Integration: How and Why?

Integration is the act of bringing smaller components in to make a large unit. How does that look in my classroom? All of the subjects I will be teaching to my Kindergarteners may have a connection and it's my job to make them aware of those connections so they can see them and apply them to better their knowledge of that subject or topic. My moment of learning this week was that it is my responsibility to make sure my students see and understand the connections of all the subjects they are being taught because this will make them better students because they can have a sense of confidence in knowing a topic already. 

This is important to us as educators because they are teacher candidate standards that require us to integrate. Such as, teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines and teachers integrate and utilize technology in their instruction. Both of these standards expect us to be able to make connections for our students through the various subjects and make our students aware of the resources they have around them that can be utilized. 

In my future classroom I plan on making the connections between the subjects as often as possible if that connection makes the subject easier to understand. I never want to confuse my students even more, so if there is a word used in two different subjects that means the complete opposite, I will probably stay away from using that connection because if it doesn't better their learning then I don't want to use it. I learned why I needed to incorporate integration in my classroom, but I wanted specific strategies I could use to ensure this was being done efficiently. These are a few ways I found in relation to integrating technology into my lesson plans: 

- Fuzzy image: Have only a portion of an object on the screen or zoom in to where the image is fuzzy and have the students guess what the image is as a hook for the lesson plan

- Slide for each day: After the lesson each day, the students add to a powerpoint slide their takeaway from that lesson so at the end of a unit there is a collaborative student piece that shows what the students have learned

- Lyric/Music video: Have the students take a song they like and change the lyrics around to fit the lesson

https://www.powtoon.com/blog/13-simple-ways-integrate-technology-lesson-plan/