How your understandings of the standards changed based on your experiences:

When looking at the standards I realized that my inspiration of student learning and facilitation of student learning was affected by the design of my lesson. I believe that when I developed my lesson I had a strong sense of engagement with the lesson. I presented the students with a fun math video which should have been played at the very beginning of the course, but due to the technology being somewhat temperamental I was nervous about the lesson and ended up playing the math video during the independent practice. I believe it is very important to have some sort of engagement with students. I have realized with math, that many students are not excited to learn anything that resembles math and therefore a hook, is necessary to inspire motivation. I discovered that when attempting my lesson along with the constant assessment technology was a HUGE aid for me, I found that having the students individually work on their Slope Stories prompted individual responsibility for each student's learning. Using the Smart board technology I was able to interact with the board and the students, playing off of what the students understood about slope and in turn building off of previous knowledge to better support student learning. I also loved how when using the technology, notebook, I was able to have the students automatically send me their work and how far they got with the activity. This helps me assess what the students understood and which students will continue on to more difficult material while other students are able to focus on the concepts which are difficult. The students submitted work to me in the form of a discussion board. The students then have the ability to now open up their assignments the following day and continue working with the concepts. The program I used in my lesson was a safe program in no way connected to the internet, this in mind, I was able to focus on the content of the lesson. The notebook program helped me as the teacher to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility.

What you learned about preparation and teaching from your peer:

 I discovered through my lesson that preparation of the lesson is only half the battle. It took me a lot of time to decide on the lesson I should do, when I finally decided on slope, I looked at the standards which I had to meet and created my lesson.It took me several hours to decide on a great engagement for students. After talking with my teacher and exploring the vast amounts of technology available I decided that I was going to create a smart board/ individualized lesson for the students. I prepared my lesson by created several slope stories which I would solve with the students during guided practice. After the guided practice questions were completed I created slides for each student to show their own work. The slides provided directions and an x-y grid for the students to work with effectively. Preparing the lesson on notebook was far easier than I ever thought it would be, I was able to determine slope questions and work through the problems quickly on my own, in addition I also created extra slides in case the class needed further instruction and my slope lesson was to simple for the class. The creation of a further lesson was a great idea for individualized learning as well, I was able to have further instruction if necessary for students. When working with notebook, the internet is not necessary. The students only accessed the internet to attach their work onto the class discussion board. I made sure that the students used the internet minimally due to two facts, first the internet was not necessary to complete the lesson effectively, second because I was hoping to promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility by slowly introducing the class to the proper use of the internet and netiquette. The students were able to successful relay feedback of the lesson to me using the discussion board a a final assessment of a reflection of the lesson. In addition in the ETC 447 course each student created forms for fellow classmates to fill out and offer further elaboration of the course. I believe that I will definitely use forms in my future classes!

How your experiences might impact your future teaching experiences.

 After teaching the lesson in ETC 447 I believe it is vital to have a creative and exploration lesson when it comes to mathematics lessons. I am focusing on the mathematics portion in the reflection due to the fact that I hope to be teaching single subject mathematics in the future. I completely acknowledge that all subjects benefit from a creative outlook on a lesson. I believe that presenting the students with a great engagement is the hook and the start off of the lesson, motivation of students is vital for the success of the individual and the lesson. In addition I believe that having the students physically manipulate the concepts helps further knowledge of the content. Using technology in this digital age is another very important aspect for future teachers to explore in their classrooms. I believe with students younger and younger coming to class with cell phones and playing xbox games at home, the up coming generations have a better chance of grasping a concept when presented with a visual and physical aid. I will definitely use technology in my classroom. I believe that in addition to assisting learning, technology is also a huge aid for teaching when assessing, whether it be digital student portfolios or digital student work, students and teachers are able to see their work and therefore can assess and progress with further instruction. Using the Smart Board opened my eyes to a new interactive world of modeling concepts for students as well as incorporating students ideas within the day to day activities and instructions. It is important for every teacher and student to understand the importance of promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility. In my classroom digital responsibility and citizenship will be treated as an addition behavioral issue. Students should understand no matter how they may be learning or communicating, each person should be treated with the highest level of respect. After experiencing this class I am even more positive that I will use technology within my classroom, and if technology is not available I will go the extra mile to ensure writing grants, etc. will be done so that students are able to experience the power of technology in the classroom and benefit from every lesson with or without technology.

• Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
• Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
• Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
• Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

Phase 1 Reflections on Micro Lessons Preparation

Assessing Prior Knowledge:


I decided to create a lesson which was meant for 8th grade students who have had some interaction with slope and the graphing of slope. The lesson I am creating is geared toward students who have had exposure of slope and are furthering their understanding of slope and applying it in new and creative ways. I hope to learn that students have somewhat of an understanding of slope and can also apply certain algebraic skills to discover slope in formula form as well as graphically. Prior knowledge information is vital in the planning process, I hope to evaluate how well the students understand slope and in turn give them individually challenging work for students who need remediation, or acceleration. Knowing what each student or most students understand with the lesson will determine how advance the lesson will be for each student.

Plans Instruction: 

I decided to clearly state my goals, objectives and outcomes through my lesson plan; however with the lesson itself I hope to demonstrate the goals and objectives after modeling the Slope Stories. The students demonstrated the outcomes of their slope stories by posting them on the discussion board as well as taking ten minutes at the end of the lesson to write a reflection about slope and how it could be used or be seen in every day life. The objectives and goals are completely appropriate for the 8th grade NCTM standards as well as the Common Core Standards. I guided my lesson using the NCTM and Common Core Standards. I decided have the students state the outcome of the lesson using reflection because I believe it is important to implement writing within mathematics.

Designing Instruction: 

I am writing my lesson plan with the idea of engagement, modeling, guided practice and the independent practice. I believe the instructional design of my lesson is appropriate for the concept. The students have some understanding of slope, therefore, the students begin with guided practice to inspire review as well as begin to transfer prior knowledge for this particular lesson. Having the students then continue the lesson with independent instruction, helps the students not only take charge of their own learning but in addition presents the teacher with more time for one on one individual attention for students who need remediation. I created the lesson to focus on slope, this being said there are several different concepts of slope I included for students who need remediation and students who need acceleration. I included positive, negative and undefined slope, in addition I also included the beginning of y-intercepts and the formula for y- interceptions. Because a great deal of the lesson is independent instruction this helps students who need remediation to focus on positive and negative slope, while student who need acceleration will have undefined slope as well as y - interception formulas and graphing if time allots. I believe I am going to use the smart board with my instruction. Using the smart board will allow me interaction with the concept as well as the student responses. I believe I will have each student open the notebook program on the individual computers as well during the guided instruction and independent instruction. The students were able to maintain a safe, legal and ethical use of technology using the notebook program. The students were not able to access the internet during this lesson therefore maximizing the safety of the lesson. All students were successful when their individual responsibilities of social interactions. The students are able to have the notebook program in front of them on their own computers, therefore the technology meets the diversity of the learners through a creative math center. Each student will be respectful of each individuals work and should not feel threaten by others looking at their work. The only people involved in the creative learning process is the learner and the teacher (no internet necessary).

Planning Assessment: 

My assessment tools will demonstrate the performance of goals and objectives by having the students individual create their own slope stories via the computer and also type up their own reflections about the lesson and how slope is involved during every day life. The students will constantly be engaged in higher order thinking skills when creating their own slope stories, by writing their stories the students will demonstrate what elements are necessary to produce a positive, negative or undefined slope story. In addition having the student write reflections helps further assess how well the students grasped the concept. Each student will send in their notebook file including their slope stories and their reflection, this type of assessment is individualized and much more effect for the teacher to understand how each student understands the material.

Phase 2 Micro Lesson Plan Reflection

Instructional Decisions/Teaching: 

I decided to do my micro lesson about Slope for 8th grade. The lesson was based around the idea that the students already understood slope and the activity was to further their understanding and having the students demonstrate their knowledge in different ways. I had each student use the notebook program on the Mac computers. I modeled using the smart board. I had the students review what slope was and the equation for slope. The students used algebraic knowledge as well as graphing knowledge to determine the slope and create their own "slope stories". The students typed up their own stories and graphed the slope of the stories using information from the word problems as well as their knowledge of the algebraic use of slope. The students created positive slope stories, negative slope stories and if time allotted the students also create a undefined slope story. 

From attempting this lesson I believe that there was enough information for the 30 minutes we had to complete the lesson with the students. I believe that with the malfunctioning technology in the beginning of the lesson I adapted to the time given pretty well. I believe at times I sped through the material which now reflecting I believe was not the best idea. I had the students do several problems as a class and then I had the students begin to work on their own. I believe the idea of modeling with guided instruction and then having the students begin independent instruction was the best way to execute this particular lesson.

I believe that I aligned the objectives and goals with the lesson fairly effectively. Reviewing with the students slope and the formula for slope before attempting problems helped students to remember how to properly work through the processes. In addition the students were able to more freely work on their own. I believe walking around the room and reading the slope stories helped me to understand how well each student understood the lesson and in turn the concept of slope. The students were able to effectively write their slope stories after the instruction.

With such a small group of students there was not a lot of modification necessary for the lesson. I believe that some students needed more one on one aid with the lesson however they were able to receive teacher-student attention because the lesson had a great deal of independent learning and activities. I believe that individual instruction helps students to shy to ask and work with others. In addition I believe that students who did not remember working with slope were able to have group class practice as well as individual practice with the teacher. 

Assessment of Learning:

For individual assessment, I made sure each student was able to send me their slope stories which was a great representation of individual student work and understanding of the concept. 

After looking at each student's work I believe the majority of the class benefited from the lesson and gained greater understanding of the concept. After looking at my reflection form the majority of the students replied with positive outlooks on the lesson and gained further knowledge. I realized through individual reflections that the students liked the one on one attention each student was able to receive, in addition students were able to further their understanding by creatively demonstrating knowledge. When referencing fellow classmates reviews I found that most students enjoyed the lesson. The main concern was the speed of the lesson. I agree with my fellow student, I definitely should have slowed down. In addition many comments were made about the visual aids of the lesson. I believe that the smart board was one of the best technology tools I could use for the lesson.

Global awareness and digital-age communication

The power of technology continues to grow in and outside of the classrooms. I believe that it is a choice each educator must make, whether or not to take advantage of the resources which are presented each and every day. Students can gain a whole different outlook of the world using technology. In addition teachers are able to teacher global awareness and present students with different visual aids and examples never thought possible before. There are many different available tools for teachers and students. Check It Out! As the world continues to grow and change so must our students' abilities. Now is the age of technology in and outside of the classroom therefore, now more than ever, it is important for students to have a firm grasp of the digital-age of communication. Check It Out!

Meeting diverse needs of learners through learner-centered strategies and equitable access

Technology is unique in the sense that it is able to adapt to the use of any student or any learner. For the kinesthetic learner technology can be a manipulative which better meets the needs of the student, for the logical learner, a series of puzzles or essay can be presented to aid the students individually. The important aspect to recognize is that technology can be used for a series of different learners, but it is whether or not the teacher is willing to go the extra mile and make sure the technology will be used to benefit the student. There are many different sites available presenting different uses of technology for a diverse set of learners. Check it out! The following website is full of different technologies available for use of the different multiple intelligences learner! Check It Out!

Digital etiquette and responsible social interactions

It is always hoped that the classroom would be a place of sanctuary and protection. No child should be scared to participate and no child should feel bullied. In a perfect world this would be so, but now students have more to worry about than simply coming to school, students are now surrounding themselves with the internet, an immensely larger classroom which in turn has the possibilities of creating bullying as well as other cyber dangers. It is important to teach students of the "netiquette" as well as their individual responsibilities when put in social interactions. Check It Out! There are many different resources available about such topics some examples are... "Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices" Check It Out..."To develop an awareness and appreciation of issues such as accessibility, plagiarism and copyright protection that will contribute to developing teachers" Check It Out!...

Safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology

Technology can be thought of as an extremely helpful tool in the classroom, taking a closer look at this idea, we begin to see just how important it is to understand the technology you bring into your classroom. As a teacher, it is your responsibility to make sure the digital information and technology presented is safe, legal and ethical."Today's technology enables us to access many different media in a timely, convenient fashion. However, the ease of access provided by modern digital technology may result in the use of works without full understanding of rights and responsibilities. Creating and using unauthorized copies of audio and visual works in either digital or non-digital format is not appropriate and may be illegal"(Penn State, 2012). Check it out!


Modeling the proper use of technology within the classroom will continue to enforce proper digital usage on a day to day basis. Check It Out! Giving credit where credit is do, is essential for legal and ethical use within the classroom and at home. As the role model within the classroom it is important to make sure your students are using their digital sources in a safe and secure environment. It is important to not be scared to use technology, but rather to be well prepared when using technology to thoroughly benefit students. With great power comes great responsibility. :)