Week 6 Revising Your GAME Plan

As I pursue my GAME Plan, I realize that the more we learn and discover in technology the more there is to know. My first goal was to provide my students with creative lessons that inspire learning. My plan included a creative project each nine weeks in my content areas NETS 1b-c Indicator. I have added more manipulatives and authentic real world experiences in my math and science class. I have also been able to integrate both content areas together using technology. The students are creating musical instruments from recycled materials and using the internet to research, write and display their work in PowerPoint with digital photos. In social studies, the students worked in collaborative learning groups to research battles of the revolution and their key leaders using ask.com and other search engines. Our team also decided to make the battles more authentic for them by having battle enactments outside in the playground. Their learning connections were evident in their test scores. We used the digital photos to inspire their journal writing. In the video, this week one of the teachers shared that collaboration inspires and challenges students to perform at a higher level (Laureate, 2009). As our classes worked together to create the battles physically they increased their writing and communication skills that were used in their blogs that followed the lessons. I feel that I have been successful in design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity as stated in NETS•S 2C indicator.

I am still striving to develop an online collaborative project with a class outside my school. I have encountered some difficulties with district denied access and blocked websites. I have applied to Think Quest which will allow me to integrate technology in my curriculum through projects with teachers and students around the world. My principal has agreed to assist me in this endeavor and work as my liaison in the district pursuit.

I am revising my game plan to include ITSE-NETS Indicator 5 by engaging in personal growth and development. I am currently working on our new vision committee for our school. We are researching and developing ways to incorporate researched based technology strategies and tools in our classrooms more effectively. My team is responsible for developing strategies and plans to bring the home and school life together in order to promote learning. Many of our parents do not own or use home computers or the internet. One of my student’s grandmothers inspired this idea. Her granddaughter attends my after school computer club and she asked to be a part of it. She told me that someone offered her granddaughter a computer and she was leery of having such a powerful tool in the house that she (grandma) could not operate. She is learning to type and research on the web. We are considering an adult computer club for our parents to learn how to use the internet and type. Together we can create a powerful learning or educational learning network that will connect personal learning communities, create greater diversity and increase exposure to learning as we read about in this weeks video Spotlight on Technology: Social Networking (Laureate, 2009).

I plan to continue working with my Walden Colleagues and the educators with Think Quest to challenge and inspire me to discover engaging and authentic learning experiences and activities for my students. My grade team also provides resources and expertise in integrating technology; social networking and problem based learning projects. As we plan each nine weeks lesson curriculum, we are challenging ourselves to complete the GAME Plan and implement challenging, engaging lessons that offer authentic lessons. We are seeking ways to expose our students to the world outside our small town. We also hope to inspire our parents to join us in this adventure.

Many of my Walden colleagues have mentioned using electronic portfolios; I would like to learn more about these tools. We currently use writing and reading portfolios, but I would like to have something that could easily follow students each year. I would also like to know what social networking projects have worked with other elementary teachers. I am interested in starting with a small grass root project that could be accomplished this year.

Reference:
ISTE NETS and Performance Indicators for Teachers(NETS•T) http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas

(DVD). Spotlight on Technology: Social Networking and Online Collaboration, Part 1 and 2. Baltimore, MD: Author

Week 5 Monitor Personal Goals

This week, I am monitoring my persona goals of my Game Plan. My goal is to incorporate at least one creative project per content area each nine weeks. I also plan to collaborate with another classroom outside our school each nine weeks through virtual tools. We have just completed a biography project in which the students researched a current or historical person of their choice and presented their findings to the class via PowerPoint or word and picture collage. The students shared their projects during our November writing celebration.
Our next class endeavor will be a collaborative math project with other classes: one in Florida and one in a northern state. We plan to share weather reports and graph actual weather conditions and make predictions for the winter forecast. This will allow us to integrate science and math. We want to Skype together and communicate by email or blogs. We are just waiting for Skype approval from the other schools.

Teaching my students to self- reflect has been very difficult. I have had to create a weekly checklist for them to paste in their journals as a template as guide for reflection. Editing, revising and reflection is difficult process for third graders. We are currently working together in peer groups to assist with this process.

Technology can assist in this process of student reflections. However, I am having difficulties receiving logins and passwords for my students to use our class blog application located on our class web page. Technological support is slow due to the recent cut- backs in our district personnel. Peggy Etmer suggests that technology provides a format for formative assessments with progress checklist, and blogs (Laureate, 2009). I have currently posted rubrics and templates on the web page.

I am currently researching ideas for a problem based learning project for my students. This type of project will allow my students to explore their content in an authentic and meaningful way. I would like to make my students to discover new ways to reuse or recycle everyday items into new practical uses. This project would address the need to reduce our waste and trash and provide a personal connection to world conservation (Laureate, 2009).
Reference:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas

(DVD). Spotlight on Technology: Problem-Based Learning, Part 1 and 2. Baltimore, MD: Author

Week 4 Monitoring the GAME PLAN

As I pursue my action plan, I have learned that I must be more assertive and seek out the materials and resources that will benefit my students. I have volunteered to serve on the new district curriculum team. Our district is developing a new curriculum across the board to align with the national core standards. I want to have an active role in developing a curriculum that addresses the multiple intelligences and learning styles of all our students. We need to address how to reach out to community to provide speakers and specialist to speak to our classes and provide input for the curriculum. I want our curriculum to have variety of assessments that incorporate technology assistance whenever it is beneficial to the students. Diverse assessments will allow us to identify learning needs and adjust our plans and curriculum accordingly. Dr. Ross states that effective assessment indentifies learning objectives, determine teaching method, and choose supportive technology (Laureate, 2009).

This week, I pursued a donor on donorchoose.org to assist in building my classroom library. The request included a variety of reading materials from magazines, literature circles to audio books. I am currently working on a grant through E I have also requested the assistance of our technology facilitator to set up my podcasting listening and production center. This will provide my students with the tools for performance based and project based assessments. This week, we read in chapter 6 that students could record oral presentations, fluency and reading records to demonstrate improvements and areas of development (Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P., 2009). This will enhance the digital portfolios that I am pursuing in my GAME PLAN.

I found a great resource for differentiating learning strategies and implementing podcasting in my classroom at Education World . 
These trainings are completed at my leisure and can be resourced for further study. My plan states that I will reach out to colleagues in the field that are actually implementing new technologies with research based strategies. These type training, along with my Walden courses, will allow me to continue my pursuit of my plan. The readings this week and online resources remind me that as a professional learner¸ I need to pursue what I need, in order to be a better educator to my students. I must be willing to go beyond my comfort zone to create a global thriving learning environment.

One concern I have is that many of my students perform better on alternative assessments than on the standardized once a year test. This year, I had to justify how student grades were “inflated with B’s or C’s” for students that did not pass the state assessment. I was told that it comes down to results of this final assessment. Sometimes I feel that teaching the test is more important that teaching the child.

References:

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. (pp. 143-146).

Donor Choose Org  http://www.donorschoose.org/

Education World http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/archives/virtualwkshp.shtml

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas(DVD). Assessing Student Learning through Technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Game Plan Resources, Information and Steps to Success

Change is difficult and requires much patience. In order to break the cycle of failure and I can’t , I need to implement change on a daily basis. This change requires me to search out resources, information and apply steps of action. I have to research creative and research based strategies and tools to develop creative and effective lesson plans for my students.

The greatest resource for success is the effective and knowledgeable people or experts that we encounter each day. I have requested the assistance of our grade team technology guru to demonstrate how to use the webcam with our class SmartBoard for Skype. She has a retired English teacher that reads to her class each Friday through Skype. She has also suggested that I implement and teach Skype etiquette prior to our collaborative project beginning. Our cooperative learning class is still awaiting approval from their school to join us in this endeavor.

I have also applied for a grant to pay for a classroom subscription for VoiceThreads. This tool would provide multiple means of expression and presentation of materials and understanding of my diverse students. My students would have the ability to work individually or as a collaborative learning group or team. This would also scaffold the media format so that all my students could create projects or presentations in their best learning modality. This would allow my students to be as creative as they can be. The auditory option will assist my low readers in their various content area classes such as science and social studies.

I am currently researching reading strategies and high interest low- level text for my struggling readers. I currently have 11 out of 17 students reading below our third grade level. Six of those readers are reading at kindergarten level. Unfortunately, many of my students are unable to read content text or class level materials. I am in the process of downloading our class basal reading text CD’s and podcast, so that students can listen to grade level reading and concepts. These instructional tools are examples of assistive technology that will enhance the learning experiences of all my students(Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P., 2009). 
References:
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, 129.

GAME plan for Building NETS-T Indicators

Teachers of the 21st Century must be willing and eager to be students of the technology world. It is vital that educators are searching and perfecting the needed skills to complete this endeavor. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) list 5 standards known as the National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) that provide direction and guidance in preparing lessons for the 21st century class through: creative and inspiring lessons, providing and developing digital learning experiences and assessments, modeling digital tools, learning, and digital citizenship and continuing professional development. In order to be an effective teacher, I would like to focus on creating and implementing creative digital lessons that inspire, engage, and incorporate collaborative learning environments outside my physical classroom (NETS-T 1 and 2). These changes will be accomplished by creating a plan of action known as GAME (goals, actions, monitoring, and evaluation) and by applying the advice and assistance of my Walden colleagues (Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P., 2009).



The first step in my GAME plan is to set goals for me as an educator. As a third grade teacher, I have to plan lesson plans each day for all content areas. Our district has created their own curriculum to assure that the state standards are being addressed and taught each day in every lesson. This practice does not allow for much diversity or creativity. However, as a technology magnet school, we are given a little leave way in this matter. With the pressure to improve our state scores and fill the student-learning gap, I have fallen short in diversifying from the district plan. Teaching only what is on the state test has left creative exploration and self-discovery out my plans. I have justified this omission on our fast-paced curriculum. My goal is to allow at least one creative project per content area each nine weeks. I also plan to collaborate with another classroom outside our school each nine weeks through virtual tools. This opportunity will offer authentic and real world experiences for my students.


The action step of my plan includes reaching out to my Walden colleagues to create collaborative lessons and/or projects. I have applied and been approved by my principal to use Skype to communicate with other classrooms and experts throughout our digital global community. My students will use several digital tools and forms of media to communicate and create student directed projects. Students will provide input and direction for each project by developing assessments and guidelines for each endeavor.

Monitoring the plan will be the responsibility of the class and educator. The students will reflect on progress through journaling and class discussion. The educators will also engage through discussions and goal reflections. A checklist of outcomes will be comprised and reflected on throughout the process. Revisions will be made or adjusted as needed.


Evaluation of the projects and lesson will be given informally and formally throughout. One area that I need to work on is the development of various assessments. Due to our constant test preparation, we use many formal data testing tools. I need to improve my skills on how to use the data to build stronger strategies or improvements in deficit areas. I would really like to learn more about building or implementing digital portfolios to promote self-discovery, engagement and for their own learning. Evaluation will also direct how or if this project was effective. The project’s effectiveness will be based on the ability to adapt or change in order for the students to learn or achieve the goals agreed upon.

References:

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.(pp. 26, 42).

ISTE NETS and Performance Indicators for Teachers(NETS•T) http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx
the Content Areas


















 

Reflection Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom

The most striking statement during this course came from David Warlick, “It’s not about the technology; it is about the connections and conversations made available to the students” (Laureate, 2009). Technology allows the students to connect to each other, experts, global classrooms and current real life connections to our content and standards. Our world is in a constant and rapid change. Textbook and strategies used five years ago are outdated and unable to equip the 21st century learner. We cannot allow our fear of technology and change to keep us from incorporating it throughout our lessons and daily interactions with our students. Our students are comfortable with technology and need the guidance to connect and apply to their academic world. When students are able to make these connections, they will be able to use their language to accomplish education goals and life skills needed to succeed in the 21st century workplace. Another great revelation is that it my responsibility as a third grade teacher to prepare them for the 21st century workplace as collaborative and global communicators.


The second Aha moment was in Sara Armstrong’s video, Safe and Ethical Practices, concerning modeling ethical practices. She stated that we must teach students to respect online work, authors and graphic illustrations by citing our sources on everyday plans, PowerPoints and other work displayed throughout our curriculum (Laureate, 2009). We should teach students to respect and be critical evaluators for materials and information found online. Armstrong also stresses that in order to keep students “cyber safe” we should teaching them to make responsible choices, thus remove “filters” from our class computers. Many of our students use computers and technology without any parental supervision and need to know how to practice and engage in cyber safety after school hours (Laureate, 2009). Due to budget cuts, our technology position was lost. I now know that not only do I train my students how to use technology, but must provide training for cyber safety skills and responsibilities. This means that I must remember to include time in a unit to teach technology, as well as curriculum content and standards. I cannot assume that my technology savvy students have the literacy skills to navigate the web and read the content found.

One area that I plan to pursue for myself is collaborative learning groups in a global capacity. My students lack background knowledge and experiences of many of their global peers. I want to fill these gaps with virtual field trips, classroom connections and hands on experiences through global classroom experiences. I am currently educating myself on how to use online opportunities and experiences with groups such as ePals Global communities, Skype, . edu20.org, and Collaborative Internet Projects. Collaborative inquiry based projects allow students the opportunities to learn or reinforce content standards while building learning networks. They also provide authentic experiences with real world application (Laureate, 2009). Science, social studies and math content can be easily be implemented in collaborative inquiry projects, especially for elementary students. Hands on projects that work with whole class participation would be most beneficial.

References:

Collaborative project site http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/gayle/projects/projects.html#other-current

Edu2.0 http://www.edu20.org/

Epals Global Communities http://www.epals.com/

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom (DVD). Inquiry Based Projects. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom (DVD). It’s Not About the Technology. Baltimore, MD: Author

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom (DVD). Safe and Ethical Practices. Baltimore, MD: Author

Skype http://about.skype.com/

Square of Life http://k12science.org/curriculum/squareproj/

screencast ABC Navigatio

ABC Navigation on the web