Game Plan Update

Information and resources have not been issue to date. Much of the information and resources on developing a classroom blog are available on the Internet or through monthly publications that discuss the positives of blogs and the role they are currently playing in our society. Finding a credible resource that discusses the positives a blog can bring would be a great source of information to show parents and students.

I do need to modify and adjust my proposal to our Superintendent to include a more descriptive explanation of how the blog will be monitored and maintained. There was some concern that I would be screening the content after the posts had already been submitted to the blog for viewing. However, in actuality students will submit the work to me and I will upload the documents to the blog for viewing. Having the students submit the documents to me before uploading it to the blog allows me to monitor and screen the content. Once these modifications are made to the proposal I will resubmit it to our Superintendent.

To my surprise many of my students have prior knowledge of blogs or have a blog the currently frequent or their family is responsible for. Developing my Game Plan I figured most students would have a very limited background of blogs, however many students have family blogs they maintain daily, weekly, or monthly. Also many teachers and administrators in our own district are unfamiliar with blogs and newer technology, making it more difficult to explain the uses and benefits this technology can have in a classroom. There seems to be a belief that a lot of this technology is only used for non -educational purposes. I am wondering if it is more important to educate our students on the importance of technology for the teachers and administrators? The students generally understand the concept, as technology greatly impacts their daily life. They need to be able to grasp the concept of technology use educationally but they have a general understanding of technology. However, some of my co-workers are so far behind the times and unresponsive to technology it often seems like a waste to try and educate them on the positives it may bring, It is like they see technology as being lazy. Whatever it may be, I hope students realize the benefit it can bring to their education and life.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Carrying Out Your GAME Plan!

Facilitating and Inspiring Student Learning and Creativity through technology is the main goal I am trying to attain through my game plan. Through classroom presentations and projects that have a technology basis I feel I have done a better job of incorporating technology into classroom assessments. However, I would like to make a stronger effort to implement something that would allow for even more student creativity and learning. I feel a classroom blog would be a great resource for our classroom, parents and community. A classroom blog would promote flexibility in the methods and settings in which students can communicate with one another, and teachers (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2010). For a blog to be successful students will need to understand how to maintain and update the classroom blog. Resources such as classroom documents, student work, school bulletins, and other useful documents will need to be uploaded to the classroom blog.

I will need other resources as well to carry out this game plan for our classroom blog. Parents are going to have give their approval for their child to use a classroom blog and to upload any pictures of students that are taken during school. I will need to get district approval for the classroom blog as well as allowing students to use the blog during school hours to update course or district information. Additionally I will have to take with our technology department and get our blog approved for district use, so students and teachers could access the website without being redirected. I will also need to be able to explain how I will monitor the blog consistently and efficiently so nothing on the blog goes against district policy.

Recently I have proposed the classroom blog to our superintendent and am waiting for a response. This is a step in the right direction, as with our district it often takes multiple meetings and proposals to get things approved. Hopefully in the near future I will have an outline of district expectations for the blog. The classroom blog would a great asset to our classroom and would allow for student creativity and learning through technology. The ability to communicate with parents, students and community members about our classroom and school would increase collaboration and even school support.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Game Plan

Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity is a performance indicator I believe I can strengthen throughout the school year and my teaching career. Through social studies I have a great avenue to promote, support, and model creative thinking. Lessons involving historical concepts or events will be a create opportunity to provide students with technological resources that will improve their learning and learning experiences moving forward in the 21^st century. Actions I will take will to strengthen student creativity will be promoting student assessment through tools that allow for student creativity and inspire student learning. Assessment opportunities like projects, presentations, or other forms of assessments that have a focus on technology. I will monitor my progress by the assessment opportunities I provide students that promote student creativity. Evaluating my ability to extend my learning on student creativity will probably be a year end reflection where I look back on the course and with information available on the year decide whether or not I effectively promoted student learning and creativity to level that needs to be expected and needed to be successful.

Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership is the other performance indicator I would like to focus on and improve. A lot of our teachers and myself included, focus on professional development in our curriculum. However, I believe not enough time is spent improving and demonstrating the effectiveness of digital resources in our school district. By incorporating learning opportunities for teachers and then promoting digital resources in our classrooms, we as teachers would be modeling lifelong learning. These learning opportunities will allow for teachers to explore creative and digital learning opportunities that can be incorporated into our classrooms. Not enough teachers within our district use technology enough or at all. I believe by developing teachers’ understanding of technology will promote teachers to use more technology within their individual classrooms. Teacher development will lead to more professional growth and leadership. Looking back at the end of the year we will be able to see if teachers participated in professional development and whether or not it had an impact on their curriculum and technology use within it.

EDUC-6712I-6 Reflection

The most striking revelation I had about teaching new literacy skills to my students was how many students are not familiar with their own research style and what best benefits them when researching topics on the internet or other sources. Students’ today just type in the information or question into a search engine and expect the answer to pop up directly. Through this exercise students were able to form a research style and develop strategies to help find answers to difficult topic questions as well as gather significant and resourceful information. This experience has given me the insight that many students’ need to be taught new literacy skills and research skills inside our classrooms to effectively develop their ability to successfully search, navigate, and use the Internet to fulfill a their needs or a requirement. Classrooms and schools often times do not focus enough attention on literacy in the 21^st century, instead relying heavily on traditional literacy skills. However, society demands an understanding of such resources like the Internet that we are doing a disservice to our youth if we are not fully equipping them with the needed skills to succeed in the 21^st century. I would like to further educate teachers within my district about the need for new literacy skills that incorporate the emphasis of digital learning. I believe a great time to introduce this need would be at our district wide Wednesday meetings that are held once a month. Talking to our Superintendent I could schedule a time to present the need for new literacy skills in our school and ways we can improve within our district. It would also be great to set up some professional development training somewhere throughout our area, where we could go and receive some professional development on 21^st century literacy skills and implement the strategies throughout our classrooms. This would hopefully push teachers to provide at least a little more institution of 21^st century literacy skills inside their classroom.

Reflection

The theory of learning “examines what goes on in the learner’s mind during the learning process” (Orey, 2009). When a leaner is active in the learning process they tend to have immersive experiences, creating moments that they can recall many years later. Many times these immersive experiences are the ones students remember most. The instructional theory examines strategies for changing the learning environment to facilitate learning. Understanding both the theory of learning and instruction will benefit the classroom environment and learning opportunities for students.

After completing this course I still believe students’ learn best when presented with multiple opportunities to learn the content or subject. By following this theory it gives the teacher a greater chance of reaching individual students with learning methods that fit the students’ abilities the best. I try and allow for each lesson to take on a distinct and diverse learning approach. Incorporating blogs, voicethreads, PowerPoint presentations, concept maps and other technologies into the classroom students receive the opportunity to find a learning method that best fits their individual style. From videos, to readings, to packet work, to group collaboration, to field trips, I try and incorporate as many different learning opportunities as possible in daily lessons as well as monthly units. I think if students are given multiple opportunities to learn a subject, they will be able to take away at least one thing from the lesson or unit.

Technology integration is a huge advantage when trying to implement various learning methods and strategies within a classroom. Referencing videos, Internet websites, blogs, etc. helps enhance the learning environment and the ability to retain information. If a student is presented only with a text and the information within the text, I believe the opportunity to reach a large amount of the classroom is minimal. However, if I supplement the readings with a technology based group project and within the project I provide websites, videos, blogs for them to research on, the possibility of reaching more students will increase. I now hope to frequently implement even more technology such as concept maps, as well as provide an opportunity for students to share their work on websites such as voicethread. Allowing students to organize and develop their own classroom blog would also be something I would like to implement within my classroom. The learner needs to be active in the learning process. Immersive experiences and providing students with the chance to be active in their learning, helps them grow as learners and people.

In the future being able to adjust to the students who come into my classroom is essential in ensuring each individual student has the best opportunity to succeed. By adapting lessons and materials to fit student needs the chance that they reach their potential increases. Varying learning methods and strategies keeps the learning environment fun and engaging. Students do not want to simply rely on their textbooks for information, nor should they. Opening the door to expansive learning styles will push students to new greater heights.

VoiceThread

http://voicethread.com/?#u397537.b528645

Social Learning

I think social learning does have a place in today’s education and can provide important support to the education process. Students often times learn as well if not better from their own peers. Allowing students to interact and discuss topics related to the content or school provides students with more avenues for student success. When teaching the content to another student the student who is doing the teaching has to have an understanding of the topic in order to properly teach the content. If students are simply memorizing information for a test are they really learning the material? Will they be able to apply the information gained once they leave the classroom? I believe students can sometimes teach the content better to each other and can use analogies or common language to better relate what they are learning to their peer. “When students work in cooperative groups, they make sense of or construct meaning for, new knowledge by interacting with others” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski , 2007, p. 139). A lot of times students understand technology and its uses more than their teachers. They can explain the uses of the technology and how it exactly is set up or works. They provide the introduction to technology and its uses.

Allowing students to work in groups or with a partner allows them to prepare a project together learning how to work as a team. Education is the process of preparing students for life and their future after they leave our classroom and schools. When they step into the real world they are going to have to be able to adapt to other workers and learn from their peers in order to be successful in their profession. Being up to date with technology and being able to socially interact with coworkers will give students an advantage in the professional world.

When we think of the current the current social age I think of text messaging, facebook, twitter, blogs, etc. There is some much information out there for students to learn and to share. Being able to tap into some of those resources and provide students with avenues for success will allow them to become more accomplished and diverse individuals. Providing students with the ability to learn, teach and relate to a lesson will keep them connected to education.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.