Module 4 Reflection

    In module 4, I first spent some time going through all of the ISTE standards for students. The standards for students were designed to help prepare them to "thrive in an evolving technological landscape" and to "empower student voice and ensure the learning is a student-driven process." As I went through each standard and watched the videos I was impressed and excited to see how other educators are using technology in their classrooms and how the students are driving the learning process. It really challenged me to think how I can help my students to think critically, problem solve, and use technology in a way that helps prepare them for this technological world that they are growing up in. I'm limited in the type of technology my students have access to, but one thing I've learned from this class is that there are ways I could be using it that I had not previously thought of. I think the standards on Digital Citizenship are especially important to start teaching at a young age because it sets the foundation for future technology use. I also think the Knowledge Constructor standards are an important foundation for young learners because it teaches them effective research and evaluation strategies, which they will need as they conduct research throughout their middle school, high school, and college education. 

    The next part of the module was spent writing my ISTE lesson plan. As a teacher who hasn't needed to write a multi-day/week lesson plan like this in quite some time, it was fun to pick a topic I enjoy and plan a series of lessons. I found it important to choose technology activities that would be both fun and engaging and support the learning outcomes, but also be appropriate for the age-range of my students. I wrote my lesson plan for upper elementary because of the content I chose, but I'm excited to apply what I learned to my own first grade classroom and see what I'm able to plan for them.