get the main points, as well as, the
deeper meanings, but in math, I need to both see the work being shown and practice it on my
own to truly understand it. I hope that since I have to use all three modalities to learn that I
will teach with all three methods of learning. Additionally, technology is advancing to such a
degree that all three learning styles can be incorporated in lessons. Computer programs that
show the written lesson, read the text using a computer voice, and have questions or games at
the end to check for comprehension of the lesson are good for students that must learn using
one, two or all three methods. Online classes are becoming more popular in high schools and
colleges due to time constraints, and due to the need for varied and individual learning
environments. Classroom teachers need to keep up with this demand and realize that we are
the kind human face that a computer cannot be. Helping students learn using all three
methods of learning styles is one way we can meet that demand.
3. What was the most difficult part of lesson planning for technology integration in your
instruction? Why?
The most difficult part is deciding what kind of technology would be best for each
subject matter or lesson and is it an appropriate, wise use of the students time. There are so
many different technology teaching tools. The teacher gets x amount of time, one chance to
teach the students everything they are required to know, as well as information that would be
helpful for students to know. There is so much technology out there to help educate children,
but knowing what is best for all the students is a very hard task to accomplish. Added to
those complications is the dilemma of what technology is available in the school and how
familiar the students are with the technology. Also, the diversity of knowledge about
technology among the students is a problem. Some students have parents that use advanced
computer technology everyday and share their experiences with their children and some
households do not own a computer or access to Wi-Fi. How will the teacher teach both the
subject matter and the technology with the variety of students at different familiarity levels?
4. What aspect of lesson planning was the most challenging? What will you do to help
address this challenge?
Lesson planning, as a whole, is very challenging. No one has ever taught me how to do a
lesson plan before, so in this project, I felt behind to begin with. One has to make sure that
everything that they are planning to do is in their lesson plans: common core stipulations,
Georgia Professional standards objectives, the ABCD objectives, tools to be used (including
technology, books, and other materials), National Technology standards, long term and short
term goals, assessment plans, class starter and connection plans, technology connections,
teacher and student activities, future actions, plan for diversity of learners, and put all this
information correctly together and coherently. Having to put together and research a lot of
information is overwhelming to me. Another aspect that I struggle with, because I do not
have experience in the classroom is how much time to allow for each objective. I am sure
after years of experience that I will have the GPSs, CCs, and NTSs (NETs) memorized and
that I will know when to teach each of the objectives in what order.
One way to help with all this is to follow a correct model, look at other wiser and more
experienced teachers lesson plans, and ask them to look over lesson plans. This will help
make sure I am on track and they may have suggestions for me to better help my students.
Hopefully, subject area group lesson planning will be offered at the school where I will be
teaching to alleviate some my anxiety over the complexity and stress of making lesson plans.