Techsteps

Throughout the past few weeks, I have been doing TechSteps with second and third graders at Valley Elementary. Since I had never had the opportunity to do lesson, I was a little unsure of what to expect from the students. I have heard most of the teachers at the school discuss how difficult the lessons were for each level, and I had also sat in a PLC about the teachers need for a technology specialist at the school to aid in completed the required TechSteps lessons. I co-taught with another intern during the lessons. While one of us gave the instruction, the other walked around the lab to assist students. I understand that the issue with a lot of the teachers and TechSteps are that the teachers have not had a lot of experience with the technologies included in the lessons. Luckily, since Amber and I had a lot of experiences with the technologies included in the lessons, we were able to teach and assist the students. Both grades did a great job during our lab sessions, and I think the classroom teachers learned some things too! I don't know my opinion on the effectiveness of TechSteps, but I think that having students use technology is a great idea. Some of the lessons are definitely beyond the students, and I don't think they necessarily target skills that second and third grade students should be working on.