It is about Reflecting and Analyzing our Teaching Practice

Shifting and changing our schools is also about reflecting and analyzing our individual teaching practice.

They cannot be talk of learning (on students’ part) and growth (on teachers’ part) without reflecting on a lesson or project:

• What did I start out with?
• What was the learning objective?
• What were variables?
• What was the outcome?
• Successes and pitfalls of the lesson or project itself
• What would I do different (if anything) the next time?

Simply checking off a lesson or project on a list of “gotta-do”, leads only to covering content and  repeated assignments without differentiated considerations.

It is not about right or wrong or about technology integration, it is about bringing awareness/ getting/allowing teachers to reflect on their teaching practice and HOW it impacts student learning!

Let me give you an example.

Three elementary school teachers choose to create a podcast, where students share what they have learned about dinosaurs during a previous unit. Each teacher chooses to create the recording in a different way.

Teacher #1

• Each students researches facts about an assigned dinosaur.
• As a group, students come up with a story that allows them to incorporate their individual facts about each dinosaur.
• Students and Classroom teacher improvise and continue to develop their story as they record directly into Audacity.
• Group lesson on how to record, edit, move tracks, insert sound effects, delete, copy & paste in Audacity.
• Students are reminded about speaking clearly, animated and expressive. Their job is to draw a listener in to their story.
• Classroom teacher records her part in introduction to story.
• Each student records their own segment. Each segment is to include a connection to their overall story and at least 4 facts about their dinosaur.
• Students record and re-record until they are satisfied. Teacher only listens to final recording to make sure that volume is adequate and requirements (previous bullet) are met.
• Classroom teacher signed up for additional time in computer lab  for students to work on their recordings.
• Students used approximately 5 class periods (30 minute each) to record and edit their Audacity files.
• Technology teacher imports students’ individual segments as MP3 files  adds to the main Audacity file in order to create one class episode (MP3) to be uploaded to school podcast.

Teacher #2

• Each students researches facts about an assigned dinosaur.
• As a group, students come up with a story that allows them to incorporate their individual facts about each dinosaur.
• Students and classroom teacher receive group lesson about recording and editing in Audacity (no hands on activity)
• Back in the classroom, teacher calls each student to the microphone separately and in order of the story to record their segment which includes a fact.
• Classroom teacher coaches students on voice animation and clarity on the spot and re-records until acceptable.
• Classroom teacher edits audacity file.
• Technology teacher saves audacity file as .MP3 file to be uploaded to school podcast.

Teacher #3

• Each students researches facts about an assigned dinosaur.
• As a group, students come up with a story that allows them to incorporate their individual facts about each dinosaur.
• Students and teacher receive group lesson about recording and editing in Audacity (no hands on activity)
• In a class activity, all come up with an idea of a story frame.
• Classroom teacher writes introduction.
• Students write individual lines for their script including their fact.
• Classroom teacher puts script together and prints it out.
• Each student is called individually to the front and is recorded by technology teacher while reading their line from the printout.
• Technology teacher edits final tracks and exports as MP3 to be uploaded to school podcast.

As with any lesson, field trip or project, teachers should frame it by planning, implementing AND reflecting upon completion.

How would you reflect upon these three different methods of implementation? What kind of reflective questions would you ask?

• Did the teacher create?
• Did students create?
• How does the outcome (product) compare with the others?
• How does the process of creating the product compare with the others?
• Where on the Bloom’s  (revised) Taxonomy does this activity fall?-

Let’s take the technology out of the equation. The learning objective was NOT about learning a sound editing program such as Audacity. The goal was to:

• learn about and review different dinosaur species
• allow students to express themselves creatively
• practice fluency and speaking skills
• teach others about content that they had studied in class