Looking back...
As this course draws to a close, I look back at my own growth and development during the past eight weeks. When this course began, I knew I would get something from it, and was eager to see what this course had for me. Of course, once again, I was pleasantly surprised at just what I did gain from the weekly lessons. During the beginnings of this class, I thought I would find myself looking for ways to discuss things that I already do with technology in my class. It didn’t take long to see that I would do so much more than that. The development of the Content Are Unit Plan was so beneficial to me, providing me with knowledge and tools I will be using practically right away in my own classroom. Yet, the greatest learning for me came from the development of my GAME plan. Though I griped and grumbled to myself when I first read what we were assigned to do, I have to admit now that it was a great learning experience for me.
I can honestly say I believe I grew as a teacher developing my GAME plan. I set a goal for myself to develop an online location for discussion assignments for my students. While I have had my students writing responses to literature and other assignments, I have not had them doing so with technology nor have I had them doing any discussion amongst each other in the written form. I realize that I need to have my students communicating with each other in methods they will encounter in the technological society they will soon enter (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). My second goal I set for myself was to develop assignments in which I have my students create products that utilize Web 2.0 technologies and not just complete the same old paper and pencil work we’ve always assigned. As I developed this GAME plan, I did learn some things. First, I learned the real GAME plan process. Prior to this experience, I was always concerned about making plans for my students, never a GAME plan for me as the teacher. I have learned the importance of looking ahead at where exactly I want to go with my students and how I am going to get them there. I also learned that I don’t have to go out and find new tools to do some of these things I dream of doing with my students in the “ideal” world. I have learned that I can actually develop ways to do these things with the web site I already have going with my classes. I also learned to do more frequent evaluation and assessment of my own progress and goals. Because of some setbacks along the way with these goals, I had to do some evaluating and make some changes to my goals or at least my strategies. Turns out this took me to some new areas and caused me to develop some better things for my students.
During this course, I have come across some great new technological resources. I have learned form my colleagues about such sites as schoology.com, which I am still hoping to develop and use for my students. I have also learned about Ning. I am currently working with the principal over my department to help clear access to Ning so I can have my students use it. As for immediate adjustments, I am totally redesigning my current website to begin having my students turn in work electronically this next semester. I am also rewriting my syllabus with this in mind, so that when I get my new students January 4th, they will all know where I am going with this from the beginning. Another change is the incorporation of the lessons I developed during this course. I am actually going to change some of my assignments out that I have traditionally done with this next semester for ones I developed during this course. I also am very proud to say that from my constant comments and discussions I have made with my department and department’s principal, she has come to me with a proposal to look into and develop a network for our English classes with PD360.com. I am so thankful my experiences in this class are taking me to this point of bettering my teaching, my classroom lessons and assignments, and being a part of the leadership for my department and district.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Using my GAME plan with my students
Week 7 - Taking it all in...
I almost feel that I have dropped the ball here. I have been really pushing myself to stay on top of things during this course. I knew I would have to because of the amount I was tackling this school year and the time of semester this course would be taking place. I was feeling pretty good about myself then realized as I was finishing my lesson plans I have to have turned in to my principal by 8 tomorrow morning, I forgot to do my blog for this week. I guess I just let myself get buried under the piles of grading along with finishing up a novel unit and preparing for final exams I will be giving Tuesday and Wednesday.
So, here I sit looking over my GAME plan. As I do, I feel that I have made some real progress toward fulfilling these goals. If anything, I have done some real research. I learned about some tools such as schoology.com and Ning. I have discovered the importance of making this effort to find ways to help my students become more engaged and gain more ownership into the content and the lesssons.
I worry that I took a major setback with the schoology site. I have high aspirations for what I want to do with this site. I set up an account with schoology planning to use this site for educational networking with my students. I hoped to perhaps even have them use the site as a place to create facebook-like pages for characters in novels we study. This might happen but I wasn’t able to give it the attention I need to. By the time I got my account set up, I got bogged down with some things in my classroom and the schoology site took a back seat. My last day for this semester is Thursday, the 23rd, so I am hoping to do some work on it while I’m out and perhaps have some things ready when I get my new students on January 4th. As for Ning, this site may also be a real place for me to do just what I was describing, but Ning is currently blocked from on my district’s network. I have requested the block be removed but so far, I have been told it can’t because the term “social networking” is part of the description of the site.
As I said, I have ideas that may have partially been there before beginning this GAME plan, but have been really thought through and even taken root. While I would have liked to have gotten much further, I do believe the beginnings have taken place and I will only go further toward fulfilling my goals.
I almost feel that I have dropped the ball here. I have been really pushing myself to stay on top of things during this course. I knew I would have to because of the amount I was tackling this school year and the time of semester this course would be taking place. I was feeling pretty good about myself then realized as I was finishing my lesson plans I have to have turned in to my principal by 8 tomorrow morning, I forgot to do my blog for this week. I guess I just let myself get buried under the piles of grading along with finishing up a novel unit and preparing for final exams I will be giving Tuesday and Wednesday.
So, here I sit looking over my GAME plan. As I do, I feel that I have made some real progress toward fulfilling these goals. If anything, I have done some real research. I learned about some tools such as schoology.com and Ning. I have discovered the importance of making this effort to find ways to help my students become more engaged and gain more ownership into the content and the lesssons.
I worry that I took a major setback with the schoology site. I have high aspirations for what I want to do with this site. I set up an account with schoology planning to use this site for educational networking with my students. I hoped to perhaps even have them use the site as a place to create facebook-like pages for characters in novels we study. This might happen but I wasn’t able to give it the attention I need to. By the time I got my account set up, I got bogged down with some things in my classroom and the schoology site took a back seat. My last day for this semester is Thursday, the 23rd, so I am hoping to do some work on it while I’m out and perhaps have some things ready when I get my new students on January 4th. As for Ning, this site may also be a real place for me to do just what I was describing, but Ning is currently blocked from on my district’s network. I have requested the block be removed but so far, I have been told it can’t because the term “social networking” is part of the description of the site.
As I said, I have ideas that may have partially been there before beginning this GAME plan, but have been really thought through and even taken root. While I would have liked to have gotten much further, I do believe the beginnings have taken place and I will only go further toward fulfilling my goals.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Back to the drawing board - Revising my GAME plan
If I learn anything during this when it comes to technology, it is that for all I think I know, I am constantly finding more I don’t know and more I need to learn. I have already learned so much by developing my GAME plan. I have definitely learned as I have been working with my GAME plan that I need to view my lessons with scope. In the past, I often viewed my lessons and assignments singularly. This has already taught me to look at how I can have several assignments layered, building upon what I have my students to learn.
In last week’s blog, I mentioned turning my attention to developing a schoology page on which I could have my students create mock “facebook” pages. I am still working on this. I did run into some obstacles, but I am getting back up. My first obstacle was getting my account verified. Seems the email was not getting to me because of my district’s filter. I did start playing with this concept once I finally got the account verified, but just as I got my class started up, I ran into some deadline issues with our yearbook and I must admit, my schoology page took a back seat.
While this could seem poor time-management on my part or at the least just an unfortunate postponement, I think it may be working for the best. I had not really looked ahead and so I have just this week learned about Ning. Ning will allow my students to blog, upload files and images to enhance their posts, and communicate safely with each other and their teachers during assignments (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). This may be something else I can try out to get my students to doing some social networking with assignments. It’s funny how this stuff comes around. I have been thinking and trying to develop some incorporating of social networking into my lessons for some time now. I wrote about it in our last course. I have thought I was kind of stepping out there with the idea, then discover we have a lesson on it and even an application involving it. This is something I am really determined to use. I am even more excited about is my need to pause with schoology gave me the chance to discover a “facebook” template just yesterday. I was in a meeting and mentioned what I was doing or rather wanting to do with social networking and pointed out that, of course, I can’t get my students actually on facebook in my class (the site is blocked from our district’s network) so I was trying to come up with an alternative. That’s when the A.P. coordinator in our meeting said she had a template she could send me. I got it today and am already trying to decide how this could work for my goal.
As I get my new students in January with the next semester, I want to take this goal even a step further. I want to actually use blogging, wikis, and even social networking as methods of turning work in that would have traditionally been done by the old paper-and-pencil method. I believe this will not only bring my teaching more in line with 21st century methods but also generate more interest for my students.
Looking forward beyond even the next semester, I want to set another goal for myself. I would like to begin to “communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats” (ISTE, 2008). I would like to begin communicating with my student via digital methods from texting to discussion posts online. I would like to make regular posts on my class web page for parents. I would like to do these in blog format so they can reply to me. I would also like to begin attaching video and audio casts to these blog posts as well, bringing parents into my classroom. I also think I could go further and have students doing similarly to teach each other. This goal is far more reaching and would take a great deal of time to achieve, but I really think it is where I would like to go next.
References:
ISTE. (2008). The ISTE NETS and performance indicators for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Davis, P. (Speaker). Spotlight on Technology: Social Networking and Online Collaboration, Part 1. [DVD]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD.
In last week’s blog, I mentioned turning my attention to developing a schoology page on which I could have my students create mock “facebook” pages. I am still working on this. I did run into some obstacles, but I am getting back up. My first obstacle was getting my account verified. Seems the email was not getting to me because of my district’s filter. I did start playing with this concept once I finally got the account verified, but just as I got my class started up, I ran into some deadline issues with our yearbook and I must admit, my schoology page took a back seat.
While this could seem poor time-management on my part or at the least just an unfortunate postponement, I think it may be working for the best. I had not really looked ahead and so I have just this week learned about Ning. Ning will allow my students to blog, upload files and images to enhance their posts, and communicate safely with each other and their teachers during assignments (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). This may be something else I can try out to get my students to doing some social networking with assignments. It’s funny how this stuff comes around. I have been thinking and trying to develop some incorporating of social networking into my lessons for some time now. I wrote about it in our last course. I have thought I was kind of stepping out there with the idea, then discover we have a lesson on it and even an application involving it. This is something I am really determined to use. I am even more excited about is my need to pause with schoology gave me the chance to discover a “facebook” template just yesterday. I was in a meeting and mentioned what I was doing or rather wanting to do with social networking and pointed out that, of course, I can’t get my students actually on facebook in my class (the site is blocked from our district’s network) so I was trying to come up with an alternative. That’s when the A.P. coordinator in our meeting said she had a template she could send me. I got it today and am already trying to decide how this could work for my goal.
As I get my new students in January with the next semester, I want to take this goal even a step further. I want to actually use blogging, wikis, and even social networking as methods of turning work in that would have traditionally been done by the old paper-and-pencil method. I believe this will not only bring my teaching more in line with 21st century methods but also generate more interest for my students.
Looking forward beyond even the next semester, I want to set another goal for myself. I would like to begin to “communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats” (ISTE, 2008). I would like to begin communicating with my student via digital methods from texting to discussion posts online. I would like to make regular posts on my class web page for parents. I would like to do these in blog format so they can reply to me. I would also like to begin attaching video and audio casts to these blog posts as well, bringing parents into my classroom. I also think I could go further and have students doing similarly to teach each other. This goal is far more reaching and would take a great deal of time to achieve, but I really think it is where I would like to go next.
References:
ISTE. (2008). The ISTE NETS and performance indicators for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Davis, P. (Speaker). Spotlight on Technology: Social Networking and Online Collaboration, Part 1. [DVD]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good
Evaluating my GAME plan progress - week 5
Isn’t it interesting how things seem to come around in cycles? A week ago as I paused to evaluate my progress thus far, I had taken some steps, small steps mind you, but steps nonetheless toward my first goal of having my students participate in on-line discussions as we read a work of literature. However, I had not really done anything of any significance with my second goal beyond some research. Well, a week later, it seems I am now getting somewhere with my second goal.
My second goal is to design and develop assessments for digital-age lessons that assist my students to make real-world connections with 21st century technologies (ISTE, 2008). I have several things in mind I would like to learn to incorporate into my lessons. The last two weeks, my thoughts have been focused on learning to have my students produce pod casts and video casts. While this is something I would really like to work toward and have real plans for such, I need to also be looking into other methods of getting my students using technology in my lessons. It just so happens that one of the assignments I have been dabbling with and have tried a few variations of is an assessment I conduct as I conclude my lesson on indirect characterization. As I have been working the past week, I have had the epiphany to develop this lesson with a technology-based assessment. I had some ideas skulking about in my head but I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Then, as fate would have it, I read Melissa’s week 4 blog, in which she discussed her use of Schoology (Provost, 2010). I had to go check out the site. While looking it over, it occurred to me that this site might just prove to work for me as a place to have my students create “mock” facebook pages for characters in the novel we are reading. I could feel the ideas ricocheting about in my head. This has potential.
While I’m not there yet, I started just this Monday with my fourth block students on Schoology. I am basically using them as a trial run with this, a test drive. It may not be the final version of this assignment, but this will definitely be a big step toward my goal. I’m sure I’ll have to make adjustments but I think I’m on to something here. I’ll definitely let you guys know how it goes.
p.s. Thanks Melissa!!!
References:
ISTE. (2008). The ISTE NETS and performance indicators for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved
from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx
Provost, M. (2010). Monitoring my game plan progress. [blog]. Retrieved from http://mprovost.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/monitoring-my-game-plan-progress-week-4/ on November 27, 2010.
Isn’t it interesting how things seem to come around in cycles? A week ago as I paused to evaluate my progress thus far, I had taken some steps, small steps mind you, but steps nonetheless toward my first goal of having my students participate in on-line discussions as we read a work of literature. However, I had not really done anything of any significance with my second goal beyond some research. Well, a week later, it seems I am now getting somewhere with my second goal.
My second goal is to design and develop assessments for digital-age lessons that assist my students to make real-world connections with 21st century technologies (ISTE, 2008). I have several things in mind I would like to learn to incorporate into my lessons. The last two weeks, my thoughts have been focused on learning to have my students produce pod casts and video casts. While this is something I would really like to work toward and have real plans for such, I need to also be looking into other methods of getting my students using technology in my lessons. It just so happens that one of the assignments I have been dabbling with and have tried a few variations of is an assessment I conduct as I conclude my lesson on indirect characterization. As I have been working the past week, I have had the epiphany to develop this lesson with a technology-based assessment. I had some ideas skulking about in my head but I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Then, as fate would have it, I read Melissa’s week 4 blog, in which she discussed her use of Schoology (Provost, 2010). I had to go check out the site. While looking it over, it occurred to me that this site might just prove to work for me as a place to have my students create “mock” facebook pages for characters in the novel we are reading. I could feel the ideas ricocheting about in my head. This has potential.
While I’m not there yet, I started just this Monday with my fourth block students on Schoology. I am basically using them as a trial run with this, a test drive. It may not be the final version of this assignment, but this will definitely be a big step toward my goal. I’m sure I’ll have to make adjustments but I think I’m on to something here. I’ll definitely let you guys know how it goes.
p.s. Thanks Melissa!!!
References:
ISTE. (2008). The ISTE NETS and performance indicators for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved
from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx
Provost, M. (2010). Monitoring my game plan progress. [blog]. Retrieved from http://mprovost.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/monitoring-my-game-plan-progress-week-4/ on November 27, 2010.
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