Pen Pals Reflection Phase 2

1. Instructional Decisions/Teaching

During my lesson  what went really well as the use of Google Earth. I found that they enjoyed the idea of the pen pals but that they enjoyed using Google Earth to explore both familiar places as well as places abroad. Modifications I made during the lesson was encouraging my students to practice using Google Earth by looking up their houses back home. They really liked this because they were able to practice with the technology while making it so that they could personalize the lesson to themselves. 

2. Mechanics

The technologies I used were Microsoft Word and Google Earth. We all used these technologies during the lesson, me by modeling how to use Google Earth to find a location and my students used it to look up specific places. My lesson was within the correct time frame because my students had enough time to produce the work I wanted them to and also have enough time to explore using Google Earth. 

3. Assessment of Learning 

My students were all able to include the components of a friendly letter as well as including details about themselves. They were also able to use Google Earth to find areas in Dublin. I felt like this lesson was successful because my students were engaged and interested in what they were doing. The comments on my peer reflection support this because they said that they really enjoyed the lesson especially the Google Earth part and that this is a lesson that they would teach in their future classrooms. 

4. I learned a lot about the international resources out there for teachers while doing research for this lesson. There are so many different options out there for teachers who want to look for international relationships for themselves and students. By just doing some brief research to see what kind of pen pal options there are, there are many ways that a teacher could reach out and form a connection with an international source. In the future I will be sure to do research into what kind of options there are out there to enrich my lesson before settling on using what I know off the top of my head.