As a teacher candidate, I wish to use my extensive knowledge of technology to elevate my students' academic success, engagement and positive classroom environment. I walked into my Education 331 course ready to be humbled. I was instructed to teach the lesson from the book. John Dewey's ideas on Progressive Education were that "education should be child-centered, focusing on the interests and experiences of the students rather than a fixed curriculum" (Pappas, 2023). As a massive misconception, I was teaching the lesson content rather than teaching my students. This is a moment I will never forget. Students had difficulties relating to the material I was teaching about Siddhartha and Buddhism. I did have supplemental support while teaching this blended learning instructional method with technology and presentation on screen with the aids of my CANVA slides, a relevant animated video from YouTube with a short history of Siddhartha and the topics pertinent to our discussion, and eventually, my assessment, which was also using technology to advance student academic success, a Blooket, which is a competitive game that is based on critical thinking skills, this is interactive learning. On the spot, I had to find a way to bring the lesson to a place where the students could learn something relevant from the time I had with them. This quick formative assessment has become an effective tool. The culture was a massive barrier for the students in this class, so I had to connect to the content of Buddhism and Christianity, which they know.

 

One of the best practices I use is understanding that I have met the needs of the students, which is a research-based strategy for teaching students with behavior and learning problems to teach reading comprehension monitoring strategies (Bos & Vaughn, 2020, p. 238). Though it was not a reading class, this can apply to the intense reading and understanding of the text in this course. These needs are activating background knowledge, pre-teaching the vocab that we plan to use, generating questions, monitoring comprehension through seeking clarity and differentiation, clarification of misconceptions, using graphic organizers, finding the main ideas, summarizing, using the text structure like narratives and context for comprehension (Bos & Vaughn, 2020, p. 238). These strategies helped clear misconceptions and enhanced comprehension as I used them for related topics from my formative assessment of the situation to understand the student's needs for this class's lesson. Using my presentation, I have a Vien Diagram comparing subreligious groups. However, I should have compared Christianity and Buddhism, including similarities and differences, and discussed those as we did in the classroom. In the future, I will leave this diagram blank and use an apple pencil to fill it in as we discuss topics!

 

Buddhism believes in removing wants and desires to obtain victory over suffering. However, in my worksheet for our simulation, a formative assessment, the wants that many of my students listed were not luxuries; many were needs, and some put these needs over wants. The students that listed needs had low happiness scores; that is some data I pulled away from this, and the ones that wanted high wants, like fancy cars, were maxed out happiness. That shows me the effect of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is genuine, looking at the lowest tier, "The human body cannot function optimally if physiological needs are not satisfied" (Mcleod, 2023). In terms of these kids who want a restroom in their home, more pillows and blankets, a job, clothes and a family, it is not shocking to see that the environment has played a part in the role of their academic success.

 

I created my Summative Assessment in my Education 331 class using technology. This assessment was a Blooket with questions Based on the chapter. Unfortunately, the class did not have charged tablets, so they worked together. Unfortunately, this summative assessment was not as successful as expected; the students had difficulties agreeing that the teams were not the best solution. It is ideal to have charged tablets or devices for all students, which students were required to bring to class; there were eight students in this class. This would have been better with a test with text-to-speech for these students in an independent space with extended time to comprehend the questions, not a time skill-based challenged game. [QUIZZIZ instead of Blooket].