Take Away's from the About Me Experience

We took time to do the "About Me" activity because it gets us to know each other more and 
we were able to become familiar with different technology to use in the classroom. We could see how we would use them in the classroom and how well students would be able to navigate it. By doing this I learned that I need to be more engaging with the class and ask more questions because students retain the most when they interact with the material. I wish I made my presentation longer but the technology I used, with was Voki, only allowed me to make my video 1 minute long. Something I can improve on is don't using "guys" when I'm teaching. Instead use "boys and girls" or "friends."
This lesson was an introductory lesson in how to engage students and how to use different tools to get to know your students rather than a worksheet.
You can do this lesson with students at the beginning of the school year to get the know them and they can get to know each other. This also can help in getting to know how students work and who they would work well with when designing group work. I liked the feedback because it helped me to see where I can improve on and the things my peers caught that I didn't catch while teaching. One of the technologies that my peers used was word art. You can use this to check for understanding, and at the beginning of the lesson to assess prior knowledge. You can also use this at the end of the lesson and ask students what each word means, how it relates to the topic you taught, and what is a word that they didn't know at the beginning of the lesson that they know about now. I can take something from everyones presentations in my future teaching, such as their teaching styles, and how they interact with students.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND DURING FIELDWORK

• Design ways to check for understanding, don't just talk to students, ask questions throughout the lesson
• Know the content you are teaching well. This will make you look and feel confident and gets your point across
• Modeling- a mental process, show your thinking process the students
• Demonstrating- hands on experience; "how to"
• Challenge students, don't just give them straight forward questions, make them think 
• Memorization is key for students. You have to repeat things so students remember better and the information will get stored in their long-term memory.
• You need 3-5 activities for guided practice and make it throughout your lesson not just at the end
• Closure should be engaging students in what they know. Be competitive with students because they love that
• Independent practice should not be a test. But they need to do it on their own; no help from you or other students.