“The absolute most important skill that you learn when you play chess is how to make good decisions. On every single move you have to analyze a situation, process what your opponent is doing and evaluate the best move from amongst all your options.” – Maurice Ashley, Chess Grandmaster

I reference this quote because of a connection that I have made from chess to my decision making processes in lesson planning and utilization of resources and tools. Teaching is full of decisions and I believe the resources you ultimately decide to use have to make life easier. The tools that suit my style have to help me visualize concepts together and process information quickly.

On Academic Resources: I am grateful to the Clark Education Department and the teachers at University Park Campus School. They have provided me with a strong background in teaching strategies and the opportunity to apply them through the teaching practicum.

On Professional Resources:

When I started out teaching the senior environmental science class, I was referred to a number of resources for science teachers. The MAT before me at UPCS suggested I look to an A.P. Environmental Science website created by another teacher in Ohio. I looked to there and subscribed to the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Journals for Middle and Highschool. Google, YouTube and Ted Ed have become staples of my lesson planning research. What has changed most is in my approach. After my first rounds, I found that the lesson I pulled from NSTA was far too specialized and not accessible to my students. Since then, I make an effort to plan what I want the learning goals to be and then find content and activities to build the lesson from the bottom up. I am fortunate to have many peers who are voracious consumers of academic content on Youtube. Now I have  literally dozens of channels to peruse and seek out the right materials for my lessons.

On Personal Resources:

Scapple: Is an application that provides an unlimited canvas to brainstorm and create concept maps. I have used it to design lessons, draft out unit plans, create worksheets, display abstract concepts, describe food webs, carbon cycles, Punnett squares, evolution, and more. Brainstorming is one of the most powerful skills I learned growing up. This app is an incredibly handy tool to make that information visible to others.

Alfred: Is an application that makes your entire computer searchable by keyword. It makes it easy to pull up a file rather than having to search through  folders on my computer to remember where I left it. It basically adds search function that is specific to your computer. It can also be used for other reference aids like a dictionary, calculator, and email.

Procreate: Weird name aside, this app has been handy in rendering models of the projects I want students to create. Students at the middle school level struggle with visualization. This is particularly apparent with the abstract concepts we teach in science. This app makes it a lot easier and I can even export short time-lapse videos of the completed work.

Ted-Ed: This website has an abundance of videos on a large variety of topics, science included, with updated graphics that make it more relevant and current. The best part is that they are usually less than 5 minutes.

On Technology:

I am digitally literate and able to hold my own. I studied aspects of technology’s role in cultural communication and see how it can add value to professionals anywhere. One thing that surprised me is seeing that students can use smartphones fluently, but can barely type on computers. I quickly realized that technological prevalence does not correlate with proficiency across the board.

In finding out what does work, I’ve reflected on what takes the most time for me and constantly scrutinize resources to elicit their usefulness. I think, “Does the added utility require that you sacrifice agility in your teaching?” Front loading my lesson into slides and writing notes into the powerpoint slides has had multiple benefits. It has provided structure through routine, saved issues with formating, and is now a classroom resource. That didn’t require a new application, just a new way to use an existing one. I think the search for technological resources can be narrowed down once you reflect and figure out what your needs are as a teacher.

I have to weigh the use of additional technology with the value added to the classroom experience. Recently, I discovered an application that tracks attendance, creates groups, and randomly selects names. It has been really useful because it cures a lot of what I don’t like about planning, which is finding effective groups. Having it planned out automatically lets me see it in a way I work with well, which is in concept maps. It’s like staring at artwork and trying to digest it and find meaning.

Next Up: MA Teacher Professional Standards