Using Technology to Teach, great job Group 2!

Group Two provided two great lessons on Green Energy! In the Direct lesson, the teachers started off by asking questions, engaging students from the outset. Their use of the Smart Board presentations and allowing the students to the Board to complete matching and sorting activities was fantastic. You could see the students were excited to participate. They also related the lesson material to everyday life, asking the students what they could do to preserve energy or what students know about energy, and how or where they received that information. My colleagues also interacted together in a positive way, keeping the material flowing.

For the Inquiry, the students had to help save the Earth by becoming Activists. Each Group had to conduct research and choose a renewable energy that they thought the U.S. should use. Then they had to write a letter to the Department of Energy stating based on their research, why the United States should use that particular source.

There were several sources of technology used throughout both lessons, including; the Smart Board, Voki, a website they developed, and computers.

I also liked that each student group presented their findings, although some of them were hard to hear because others students were talking over them.

Using the technological advances we have today, I feel is important in technology. It allows children to engage in a hands-on approach by looking for information themselves or by using various games to reinforce their knowledge and skill set. Technology provides stimulation and supports lessons by providing a visual presentation. Technology is fun for students, why not utilize it?

One can find almost anything on the internet, scientific experts, research information, pictures, microscopic pictures of items children may never see otherwise, updated pictures and information that we wouldn't find in textbooks. In some cases, websites provide games that reinforce knowledge and understanding of concepts.  

Students have fun doing what they know, if we can use it as a tool to teach (managed in an appropriate way), why not use and encourage it?!