STRUCTURED

Field Experience Log & Reflection

Instructional Technology Department

Candidate: Mentor/Title: School/District:

Jana Brewer Madison Lockridge/Teacher Pepperell Middle School/Floyd
County
Field Experience/Assignment: Course: Professor/Semester:
Lesson Plan Assignment ITEC 7430 Internet Tools in the Dr. Dias/Fall 2019
Classroom

Part I: Log
Date(s) Activity/Time STATE Standards NATIONAL Standards
PSC ISTE NETS-C
9/3/19 Designed the pretest for the cells subunit [1 hour] PSC 2.1, 2.2 ISTE 2a, 2e, 2f

9/4/19-9/5/19 Used information from student pretest to plan PSC 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 4.1 ISTE 2a, 2b, 2d, 2f, 3d, 3f
subunit activities and research tools [3 hours]
9/8/19 Developed the Google Slide Cells Subunit online. PSC 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.6, 3.3 ISTE 2a, 2f, 3c, 3d, 3f
9/10/19 [7 hours]
9/11/19
9/16/19- Implemented the Google Slide Cells Subunit with PSC 2.1, 2.5, 2.7, 3.1, 3.4, 3.5 ISTE 3a, 3e, 5b
9/20/19 students [20 hours]
9/23/19-
9/27/19
10/3/19 Evaluated the Google slide Cells Subunit [1.5 PSC 2.6, 2.7, 6.1, 6.2 ISTE 2a, 6b, 6c
hours]

Total Hours: [32.5 hours ] PSC 6.3

DIVERSITY
(Place an X in the box representing the race/ethnicity and subgroups involved in this field experience.)
Ethnicity P-12 Faculty/Staff P-12 Students
P-2 3-5 6-8 9-12 P-2 3-5 6-8 9-12
Race/Ethnicity:
Asian
Black X
Hispanic X
Native American/Alaskan Native
White X X
Multiracial X
Subgroups:
Students with Disabilities X
Limited English Proficiency X
Eligible for Free/Reduced Meals X
Part II: Reflection

CANDIDATE REFLECTIONS:
(Minimum of 3-4 sentences per question)

1. Briefly describe the field experience. What did you learn about technology facilitation and
leadership from completing this field experience?
Through completing this field experience, I learned how much work can be poured into creating
technology-based unit plans. Not only must you consider what technology tools you want to use to
best benefit your students, but you must also consider which tools students have the ability to use
and if you are going to have to spend class time teaching them to use a new tool. With the short
period of time teachers have to teach content and the wide range of tools that could potentially be
used, it is important to choose ones that will allow all students better access to the content without
spending too much class time teaching how to use the tool. This field experience taught me that
sometimes original plans must change in order to best benefit the students involved and that not all
tools are useful to all students.
I also learned it can be extremely difficult to manage technology use when 28 students are
working on individual devices all at once throughout an entire class period. Fortunately, my
school has invested in a program that can connect to student devices that enables teachers to view
their screen, but this is not always the easiest method for monitoring student technology use
because it only shows one screen at a time. While completing this unit, I moved the seating
arrangements in my room to allow me the ability to see large groups of screens without having to
run around the room consistently.
Through this experience, I learned how much many of my students can accomplish when learning
on their own and at their own pace. Honestly, it surprised me how well they learned the content by
being able to explore, answer questions, and create their own products based on their learning. My
students really took ownership of their learning while completing this subunit, and it was really
exciting for me to see how engaged they were.

2. How did this learning relate to the knowledge (what must you know), skills (what must you
be able to do) and dispositions (attitudes, beliefs, enthusiasm) required of a technology
facilitator or technology leader? (Refer to the standards you selected in Part I. Use the
language of the PSC standards in your answer and reflect on all 3—knowledge, skills, and
dispositions.)
Completing this field experience taught me how to model and facilitate the design of technology-
enhanced learning experiences (PSC 2.1) while applying a variety of research-based, learner-
center strategies (2.2). In order to accomplish this, I used strategies and tools I had learned about
in readings from the modules in my ITEC 7430 class as well as the pre-test information I received
from my students allowing me to know which tools they felt comfortable with using as well as the
content they had previously learned.

This field experience also helped me to practice modeling and facilitating the design and
implementation of technology-enhanced learning experiences (PSC 2.5) by the creation of the
cells subunit and implementation of the subunit. In order to make this content accessible to all of
my students, I had to plan when and how to pull small groups as well as which students to pair
together in order to effectively complete tasks and grasp the content. This proved to be
challenging because of the range of academic skills and needs of the students I teach. Because
different students had different needs, I had to pull a variety of small groups, which also allowed
my students the opportunity to work with students who have needs similar to theirs as well as
skills that pair well with theirs. For example, one of my small groups included a student who is
great using technology and struggles with reading, a student who struggles with reading and
technology use but is strong at drawing, and a student who is able to read on grade level but
struggles with using technology. On paper, it seems like these students would work perfectly
together to complete the cell model drawing together, however, groups such as this one do not
always work out socially and behaviorally, and I had to change my grouping plan.

Because of the layout of this subunit, I was able to continuously assess my student’s learning with
the short formative assessments as well as the final project summative assessment (PSC 2.7). The
formative assessments are short but allow me to see what my students are understanding as they
progress in their learning. Throughout this experience, I worked with a range of students, but I
also asked questions as I facilitated the learning environment and technology use to see what
students were doing well on and what they were struggling with (PSC 3.1, ISTE-C 3a).

At the completion of this field experience, I appreciated the feedback I received from coworkers
and students who completed this subunit. Receiving feedback helped me reflect on what went well
from the perspective of a student, another teacher, and myself, and helped me gain insight on what
changes I need to make in order to create a more successful technology-enhanced lesson or
subunit in the future (ISTE-C 6b, ISTE-C 6c)

3. Describe how this field experience impacted school improvement, faculty development or
student learning at your school. How can the impact be assessed?
This field experience impacted student learning in my classroom because my students were able to
learn at their own pace and take ownership of their own learning. Being able to complete
assignments as they were ready allowed my students to be more confident in the work they were
completing. I shared this subunit with the other seventh grade science teachers at my school who
edited it to make it their own and use it with their students. This field experience impacted all of
the students in seventh grade because they were able to access content at their own pace and share
their knowledge by completing their choice of a final project and share their knowledge in ways
that they were able to feel success in completing.

The other science teachers I work with are more traditional and do not take advantage of
technology tools as often as they could being that our school is one-to-one. After introducing this
subunit to them and showing them tools students have access to in order to enhance their content
learning, this field experience impacted faculty development because of the open-mindedness
these two other teachers now have towards using technology. This field experience also opened a
better line of communication between the other two teachers and me in designing learning
opportunities for our students that better fit their needs and create more common learning
experiences to have more success in closing gaps on common assessments.