Reflection
Of course, I have always been aware that all my students are different. It usually only takes me a couple of days with my new students for the semester to begin to recognize the differences in them. Some of them are very quiet and may take quite some time to get comfortable with saying anything aloud in class, while other are very vocal from the start. At the same time, I have also realized my students learn and perform differently (Bray, Brown, & Green, 2004). However, I must confess I have been very weak in understanding just how to properly identify these differences timely and develop my classroom instruction and assignments keeping these differences in mind (Bray, Brown, & Green, 2004). Through this course, I have come to realize ways to do just that. I have discovered methods and practices I will be putting into place almost immediately making several adjustments in my teaching.
One of the most immediate adjustments I will be making in my classroom management is to asses my students’ backgrounds, learning styles, and learning profiles. I cannot begin to properly plan my lessons if I am not in tune to where my students are coming from, how they learn, or how they prefer to demonstrate what they know (Tomlinson, 2009). I plan to utilize online surveys, questionnaires, and assessments to help me identify the ways my students are different. I will use this date to guide the creation of my lesson plans and activities I assign (Tomlinson, 2009).
Learning about the Universal Design for Learning principles and Differentiated Instruction has greatly enlightened me as to how I can utilize the information gleaned from the surveys and profile assessments. I plan to make major adjustments right way in how I present material to my students. I have actually already begun to use multiple methods of presenting material to my classes, including having students present material to each other. I have started using audio recordings of information to give my auditory students a chance to gather the information in a method other than reading notes from the board. The adjustments I’m making now also include varying the assignments I make as my students are developing their understanding as well as creating more ways for my students to demonstrate what they know. Rather than just giving a test at the end of the unit, I am beginning to change my lessons to allow for students to work in groups and create, according to their learning preferences, products that demonstrate just as well if not better than a traditional paper test.
Making these adjustments is not quite as difficult as one might perceive. By utilizing technology, I can truly differentiate my lessons for the different learners who make up my classes (Smith & Throne, 2007). With technology, I can have my students receiving the material in methods they are more accustomed to using. While they don’t normally read notes from a board or listen to lectures in their daily lives, they do access websites and listen to iPods. Similarly, technology can also be utilized to have my students process the information and then demonstrate what they have learned. Students may not be great test takers, but can use desktop publishers, digital recorders, and produce multimedia presentations to demonstrate the same understanding tested, but in with tools they use every day (Smith & Throne, 2007).
This course has truly opened doors for me. I see not only the need to differentiate, but ways to assess the differences of my students and create differentiated assignments and lessons for my students (Tomlinson, 2001). Technology is the most practical tool for us to use to make our lessons varied and engaging for our students, who do indeed come from different backgrounds, have different learning styles, and different learning preferences (Tomlinson, 2001). I have begun making adjustments and believe I am already seeing results. I have big plans for the year to come.
References
Bray, M., Brown, A., & Green, T. (2004). Technology and the Diverse Learner: A Guide to Classroom Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Smith, G., & Throne, S. (2007). Differentiating instruction with technology in K-5 classrooms. Belmont, CA: International Society for Technology in Education.
Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.
Tomlinson, C. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. Alexandra, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Tomlinson, C. (2009). Learning profiles and achievement. School Administrator. 66(2), 28–33. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Reflection
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.
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 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.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
One Day at a Time - My GAME plan progress
It’s been a couple of weeks now since I devised my GAME plan. I set two major goals for myself. Now, I didn’t think I would suddenly meet these two goals over night. I would have been kidding myself to think so. This is especially true as the school where I teach is on the 4X4 block schedule, so the classes I am currently teaching are almost over. This does mean that I will get all new classes when the second semester begins in January. So, while I haven’t achieved these two goals to their best yet, I am making some progress toward getting things in place. I am taking baby steps, it seems, but I am learning quite a bit and hope to have a real handle on things so that I can really put this plan into place with the next semester.
I have gotten started on my first goal, having my students respond to discussions in a discussion board on my web page. I’ve gotten the discussion section of my web page set up and got my students all registered into the discussion group. I have made one discussion assignment. So far, for this goal, I am finding all the information I need to get it up and going, and I don’t think I need to make any adjustments to the goal. I have learned how to create the discussion group and how to be more efficient with the sign-up process for my discussion groups. I have learned how to best do this next semester with my next classes. I have, how ever, come across a few questions or concerns about this goal during this initial trial run. How can I get my students to give me more in-depth responses to the discussion prompts? Do I need to form my prompts better to illicit deeper thinking and more detailed responses? Do I need to address this directly? I have thought about providing a list of questions that must be addressed but I was afraid I would be leading them and not allowing them to do the critical thinking they need to do on their own. My second question is: How do I get my students to respond to other students posts with more than just the cursory “I agree” or “That’s a good point” that I seem to be getting? Should I also provide an outline or list of questions for this part of the assignment? Any input from my colleagues here would be most appreciated. I am also not sure what I should do to follow this up or make it all connect back in my classroom. Any suggestions here would also be welcome.
My second goal is one that I haven’t gotten very far yet. This goal is to have my students produce podcasts and video casts that can posted for other students to listen/view and respond to. So far, I have determined that I can upload such casts onto my current web page. I found it would require more storage space, so I upgraded from the free web page to a subscription page with more storage. What I am still not sure of is how to best record the audio. I have the software needed, that’s not the problem. My concern is with the recording itself. I’m sure my classroom is not going to be a very quiet place to do the recording and the microphone I have would pick up lots of noise. I need to use one, though, rather than the headset because I plan to have my students do this in small groups. Does anyone have any ideas here? I suppose I could have my students record in pairs rather than in a group, so I could use the headset, I would just need two of them. My biggest concern is the background noise. I want my students to record during my class, I’m just not sure how to do this. Any tips or suggestions?
As you can see, I’m working on it, I’m just taking baby steps. Well, like the saying goes, one day at a time.
I have gotten started on my first goal, having my students respond to discussions in a discussion board on my web page. I’ve gotten the discussion section of my web page set up and got my students all registered into the discussion group. I have made one discussion assignment. So far, for this goal, I am finding all the information I need to get it up and going, and I don’t think I need to make any adjustments to the goal. I have learned how to create the discussion group and how to be more efficient with the sign-up process for my discussion groups. I have learned how to best do this next semester with my next classes. I have, how ever, come across a few questions or concerns about this goal during this initial trial run. How can I get my students to give me more in-depth responses to the discussion prompts? Do I need to form my prompts better to illicit deeper thinking and more detailed responses? Do I need to address this directly? I have thought about providing a list of questions that must be addressed but I was afraid I would be leading them and not allowing them to do the critical thinking they need to do on their own. My second question is: How do I get my students to respond to other students posts with more than just the cursory “I agree” or “That’s a good point” that I seem to be getting? Should I also provide an outline or list of questions for this part of the assignment? Any input from my colleagues here would be most appreciated. I am also not sure what I should do to follow this up or make it all connect back in my classroom. Any suggestions here would also be welcome.
My second goal is one that I haven’t gotten very far yet. This goal is to have my students produce podcasts and video casts that can posted for other students to listen/view and respond to. So far, I have determined that I can upload such casts onto my current web page. I found it would require more storage space, so I upgraded from the free web page to a subscription page with more storage. What I am still not sure of is how to best record the audio. I have the software needed, that’s not the problem. My concern is with the recording itself. I’m sure my classroom is not going to be a very quiet place to do the recording and the microphone I have would pick up lots of noise. I need to use one, though, rather than the headset because I plan to have my students do this in small groups. Does anyone have any ideas here? I suppose I could have my students record in pairs rather than in a group, so I could use the headset, I would just need two of them. My biggest concern is the background noise. I want my students to record during my class, I’m just not sure how to do this. Any tips or suggestions?
As you can see, I’m working on it, I’m just taking baby steps. Well, like the saying goes, one day at a time.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Let's Get It Started In Here - Carrying out my GAME plan
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.
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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