What a GAME plan I have, huh? When I first looked back over what I had written, my assessment was that my plan was too simplistic, not sophisticated enough. I have to admit, I rather felt ashamed I hadn’t come up with a more grandiose plan. However, my plan sets goals that I really want to accomplish, goals I truly believe I need to achieve for my students. That in mind, I returned to my plan to really think about the goals I had set and begin to study just how I am going to meet my goals. What resources would I need? Will I need to collaborate with anyone or call upon an expert or two? Do I need additional information? As I pondered these questions, I realized that my plan wasn’t so simple after all.
I realize that although I already have a class webpage, I still need some resources. Most likely, the resource that will best aid my plan is other teachers. I believe there are some other teachers here on my campus who have set up discussion boards and made these types of assignments recently. Not only should I look at their pages and see first-hand what they are doing and just how they have them set up, but I would benefit from information they can give me about their sites and their experiences. Some of the information I could get from these fellow educators would consist of their strategies of implementation and grading. How do they assign the discussions? Do they have to make groups, create log-ins or passwords? What sites are they using other than the site we host our classroom web pages? This information will help me make the decisions as I develop my assignments and get things set up on my webpage. I also think it would be good to gather information from my students. I will need to inquire about who has done a discussion post assignment before. I will also need to find out about internet access out of school. This information will help me as I determine the amount of time I give my students to complete the assignments. This same information from my students will be just as important as I develop lessons utilizing other items such as podcasts and video casts. I will also need to find out who has experience in using web design software. Finally, I will need to gather information about web design software that will be best to have my students use in my classroom. I will also need to make a contact with the web master at my high school so we can post our web pages my students make. I will need to investigate into the best way to post podcasts and video casts that my students can access on my campus. Basically, I have several contacts to make and a good bit of information to gather.
While I have really just begun, I have at least gotten started. All teachers in my district use the same site to create our individual web pages. I am sure our district does this to have some uniformity in the web pages and to make the links to our pages form the district’s and schools’ websites a bit easier to manage. I have already checked into what the capabilities are of this site where I have created my class page. I have learned that I can upload audio and video files to this my page on this site, so I should be able to have my students uploading podcasts and video casts without having to locate a site that can be accessed on our district server. I did learn, though, that while teachers are able to make their classroom pages here free (probably another reason our district has us using this host site), the free account has limited storage space. So, I went ahead and subscribed to have full storage capacity, which will accommodate audio and video files. I have also sent out requests by email to my colleagues on my campus to tell me about their discussion experiences. My next action will be to develop the groupings on my web page and set up the groups for a discussion board. I have quite a way to go, but I have gotten a start.
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Hi Wesley!
ReplyDeleteI think some of the best information we can get is from someone who has been in the same situation. A book can tell you what to do but a teacher that has worked through the quirks would be so much better! I am impressed by all the thought and planning you have put into your GAME plan. You have mentioned many questions that I’m sitting here thinking I need to do, too. I better start making myself a checklist! I don’t know anyone who has used blogs or individual class pages so I would need to check with the administration to determine what will be allowed. It seems that so many people are extremely cautious about what we should be allowed to use in terms of technology.
Like your school district, my district also allows teachers, groups, coaches, etc., to maintain a webpage. I would like to use this webpage for more than general information and homework assignments. Our text suggests preparing technical guidelines for students to help them create, or work with, a new technology (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). Do you think this is something you will try or will you wait to see which students have previous knowledge?
It does sound like you are on the right track with your GAME plan. Now that you know what answers to seek, your plans will probably start coming together more quickly. Good luck making it all happen!
Krista
6th grade
sci, soc stud, lit
Reference
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom
use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Wesley,
ReplyDeleteI believe your plan is very sophisticated as well as thoughtful and well planned out. You are trying to bring your students to the next level by making sure they possess the necessary 21st-century skills they will need in order to be successful outside of high school, and you are questioning yourself regarding the tactics you are using which is a sign of professional reflection.
I also like the fact that you are seeking help from colleagues and technology experts to further you education on integrating technology into your classroom. I used to belong to an in-school workshop called Literacy Lab (it has since been pulled due to lack of funding), but it was basically a way for many teacher from various content to study and share best practices. We used to have a sort of motto that stated “teaching is hard and nobody can do it alone.” You are proving this by seeking out help and taking the advise and/or best practices of others. That is a large step to learning new information. I also once heard that the best teachers steal from others. I tend to hold true to this creed because if I see one of my colleagues obtain a great lesson plan for something I am teaching, I will take that idea and make it my own, and these same teachers have taken some of my ideas as well. I think it is great that you are willing to reach out towards others for help because there are many teachers I know who are either embarrassed to ask for help or who do not want to rely on the opinion of others.
I wish you luck on your challenge of integrating technology. I have a feeling you will thrive in this aspect of teaching.
Regards,
Dustin
Wesley,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like there are already supports in place at your school that will add value and professional collaboration to accomplishing your goals. I'm jealous that your district has a site where you can create pages...I'm more accustomed to the part where you mentioned paying to upgrade your service and capabilities! That being said, I think it's important to remember that when setting goals it is not about sophistication; though I'm not sure who gets actual credit for the acronym, we all know that goals are meant to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) (Rohn, J., 2005). Learning about and implementing SMART goals has helped me to avoid shooting for the moon and settling for the stars - I pick that star and head there first! Some of my colleagues still tackle goals that are way too - sophisticated - and end up feeling like they've accomplished nothing more than wasting time and falling into a pit of frustration.
I appreciate goals that are do-able because along the way to actually accomplishing your task, you learn more about the process itself, as well as yourself as a learner. THAT, in my opinion, is very sophisticated!
Best of luck,
Melissa
References:
Rohn, J. (2005). S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Ezine Articles. www.ezinearticles.com. Retrieved November 20th from http://ezinearticles.com/?S.M.A.R.T.-Goals&id=11135
I thought I had posted my comment on Wednesday but when I came back to check on it it wasn't there....or I'm not seeing it! So, I reposted. :)
ReplyDeleteWesley,
ReplyDeleteImplementing technology in the classroom is something that will take time and also a lot of trial and error on your part. For instance, I recently made a video in Windows Movie Maker that consisted of various images that were discussed in my government class. At first, it was very frustrating because I literally had to teach myself. You can see that even educated minds do have to go through the learning process as well to be able to utilize and teach how to use the technology in the classroom.
As far as your goals are concerned, I think that you are well on your way. I like the fact that each teacher is creating their own web page for classroom use. Might I suggest a website that I have used in my classroom with great success: glogster.com. Through this website, students have the ability to create an online poster or collage. I like this because it forces students to use technology. The site is very easy to access and all students need to get started is an email address. They could use this site to create posters for books, perhaps some alternative book covers from the point of view of the student, or display an important scene in the book through visual art.
Good luck with everything.
Mike Palo
HS World History/American Government