Natalie B. Milman: ATE Standard 1

Standard #1: Model professional teaching practices that demonstrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes reflecting the best available practices in teacher education.

Introduction | Standard #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 |

Artifact - Course Syllabi

The George Washington University, (2001 - present)

EDUC, 231, Educational Hardware Systems (Fall, 2001 - 2002)
TRED 220, Educational Technology and Computing Literacy Methods, (Fall, 2001 -2002)
EDUC 220ti, Digital Teaching Portfolios (Spring, 2002) (also see student portfolios)
TRED 207, Teaching & Learning II (Summer, 2002)

Reflective Statement

Describe: These course syllabi demonstrate the different kinds of technology courses I have taught to both teacher candidates and inservice teachers at The George Washington University. I developed two of the courses from scratch (TRED 229, EDUC 220ti) and redesigned another (EDUC 231). EDUC 231 is a course that contains a great deal of technical content (about networking) whereas TRED 220 is one that requires both application knowledge about using technology, as well as pedagogical knowledge about integrating technology in schools. In TRED 207 I taught both the theory and application of the models of teaching and classroom management. Although it is not a technology course, I incorporated technology in meaningful ways. For example, students learned concept mapping as a way to design a unit of instruction.

Analyze: My course syllabi are good indicators of what I love to do: teach. They also show how I pace and break down material on a weekly basis, connecting weekly content to outside resources available on the World Wide Web or downloadable from the course site. I believe that these syllabi show the depth and breadth of my work with helping teachers and other technology leaders integrate technology and more importantly, reflect on their work. The majority of the assignments are performance-based in which students develop lessons or web-based content that show how they might teach their own or their future students how to use technology for meaningful learning. Also, I like to incorporate peer review and collaboration so that students are challenged by their peers too.

Appraise: Developing courses that are interesting, challenging, and paced just right is tough! However, I believe that I do a pretty good job in general of adapting to the needs of my students. Teaching students with varying levels of technology expertise and background is also very challenging. In the technology courses that I have taught, students always have varying technical skills ranging from basic word processing to computer programming skills. Also, there tends to be a mix of experienced and beginning teachers. That is one reason why I incorporate collaborative assignments and peer review--we have so much more to learn from one another.

Transform: Teaching in the field of educational technology is very challenging because it is a field driven by innovation, which in turn often influences and changes or creates new educational theory. This continual change requires constant training and upgrading of skills, as well as research so it seems that I am always learning something new or trying to catch up with the latest technology. In part, this is one reason why I chose this field--I knew I would never get bored as the field is always in transformation. As such, I know I must continually adapt and change my courses to meet the needs of my students. Also, I believe it is imperative that I provide links that work and contain the most up-to-the date information. However, I also recognize that keeping abreast of the research and resources in an ever changing field is a daunting task. So, I need to remind myself to take it one step at a time, "un pasito a la vez" as I work towards incorporating and modeling best practices in my teaching.

Introduction | Standard #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 |

This page was last updated December 1, 2002 12:06 PM