Introduction
When I think about the educational landscape that we navigate today and how the system of education began in this country, I realize that there has been a massive about of growth. This unit’s readings and videos helped me to organize my thoughts and arrive at a few takeaways.
Takeaway #1
I would like to incorporate student motivation as an item necessary for the planning and delivery of my academic lessons daily. This would mean that I will continue to focus on the need for kindergarten class teaching and learning materials such as, anchor charts, annotated reading materials for the Read Aloud sessions, MacBook, whiteboards, and similar items. Additionally, I will begin to organize ways to motivate the students so that they feel involved with the lesson enough to begin the process of iteration toward mastery of the skill.
I think about all that it takes to internalize a lesson plan to deliver it successfully. Generally, my ideas revolve around having items that directly connect me with the skill I need to teach and the level of delivery necessary. Rarely, (if ever) have I thought that I need to plan a motivational element (especially during non-fiction readings) for my young learners. I have listened to colleagues who brush off the challenge to motivate the class. They usually start by adopting the premise that the students just don’t like non-fiction texts and have no buy-in for the content. I did not challenge this premise, nor did I assess the validity of it with my classroom. Since reading the material presented in Unit 5, I realize that I can (and should) research motivational skills that can be used with young learners in a classroom setting. A major motivational tool is discovering how to incorporate the student’s interests in ways that support the teaching and learning of the daily skill.
Takeaway #2
Instead of separating the students who have differences I want to find ways to adjust the curriculum in a way that helps those students utilize the process of iteration to work toward mastery of the skill. Currently, our classroom culture organizes the students according to their scores on certain assessments. With this, I can make small groups to teach the daily skill. Although I understand this and see it as useful, it does create (for me) a way to ignore that there are students (no matter what level) who have a different way of learning.
In this unit’s readings and videos, I have learned that video games can become a pedagogical tool. In one part of the Future Learning video, it was said that students can teach themselves almost anything if given the permission to interact with one another, the internet, and the absence of the teacher. With this, teachers can begin to observe and identify how each student deals with failure and what motivates each student to continue playing even after they have failed many times. Understanding this has allowed me to realize that my students have already demonstrated how differently each of them learn. Whenever they log into their Chrombooks and access the learning apps that have a video game aesthetic, they continue through multiple iterations until they have mastered the level (or game in some instances). They receive their reward of points or pieces to a puzzle, and they continue until they reach the next reward level. I never have to tell them to keep working, they continue because they have found a reason. My current student population will be adults in the year 2029-2030. I wondered if the current curriculum is designed to prepare them for that period. This is one of the views that was pointed out as I watched the video. With all our Smart Items, how many of them will become “sport” when my students are adults. I hope to marry the ecosystem of my classroom with the ecosystem of technology and thus remain flexible and current.
Sources
Good Magazine, 2012. Future Learning Mini Documentary Good retrieved from https://youtu.be/qC_T9ePzANg?si=ArKdazFUvYyOLkom
Hall, T.E., Meyer, A., & Rose (2012). Universal design for learning in the classroom: Practical applications. Guilford. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CZhmxuk-nYYOlPOyz5jRBV4jdP1wxW2Q/view