As this course and the year comes to a close we can relflect on our GAME plans and the other new insights that we can take away from our Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas class. To start, the GAME plan that I developed early in this course has been very successful. I've maintained my goal of integrating one online networking lesson and one lesson that offers several technology choices every month. I will continue to work towards meeting this goal with the rest of this school year.
The one thing that I really am taking away from putting this plan together is how effective the process is. Setting goals, actions, monitoring, and evaluation are the simple steps that I can follow for integrating new plans and goals in and out of the classroom. I'm really hoping to keep up my current plan and continue it next year while integrating a third goal of maintaining a full featured class website, following the GAME plan strategy.
In regards to technology integration,creating a unit plan in this course is something that I was happy to create, because I knew it was something I could actually use. For that reason I'm looking forward to hopefully putting it into play next month and seeing how these technology rich lessons work with students.
I've gotten a lot from communicating with peers and gotten the most from communicating in our discussion board. Hearing about classmates PBL and social networking learning ideas really gave me some inspirations for ways to include similar ideas in my 4th grade class. I'm looking forward to my last two Walden courses and the rest of this school year to put these ideas and everything else I've been picking up from Walden courses into practice. I'm also hoping to apply for a new position as a tech advisor with this completed degree, so I should probably follow the GAME plan model to make that a reality.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Using the GAME plan Process with Students
This week we've looking at digital storytelling and that is just one of the activities I am trying to include in my GAME plan to better meet the needs of my students. After looking at the ISTE NETS for students I can think about how they connect to my GAME plan and what I can do to better reach those technology goals.
The two main goals for my plan have been to add more online collaborative experiences and experiences that give students technology choices for how they want to complete assignments. With that in mind the first thing that jumped out from the technology standards was communication and collaboration. Much of the details of that standard matched closely with my own goal of incorporating more collaborative projects.
One technology standard that I saw that I want to work with in my GAME plan is research and information fluency. In elementary school conducting research on the internet can be challenging because of the various levels of experience with computers and the internet. However I want to work more on including these skills with my GAME plan goals so that all students can be prepared for middle school when they will be starting to do more online research. If any teachers have some ideas or projects for students who might just be starting out with research and online inquiry that would be greatly appreciated.
The last technology standard that I am hoping to incorporate more in my GAME plan and classroom is Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making. I especially think this is important at the 4th grade level because they are shifting from the stage of being given instruction and following it to really starting think on their own about what they want and how they can go about getting it. So with my collaborative and choices goals I am hoping that those assignments can have added levels of inquiry and open ended expectations. Any ideas for making this happen with my group of 4th graders would also be greatly appreciated.
Next week is our last week so I wanted to say thank you to all the other teachers who have given me a lot of grade ideas. Taking these courses online gives us the unique opportunity to connect in ways that a normal classroom doesn't provide. I hope that some of these connections continue for future courses and long careers as quality educators.
The two main goals for my plan have been to add more online collaborative experiences and experiences that give students technology choices for how they want to complete assignments. With that in mind the first thing that jumped out from the technology standards was communication and collaboration. Much of the details of that standard matched closely with my own goal of incorporating more collaborative projects.
One technology standard that I saw that I want to work with in my GAME plan is research and information fluency. In elementary school conducting research on the internet can be challenging because of the various levels of experience with computers and the internet. However I want to work more on including these skills with my GAME plan goals so that all students can be prepared for middle school when they will be starting to do more online research. If any teachers have some ideas or projects for students who might just be starting out with research and online inquiry that would be greatly appreciated.
The last technology standard that I am hoping to incorporate more in my GAME plan and classroom is Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making. I especially think this is important at the 4th grade level because they are shifting from the stage of being given instruction and following it to really starting think on their own about what they want and how they can go about getting it. So with my collaborative and choices goals I am hoping that those assignments can have added levels of inquiry and open ended expectations. Any ideas for making this happen with my group of 4th graders would also be greatly appreciated.
Next week is our last week so I wanted to say thank you to all the other teachers who have given me a lot of grade ideas. Taking these courses online gives us the unique opportunity to connect in ways that a normal classroom doesn't provide. I hope that some of these connections continue for future courses and long careers as quality educators.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Revising My Game Plan
Throughout our Walden Course we have been picking up a lot of great ideas and insights from our resources and communicating with other teachers in blogs and discussions. I've been working these new ideas into my own GAME plan and I think that it has really made a difference in providing a better quality of education in my classroom. Some of the ideas that I have implemented or plan on implementing is a podcast assignment and an overhaul of my classroom website so that it is a communication portal for my students.
I am still working towards my GAME plan goals of implementing one online collaborative assignment and one assignment that gives students several technology options to complete. I have been successful so far and I would really like to stay on top of my plan as this Walden course wraps up.
Looking at the NETS for teachers I think I would like to expand my goals to work more towards the 6th technology standard of social, ethical, and human issues. I feel that I should be teaching and modeling a lot more of the proper and ethical ways for using the internet so that my younger students start on the right foot to use the internet safely and with purpose.
I think the key to continuing to work towards goals and developing new goals is to communicate with other technology savvy teachers to borrow ideas and clarify our own thinking. I'm planning on continuing to take ideas from teachers in my Walden courses, other employees in my building, and other teachers that I have met and connected with online.
If any other Walden teachers know of a good place to network with other teachers who integrate technology in the classroom please share and enjoy the rest of this week.
I am still working towards my GAME plan goals of implementing one online collaborative assignment and one assignment that gives students several technology options to complete. I have been successful so far and I would really like to stay on top of my plan as this Walden course wraps up.
Looking at the NETS for teachers I think I would like to expand my goals to work more towards the 6th technology standard of social, ethical, and human issues. I feel that I should be teaching and modeling a lot more of the proper and ethical ways for using the internet so that my younger students start on the right foot to use the internet safely and with purpose.
I think the key to continuing to work towards goals and developing new goals is to communicate with other technology savvy teachers to borrow ideas and clarify our own thinking. I'm planning on continuing to take ideas from teachers in my Walden courses, other employees in my building, and other teachers that I have met and connected with online.
If any other Walden teachers know of a good place to network with other teachers who integrate technology in the classroom please share and enjoy the rest of this week.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Evaluating my GAME Plan- Week 5
How effective were your actions in helping to meet your goals?
Things have been going well. I really worked hard this week to meet my 2nd goal of offering students choices and catering lessons to individuals by giving them several options for our poetry unit. The challenge was explaining each type of poetry for the students to choose from. This was really time consuming and I might re-evaluate how I explain the choices if I use this strategy in the future.
What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
I've learned that it giving students options means more time needs to be set aside to explain each option and give students choices. This is an adjustment that I needed to make so that I could delegate enough time for students to then work on there projects, which this week was poetry.
What do you still have to learn?
I would like to organize a wikipage for my Washington State social studies unit. I can remember learning about a good place to set up a wikipage from early in my Walden coursework, but can not recall. If anyone can remember or can recommend a appropriate site for organizing a wikipage I would appreciate it. I will do some research and see what I can come up with as well.
How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?
I am going to continue to implement my goals, but I need to start organizing time better. Since I teach elementary school I divide the day by subjects so I am lucky that I can plan to delegate more time on certain days for projects that require this. When I am looking at implementing strategies and technology this is something that I want to make sure I take into consideration for the future.
Things have been going well. I really worked hard this week to meet my 2nd goal of offering students choices and catering lessons to individuals by giving them several options for our poetry unit. The challenge was explaining each type of poetry for the students to choose from. This was really time consuming and I might re-evaluate how I explain the choices if I use this strategy in the future.
What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
I've learned that it giving students options means more time needs to be set aside to explain each option and give students choices. This is an adjustment that I needed to make so that I could delegate enough time for students to then work on there projects, which this week was poetry.
What do you still have to learn?
I would like to organize a wikipage for my Washington State social studies unit. I can remember learning about a good place to set up a wikipage from early in my Walden coursework, but can not recall. If anyone can remember or can recommend a appropriate site for organizing a wikipage I would appreciate it. I will do some research and see what I can come up with as well.
How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?
I am going to continue to implement my goals, but I need to start organizing time better. Since I teach elementary school I divide the day by subjects so I am lucky that I can plan to delegate more time on certain days for projects that require this. When I am looking at implementing strategies and technology this is something that I want to make sure I take into consideration for the future.
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