Standard A: Making Subject Matter Comprehensible to Students

TPE 1- Specific Pedagogical Skills for Subject Matter Instruction

How can technology help you make your subject matter comprehensible to students?

Reflection:

I belive that this TPE is very important because teachers need be able to make the information that they are relaying to their students easy to understand. Sometimes teachers need to change their teaching strategy depending on the dynamics of their classroom. Not all students learn the same way. Some students are visual learners while others learn easily by listening intently to a lecture. By integrating technology teachers can continue on with a lecture while also showing videos and other multimedia to assist those who learn visually. Technolgy can be a huge help in the classroom as far as making subject matter easier to understand for students. Many subjects in school are not meant to be taught by simply giving a lecture. By using technology students are able to see and feel what they are learning.

Many Microsoft programs are great to use in the classroom as teaching tools such as Powerpoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets and graphs, and Photo Story. I have created multiple Powerpoint presentations in history classes that I have taken and they have been helpful in getting information accross to other students. With Powerpoint I was able to pinpoint key facts while also showing pictures and video to go along with my lecture. I have also seen history presentations given by using Photo Story. Photo Story is very user friendly and can be a great tool because it allows a teacher or student to create a photo collage to go along with a pre-recorded lecture. I have included a link below on how to use Photo Story in a Social Studies classroom. I like Photo Story because it allows teachers to create a great historical narrative. I also included a link for other ways to include technology with curriculum.

Links:

1. How to use Photo Story in a social studies classroom http://cnx.org/content/m19686/latest/


2. Technology Curriculum Integration Ideas http://www.berrienresa.org/classres/intideas.htm