Kelley Hicks

Education 2201

TPACK Assignment

1. What are the major themes or ideas in your content discipline? If you are elementary education, frame your answer around any (2) of the following language arts, math, or science?

The major themes in my content discipline are language arts and science. As a teacher, I will have to teach my subjects based off of the WV Content Standards. I think the standards are very useful because they allow you to know what your students need to be taught, but they do not tell you how to teach that particular content. There are also National Standards that are required as well. I feel like this is something that is very useful because all students regardless of where they live are learning the same things depending on their grade level. My mom moved around a lot when she was in elementary school because my grandpa was in the army. This caused her to be very behind going from state to state. At least students are now learning the same concepts at the same grade level.

2. Does your content discipline(s) rely on specific processes for developing the key themes or ideas?

Yes, my content disciplines rely on specific processes for developing the key themes. In Language Arts, you first learn how to recognize sounds. Then you learn how to recognize site words. From there on, you learn how to read and you also have to learn the specific parts of a sentence, such as the subject, verb, noun, and so on. In Science, you start out with the basics, such as living and nonliving things, and then you move on to more complex things such as chemistry. I think this is another reason why the WV Content Standards are so useful and important because it allows us teachers to make sure our students are ready for the next grade level. All students should master everything on the Content Standards in order to move on to the next grade level. It is very important to teach everything on the Content Standards so they we know our students will succeed the next year. I think it would be very difficult without the Content Standards because some students would have previous knowledge of certain things and other students would not, depending on the teacher they had the previous year.

3. How much of what you know is dependent on the way you learned your subject(s)?

I feel like a lot of what I know is very dependent on the way I learned my subjects. Past knowledge is always helpful, no matter what you are learning. It would be very hard to learn a subject without any knowledge at all about it. This is why I feel like it is very important for teachers to refresh their student’s brains in a specific subject. If you are going to teach about nouns, you should first go back over the other parts of the sentences the students have already learned. This is very important, because you don’t want your students to just memorize something for the time being and then forget about it later on in the school year. I think it is very important to have several different teaching techniques so that you know every single one of your students completely understand everything. Not all students learn the same way, and I think that is a very important concept teachers should understand.

4.  Do you think in terms of content by chapters in a textbook or do you think in terms of your content as an integrated whole?

I think of terms in my content as an integrated whole. No one learns from a text book. Yes, I think text books are very helpful, but not all students can read and truly understand something from a text book. Students need hands on activities and also different approaches to learning. You cannot expect to teach everything from the Content Standards out of a text book. I think a good teacher has many different resources for their classroom. There is a lot of good resources on the computer, which I know needs to be monitored to make sure my students are not getting onto anything other than the site they are supposed to be on. Also, you may not want to teach everything that is in a text book. No matter how good a book may be, there will always be something that may not necessarily belong in that book. I also know that a lot of text books jump around from one thing to another, and do not really go in order. I think I will use my text book as much as possible, but I will not rely solely on my text book to teach my students.

5. Does your knowledge of this discipline represent an integration of the concepts that connect them? What are the concepts and what connects them?

Yes, my knowledge of this discipline represents an integration of the concepts that connect them. If I did not have a lot of knowledge of my content area, then I may teach my students the wrong thing. For example, if I did not truly understand the parts of a sentence, I may teach my students the wrong parts. I may teach them the entire year the wrong thing, and then when they move on to the next grade, they would have to learn all over again, which would probably be very difficult. Students need to realize that all subjects connect with each other. In Language Arts, you learn how to read. You will read everything for the rest of your life, no matter what job profession you seek when you are older. In science, you learn how to measure things. This, you will use for the rest of your life. You have to use measuring cups in order to cook. In math, no matter what you do in life; you will have to use mathematics. For example, everyone will eventually have to balance a checkbook. I think it is very important for students to understand this connection, because some students become very frustrated and think they are never going to use this is real life. However, just about everything you learn in school, you use later on in life.

6. Describe your TP. Based upon your experiences including this class, how does technology relate to your teaching? Be specific in delineating how emerging technologies including web 2.0 will impact your TP.

So far, I have do not have much experience in my TP. I have had one clinical, and in my clinical I did not use any technology at all. I went in the afternoons, and my teacher did not use any technology either. I have been in certain classes at Fairmont State that have used the smart board, but I have never been given the opportunity to use it. After taking this class, I have learned so many different ideas as to how to integrate technology in my classroom. I think there are so many different programs to use on the computer that allows students to be creative and to gain a lot of factual knowledge on their own. This allows students to not only learn at school, but to also go home and keep on learning. When students are having fun, they don’t realize how much they are actually learning. These technologies that I have learned will impact my TP because it has given me the opportunity to learn about different programs I can use in my classroom. Before taking this class, the only thing I ever used was Microsoft. I know how of Google Docs and Prezi, to just name a few. I also only knew of Internet Explorer, and I now know that there are many different internet sources, and I have now switched to Google Chrome.

7. Describe your CK. Based upon your experiences including this class, how does technology assist you in representing central concepts in your content area knowledge.

I feel like I would be able to teach Language Arts the best. I have the most knowledge in Language Arts, which is very important. Like I said earlier, if a teacher does not have a lot of knowledge in a particular area, then they may teach their students wrong. Technology helps a lot in assisting me in teaching Language Arts. There are so many things you can do with your students on the computer that allows them to have fun, but learn as well. I think that is the most important thing a teacher can do, is to make sure their students are enjoying learning. If a student becomes bored at an early age, they are more likely to not like school. I want my students to be eager to learn, which is why I will include technology in my classroom as much as I can. I know that it will all depend on the resources that my school has, but I hope to be able to involve technology every single day. I can remember being very excited to have computer class in elementary school. I only had it once a week and that was the only opportunity I had to be on the computer. There are so many different things you can do with your students, such as having them do a presentation on a particular story for example. This allows them to be creative, and to teach themselves their own way.

8. Are there content specific professional organizations that can help you? What are they? Which organizations do you belong to?

There are many different content specific professional organizations that can help me out a lot. There is the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), The Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA), and the International Reading Association (IRA). These are just a few, there are many out there. I do not belong to any of them, but I plan on joining when I become a teacher. I really like the IRA and will definitely join that organization. I find it to be very helpful, which I’m sure they all are, I am just not very familiar with them.