I spent time observing an 8th grade Social Studies class at Cane Creek Middle School in Fletcher.
All in all it was a great day. I learned a lot and I believe that I would actually enjoy teaching that age group, which is a switch because when I first started the MAT program I thought I would prefer high school.
Anyway, the teacher was very knowledgeable in his subject area and he clearly enjoyed his career. I noticed a couple of things about his class that relate to the ISTE standards for teachers.
He began each class by letting the students watch CNN kids news. I thought this was a great thing to do. They spent the first 10 minutes or so of class watching the news and then they could discuss the current events. This is a good example of ISTE standard 1: "Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity" He used the video to explore real world issues and to spark classroom discussion and reflection.
Here is the link to the ISTE standards:
https://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf
http://www.cnn.com/studentnews
I also noticed a non-example during my observation time. The class was studying the Vietnam war era. During the lesson a student told the class that he had heard some scandalous rumors about JFK having an affair during his tenure as President and also that JFK had accidentally called himself a jelly donut during a speech in Berlin. So, of course this intrigued the class and several of them immediately pulled out their phones/ipads, etc. (Cane Creek is a BYOD school) and started pulling up info on JFK and sharing what they found with the class. The teacher basically just shut them down, telling them that JFK rumors were not the topic of discussion, which is one way to handle it. But, I thought that he could have used this as an opportunity to practice ISTE standard 4 "promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility".
He could have turned the situation into a lesson about making sure your digital sources are reliable. He could also have fostered a discussion about appropriate use of their devices for classroom research.
All in all it was a great day. I learned a lot and I believe that I would actually enjoy teaching that age group, which is a switch because when I first started the MAT program I thought I would prefer high school.
Anyway, the teacher was very knowledgeable in his subject area and he clearly enjoyed his career. I noticed a couple of things about his class that relate to the ISTE standards for teachers.
He began each class by letting the students watch CNN kids news. I thought this was a great thing to do. They spent the first 10 minutes or so of class watching the news and then they could discuss the current events. This is a good example of ISTE standard 1: "Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity" He used the video to explore real world issues and to spark classroom discussion and reflection.
Here is the link to the ISTE standards:
https://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf
http://www.cnn.com/studentnews
I also noticed a non-example during my observation time. The class was studying the Vietnam war era. During the lesson a student told the class that he had heard some scandalous rumors about JFK having an affair during his tenure as President and also that JFK had accidentally called himself a jelly donut during a speech in Berlin. So, of course this intrigued the class and several of them immediately pulled out their phones/ipads, etc. (Cane Creek is a BYOD school) and started pulling up info on JFK and sharing what they found with the class. The teacher basically just shut them down, telling them that JFK rumors were not the topic of discussion, which is one way to handle it. But, I thought that he could have used this as an opportunity to practice ISTE standard 4 "promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility".
He could have turned the situation into a lesson about making sure your digital sources are reliable. He could also have fostered a discussion about appropriate use of their devices for classroom research.
Wow! You described a powerful missed opportunity in your non-example. I agree completely that the teacher missed an opportunity to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility as well as appropriate use for classroom research. The teacher also sent a message that students' interests and curiosities aren't valued in the classrooms, and that self-directed student learning isn't "real" learning.
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