NET-S Standards

Although all of the standards are important, I believe critical thinking and decision making are the two most important. These are two crucial things that students must obtain to not only achieve throughout their educational career, but in life. As a teacher, I think that assigning group work is the most beneficial way to achieve both of these. Students must think out their plan and make a decision on how they are going to arrive at their final answer. I still remember projects and assignments I did that required me to really think and make a decision on how I was going to solve the task at hand. For example, even in this ISTC we had to work in a group to sum up a chapter of our reading. We weren't told what information to use or how much to use, we had to talk amongst our peers and make a decision on how we were going to chunk the information in an organized way to present it to this class. Little things like this do not seem to be so helpful at the time, but looking back it definitely improves a lot of these NET-S Standards, especially critical thinking and decision making.

Week 5: Technology

Technology has really helped me as a student. Since I was younger, I would type up notes on my computer to help organize and review what I learned in class. After writing my notes by hand and then typing them up on my computer I found this was my way to truly grasp the material. Additionally, technology has helped me a tremendous amount in performing different types of research. Whether I had to google something I didn't understand or if I had to search for information on a topic, technology was my go to for everything. I couldn't imagine myself using the "old fashion" research method and going to the library to write a research paper.

Throughout my school career, technology has been used within the classroom to aid teaching. In high school we worked with smart boards and my teacher would present power points of material to the class. Overall, I found the use of this different technology mechanisms because it was very visual for me. The power points that my teachers used always had clip art that I would associate the material with. On the day of the test, I remembered a lot of information from the different clip art pictures and power point slides.

The use of technology while teaching is a very good technique for getting students to understand the material.  I will be sure to use a balance of these skills in my future classroom.