Professional Standards for Michigan Teachers vs. Course Objectives

After reviewing the Professional Standards for Michigan Teachers, it is easy to see where a majority of our course objectives and assignments stem from. Beginning with the plagiarism essay, blogging and responding to each other’s blogs throughout the course and ending with a final presentation of a technological and non-technological lesson plan, quite a few of the technology professional standards will be covered upon the completion of the course. Other professional standards will have been accounted for as well however, for now, we will only be focusing on the technology standard.

Beginning with the first assignment where we had to intentionally plagiarize, we hit the very first technology standard up right away. Against any ethics that had been instilled into our personal agendas, the plagiarized paper opened up discussion on the importance of teaching proper citation from the beginning. Additionally, it taught us as educators, one way we may catch unethical students and their work. By utilizing this in a classroom setting (I am looking at the high school level), this would also lead to a great discussion on the legal ramifications of unethical decisions as well as the social, physical and psychological issues that may arise as well.

Upon reading the second technology standard, the blog assignment really stuck out in my mind as the key objective to fulfill this standard/requirement. With hopes that everyone will complete the course successfully, I think the online collaboration is great; especially since it is coming from peers with diversified backgrounds, experiences and educational goals. Sometimes getting that “outside” opinion can be more of an eye-opener than asking a peer that you work with repetitively.

Finally, part d requires that we “plan, design and evaluate an effective technology enhanced learning environment that aligns with the Michigan Content Standards”. I think it is fair to say that anyone successfully completing the 8-10 minute presentation along with the lesson plans will have easily met the requirement. In addition, we will have gained a useable lesson plan to take back to the classroom come fall!