Connecting with Nature

 

Exploring Our Senses With Nature 

When I observe students, I notice how much they use technology. Almost all students nowadays have their own phone, computer, tablet, or some form of technology. We live in a technological era, where almost most things are incorporated through technology. This lesson plan is where we leave the technology in the classroom and we go outside and explore the outdoors. I based my lesson plan around grade one and senses. Where students are exploring and experimenting with how they use their senses out in nature. I decided not to make this lesson plan based on technology because I feel the point of incorporating nature is to take a break from technology. Now, I understand that with COVID, many lessons are being facilitated through an online setting. This lesson would be very easy to change to allow for online learning. As a teacher, you could share your screen to show the video and explain the activity. Students could go outside alone and still make connections around the house. If a student could not go outside, there are online games that can aid with the lesson. You can use this lesson at any time of the year, you could also use it multiple times to compare how our senses change throughout the seasons. 

Virtual Tour of Banff

 

Banff Virtual Tour 

It is amazing to see what we can do with technology nowadays. I never would have thought about making a virtual field trip to engage students in their learning. I chose Banff and surrounding points of interest. I love the mountains and nature, and all that it has to offer. I decided to use different outcomes from different subjects and grades to show that you can incorporate a wide variety of learning outcomes with a trip to Banff.   

In the future, I plan to use virtual field trips to engage students with their different learning experiences. With the virtual tours, I can explore the world with students, experiencing places that we would not be able to visit with a normal school field trip. I also think this is an amazing way to assess students. Students could create their own virtual tour to aid in their learning with history or science, making real-life connections. 

Prodigy for Learning

 

Lesson Plan for Prodigy 

Prodigy is an amazing online resource for students, as well for teachers. It is a free online website that allows students to create a wizard. They are using these wizards to battle monsters by answering math questions based on their learning level. As a teacher, this is an amazing website that allows you to assign certain questions, based on what the students are learning in the classroom. Prodigy is great for differentiation because you can assign each student different questions and you can choose different levels. That way students are not struggling, and you can assign questions to aid in their learning. 

What Worked:

When teaching the lesson, we were able to share the screen well. We also created a login for everyone and that fortunately worked really well. I know in a classroom or with many students, there will be hiccups with the logins. I recommend being patient on the first day as all the students get logged in, and to give them a minimum of 10 minutes to set up their characters and go through the tutorial. 

 What Challenges Did I Encounter? 

During this particular lesson plan, the largest challenge that I encountered was the time restraint. I feel that I would have been able to go more into detail with the students if we were not limited to 10 minutes. As well, I can tell the students were feeling pressured. 

Lessons Learned for The Future: 

In general, from the classroom, I learned that there are so many online resources that can assist students and teachers to improve the learning experience. 

How I Will Use Prodigy In the Future: 

I already use prodigy every day for my own students, I love watching them progress and not get stressed about doing math. In my own classroom, I will 100% continue using it as an assessment tool and as an aid for students. I have seen how students with extreme math anxiety play this app and they are so lost in the game that they don't even notice that they are completing math questions.