Please be well-prepared!
Again, this week I've learned many things from experienced teachers and educators and also learned by doing. I've studied two assigned articles and realized why and how technology integration should be encouraged in educational settings. Clearly, technology can assist in English skills improvement as well as encourage students' interaction, participation and collaboration. To implement technology into classroom, a well-prepared lesson plan is necessary. A lesson plan not only guides teachers, but it also helps teachers become more confident and comfortable while teaching the lesson. When less stressed, a happy teacher and happy students enjoy together!In addition, it is an article "Weaving the Web into an EAP Reading Program" by Ellinger et al (n.d.) that has reminded me about "flexibility and adaptability". It is a fact that the websites change regulary and a well-planned teacher has to admit this changing nature of the Internet. Teachers have to learn to adapt the material or revise a classroom activity accordingly. Moreover, Ellinger et al (n.d) found that flexibility of the material is important to support learning styles or needs of each individual learner. I agree that if we aim to integrate technology such as the Internet into the classroom, we should revamp the materials and learning activities in order to make learning experience meaningful and enjoyable for our students.
One more thing I've come to realize while working on writing a lesson plan with technology is that "I need to include a back up plan." It is possible that technology may not work correctly when we need it. For example, the Internet connection may fail, or the low speed Internet may become a problem right while we are teaching. That could be a disaster for a teacher who is not well-prepared. Things may get stuck and everyone in classroom becomes frustrated. I don't want to imagine that to happen in my class. Therefore, to keep the classroom going, a back up plan is needed. Remember -- a back up plan.
"Keep learning and shining."
Technology when adopted stimulates learners of different interests those who are interested in technology will find out about resources that can help them improve. Visual learners will find pictures that can help them understand and remember the lesson, the same case with auditory learners.
ReplyDeleteStill, as you denoted there must be plan B because of the inconveniences that can happen.
I haven’t met a teacher saying that he or she loves writing lesson plans. But there are many who agree that careful planning is a must. Although writing a plan is really time-consuming it is worth doing. I am happy to see that we share the same opinion concerning the importance of thorough, thoughtful planning.
ReplyDeleteWhat a brilliant post, I do agree with your words and I learned a lot this week, too. I confess sometime I feel bored to plan lessons but in the end I feel so happy when I see that everyhting worked out as I had planned and it encourages me to do it better and better.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post.
Regards,
Anderson.
Hi Tata,
ReplyDeleteLooking at lesson plan as an necessary step and well- preparing it is a smooth way to guide teachers to a successful lesson. I agree with you!
As for me, having "back up plan" is not new thing to do because sometimes in my school, electricity is turned off due to regular maintenance. Therefore, if there is a listening activity, I make sure that I take listening script to my class, in case CD player doesn't work. There will be another way to do it, by reading the script by myself. See, it really happened to me and my lessons weren't delayed because of the "back-up plan"
Best,
Iman, Oman