My Game Plan

Evaluating my GAME Plan

How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?

I have been reviewing my GAME plan and the actions I said I would take. There is always room to improve strategies and goals. I have looked at other blogging websites, paying careful attention to the names of the blogs, and how they were set up. I've gotten some good ideas for what I want to do with my upcoming class.

What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?

I have researched some educational benefits to blogging. I have read that it promotes critical and analytical thinking, but it also promotes social interaction amongst the 5th graders. Other teachers have commented that blogging with students allows for collaboration with projects, online sharing ideas, ongoing dialogues and a central place to keep everyone's work. Teachers have stated that this can be done with both the whole class and small group settings (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).

What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?

I have a few concerns that I need to find solutions for. We all know that blogs are posted on the web and can be viewed by anyone if the privacy settings are not set before blogging begins. Teachers need to discuss privacy issues in depth with students before we allow them to start. Teachers need to explain the importance of never sharing personal details or their last names on the internet for all to see. When the students were younger they were told not to talk to strangers, well I would want them to understand that this falls in the same category. My question would be how would I make them understand this?

With the first question, comes another concern. At what point do I not "filter" what is posted? I know that at first I need to do this, but when do I let them decide how to word things and post things without being "filtered" first?

How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?

I would like to start the school year off with blogging, and use it as much as I could, to get the children familiar with the "new way of responding." Change isn't always easy, but I would like to get them started with it as soon as they get back from summer vacation.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use. (M. Staudt, & M. Stranz, Eds.) Mason, OH, USA: Cengage Learning.

Game Plan Progress

This past week I have been having the children ask each other what they would want the name of the blog to be for the class. We came up with some different ideas; but we "tried them out on the computer to see what they looked like." The students loved that idea. We also took a look at the curriculum alignment that we needed to cover. We picked out the appropriate AKS (academic knowledge and skills) that we would be covering. Some of the questions that were asked of us to answer this week were:

Are you finding the information and resources you need?

I explained to the 5th graders that we would be working on curriculum alignments and that we "must develop and select assessments that allow students to demonstrate mastery that is demanded by the standards." (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 141). I know that you must be wondering why I told my students all that information and those words, and the reason is because we continually talk to the children about tests, and content area information that they need to know. We found other class websites where the class had a continuous blog. I showed them what it would look like which then lent itself to more ideas.

Do you need to modify your action plan?

As of right now, I feel like my GAME plan is working like I wanted it to. As I get further into it, I might need to tweak some things here and there.

What have you learned so far?

By following this format and plan, I feel like my students and I are following some very similar protocols. I feel like I am learning some new things right along with them. I want to involve them in self assessments while blogging. In chapter 6 of our book, it talks about outcome feedback. It says that, "students will benefit most when they receive feedback about the quality of their work and suggestions for improvement - not just whether their responses were right or wrong." (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 139).

I believe in that comment, and have observed and seen it occur firsthand.

What new questions have arisen?

I would like to make sure that I keep my students focused and organized and wonder how I can ensure that to happen. How can I better teach my students to blog and take notes and show constructive criticism to one another.

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

There are many things that I have to do to achieve my goals that I have put into affect for the GAME plan. As a teacher we may need certain resources certain times, but maybe not the entire time of the plan. I would need scheduled lab time each week, and not have to worry about messing up schedules. I would want the children to spend a great deal of time exploring time on the computers and able to have free time to see how things work.

I would spend time asking the kids for names for what they want our blog to be. Suggestions, and see how they wanted things to work. I would use a projector to show what is on my computer to show the kids first hand what they will be doing.

I know our three computer teachers. They are called our LSTC's. I have a great relationship with one of them in particular, and she and I get along very well. She has come in to my computer lab this year and gone above and beyond to make sure that things are connected and working like they should. This whole thing could eventually take off to ways that teachers, parents and students couldn't possibly imagine.

All of this can and will be incorporated into my teaching. I would eventually like for this to be done by the grade level.

EDUC 6713

I have reviewed the National Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers. I realize that there is always room for improvement as a teacher, and I feel that with technology applying more creativity is imperative to keeping the attention of students of all ages. I feel like it is a truly valuable lesson for a teacher to recognize that they aren't perfect and sometimes slack in adequately learning technology. We need to model to our students how important technology is and use it ourselves. That is one of the NETS goals. This Walden class has lent itself to me realizing how much more I could be doing with my students and technology.

GOALS
Teachers must set goals in order to achieve what they have set out to do, take actions to meet those goals, monitor progress and evaluate the achievement level of the students (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
1. Indicator 1; Standard 1a: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity - Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face virtual environments. Teachers:
a. promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.
2. Indicator 2; Standard 2a: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in teh NETS*S. Teachers:
a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.

Actions:
1. I would like for my students to embark with me on a journey with writing. I have a passion for writing and want to incorporate it with each subject area. I have always wanted to do a writing project that uses a blog and then publishing it at the end of the year for the upcoming grade level. Their blogging will happen a minimum of 4-6 times a month; those times must be spread out. Ideally I would like to have them "blog" each Friday so as to close up their past week.
2. Using their journey in journal writing, the students would be incorporating their digital tool with blogging at least once a week. They will be using their experiences inside and outside the classroom when writing/blogging.

Monitoring:
1. I will be looking at the students journals that they will use first to jot down ideas. This will be their writing workshop piece, and it will be ongoing. This is similar to a diary of a "their name". Which will and could be modeled after the book that so many children are reading, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid."
2. The teacher will be monitoring their blogging experience set as a reader to her own blog page. The teacher will be doing her own blogging experience with the children; which shows her modeling what needs to be done. The children will be commenting on at least 2-3 classmates each week, and the teacher will be picking 4 students a week also to post comments on their blog.

Evaluating:
1. This assignment will be an ongoing evaluation. They will be blogging for the whole year. However, there will be times that I give them a topic and they have to use life experiences to answer the questions. They will be graded on these 1. on their journal they are writing in, and 2. with their blog they are keeping.
2. to promote digital tools, I would like for the students (who have computer/internet at home) to have their parents reply to them also on their blogs. This would be tying the experience of home to school and vice versa. At some point with the more advanced students, or those from other countries, I would like to incorporate relatives from other countries. How cool would that be to have the student's blogs have posts from people not in the United States.

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.

ISTE (2008). The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for teachers Retrieved May 15th, 2010 from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

Final Blog Posting

The most striking revelation I have had in teaching new literacy skills to my students is the 21st century fluencies. The information literacy is very important to the students of today. They need to be able to read what information is true and not true, evaluate the information, understand the grammar of the internet, and to find the source of the information. From a teacher's perspective they need to be able to evaluate the information online. Student's need to be able to navigate their way around the internet. Teacher's are having to be steps ahead of their student's.

The knowledge and experience I gained in this course will help me determine where to take my student's irregardless of what level they are at. I might be teaching a 4th grade classroom, but have many levels within that grade. This course has given me guidance on how to teach new literacy skills the proper way. I now have the resources to go forth and figure out how to best incorporate the new up and coming skills. It isn't easy to do sometimes, but I feel better prepared to do this.
One professional development goal I would like to pursue is the bring the teachers together by grade levels, and have one grade level tell the grade before them what skills their students are lacking, and how they could improve. I think this is very important. After bringing the teachers together in a grade level, I would have them write down the things that they think their students are weak in. I feel like if they can start to bridge the gap of technology between grades then the other things might fall into place. The particular skill that one grade is lacking might be a simple fix, or it may be one that the technology teacher stresses, reviews and goes over during specials. Becoming literate in books and computers goes hand in hand. Furthermore, the teachers could review with the other grades the things that are needed to make the classes flow. This would take a few tweaking of steps, information and data collection to make this go smoothly. It would take a few years to make it work. Being proactive and telling the administration what you have planned would show initiative and show that you wanted to ward off problems before they start. This might be able to diminish the problems, but nothing will make them go completely away. Working together to promote new literacy skills will make their learning invaluable.

final Blog Posting

My personal theory of learning has only grown in this class. I think that the theory would change based on the children/students you have in your class, and what your class needs at that point. The adjustments would be to find the area that the students need at that moment and tweak my plans to meet the needs of my students.

One of the tools I would be implementing would be cooperative learning. I believe that the more students interact with each other the more they benefit from learning. The other tool I will be using and have used is cues, questions and advance organizers. Students can benefit much more from being able to organize their information and put it into something other than words. It can go with them.

My first long-term goal would be for me to give more immediate feedback to the students on their work; And to make myself more available to the students while they are working. I feel like being able to talk to the students as they are working is more helpful than after the fact. This would be the tool of setting objectives and providing feedback.

My second long term goal would be to use more of the tools that we learned about in this course. I feel like the more we can bring into the students' learning, the better off they'll be, and the more that they'll be able to recall and spit back to us what we teach them.

Unregister to bloggr

voice thread

Cooperative Learning

In the chapter on Cooperative Learning, the instructional strategy of cooperative learning focuses on having students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning (Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, and Pitler, 2008). I understand that having students work together in cooperative groups helps them identify problems, or things that are not comprehended by other students in that group. I liked the example of explaining the jigsaw strategy that was given. I used something similar last year in my 4th grade class. We were studying the water cycle. I had the children in groups of 5 and each picked a different part of the water cycle. I then took all the "water vapors" etc and put them in the same group. I told them that they had to work together at first so they could determine how the cycle works. Then they were put into the same groupings and they had to collaborate on ways to perfect their research.

Our children of today (whether our own or our students), as well as the adults of today, have any social network that we want at our fingertips. We can look up anything, or anyone at the click of fingers. I find myself saying to other educators that I work with, "I remember when I was these kids age, I had to actually go to a library, and use a card catalog and look up the information that I wanted to research and actually go find a book and look it up!!!!" Today's children just have to point and click. So I think that as wonderful as technology has become and where it is going, they still need to be able to know that there are other ways to find what they are looking for.

An instructional strategy that was explored was Apple Learning Interchange-Online project based learning. I read about the JourneyNorth.mov and the 2,500-mile voyage of the Monarch butterflies to Canada from Mexico. Any child can look on a map and find where Mexico is. But Journey North creates a real life experience for the students. They have communication with children in Mexico about the temps, the air quality, and it intertwines all the content areas. The children then write back and forth, which forces them to use their best handwriting. I believe that this is using the constructionist learning theory. The students in each area/state are encouraged to be scientists in and outside of their own classroom.

Another game that they play through Journey North is "Mystery Class." I think that this is great. Most kids know how to play "I Spy", but I think that this puts it into real-life prospective. They are given information about anywhere in the world and they have to guess where it is. Clues are given to them either by their teacher or someone else, and they have to make guesses on where it is, based on the information that they have been given. This is something that I would definitely consider doing in my 4th grade classroom.

Cognitivism in the Classroom

This week, in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works we explored two instructional strategies that embed technology: "Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers" and "Summarizing and Note Taking." Dr. Michael Orey discussed the Information Processing Model and the components of cognitive learning theories. The one theory that I could identify with and I have used in my own classroom for remembering information is the elaboration theory. It is the primary mechanism for storing information in long term memory. I have used association by words and pictures for anything I have taught and I want the children to remember. I do the same thing with my own children. The example that he gave of General Lee stuck with me even now as a teacher. I found myself putting on my "jeans" and remember who the South's general was, all because of the association that I made with my jeans and Lee and Lee jeans. One of the reason's that children forget about the information they are given is they lose the connection that was made for the information. Which is why the elaboration theory helps to engrain in their minds the things that they need to remember. Sometimes I have told my class that sometimes you might not understand what the information means, but you just need to be able to spit it back out for the test. However, keeping that same information in the "filing cabinets" of your brain is pertinent for end of the year testing. Concept mapping tools help children also make the connection with pictures (squares, circles, one word answers, etc) to the information. Looking at pictures may also make it so they can "see" the picture of the map in their mind, and it is then easily retained for future use.

"The instructional strategy of reinforcing effort enhances students' understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attitudes and beliefs about learning" (McREL, 2007). Students do not realize how important it is for them to look at their efforts and evaluate them. Reinforcing effort is as important as reinforcing behavior. The exercise that was discussed using a spreadsheet is something that I will be starting to set up for my students this week. I was in awe of how that could work in any grade that was taught. I currently am an inclusion EIP (early intervention program) teacher in a 4th grade classroom, and this is the most unmotivated group of children I have ever had to deal with. This teacher and I continuously find ourselves brainstorming to find out what to do next, what is going on....question after question after question.

The section of the book that dealt with reinforcing effort is something that all too often teachers don't think about as often as they should. We get so caught up in teaching and making sure we cover the curriculum, that we forget to reward those that at least have made the effort to try, just may not have "succeeded." Unfortunately, we have to say that they didn't succeed based on test scores/grades, but we can't say that they succeeded if they have bad scores even if their effort was outstanding. Which sounds a little backwards, but I have to say that it's hard to teach students about the importance of effort, if the effort doesn't bring the success and good scores. I see the defeatist attitude quite a bit in the classroom that I am in, and when that is the attitude in half of the class, it's very hard to change the beliefs and make a connection between effort and achievement. Behaviorist learning theory is reinforcing the positive behavior and not the punishment and that goes hand in hand with the reinforcing effort section of this book.

Final Blog Posting

This course has helped me to develop my own technology skills as a professional teacher in many ways. I never had done blogging before nor did I even know how to set one up. A google reader, that was the thing that I had the most difficulty with. I couldn't figure out what was supposed to be linked and how to set it up. But I have to say that since I have done this, it is amazing how easy it is.

I have learned that the teaching and learning process goes together. As the students learn in new ways and with new tools, the teachers also have to come up with new innovative ways to keep the students attention. Another thing that I have learned to accept is "if you can't beat them, join them." Yes, I know that we cannot give into everything that they do and is into, but I do think we could find a way to involve them through technology with the resources that they already use!!

There were many ways that my perspective from teacher-centered to learner-centered has changed in that before I do anything in the classroom right now, I think, "is this going to benefit the children?" I want to make sure that the students can get the most out of it that they can so that the impact of learning is top priority. Then I also am finding myself thinking "can all children learn through this?" Our learning can expand by continuing our education and keeping up on the up and coming technology. By taking master's classes like we are, that will keep our technology awareness and skills up to date.

I have two goals of transforming my class. My first goal is to start a "blog" for my class with a variation of different subjects that the parents could participate in it also. I would like to create a blog of all different subjects and content areas. It'll take a while to set up and train the kids as well as the parents on it. I would also love it if our school started up a blog for parents as a communication tool. I also would like for my students to be responsible for setting up a website for our class. It would also take sometime, but I think it is possible!!! I would have to slowly introduce the children to blogging, and setting up wiki's and/or a website. There are a lot of avenues that can be traveled through this, and I am willing to try each one until I get success! Really none of my answers changed from my original list. I feel I have gained a knowledge in order to try and attempt many things.

Kim Huston's podcast-click here

This is the new podcast for week 5.

Evaluating 21st Century Skills

The Partnership or 21st Century Skills is the leading advocacy organization (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php) focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. My reaction is still that of amazement that this is what is going on and I was unclear of all the ins and outs of this. It was a user friendly website and did give quite a few snap shots of how these particular things work, just not as detailed as I would like.

Just as students can deepen their knowledge when teamed with their peers in the classroom, students can broaden their prospective of the world through relationships with international counterparts. (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/route21/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18&Itemid=164) This will allow them to navigate globally later in life.

The thing that I disagreed with was the states that were associated with this and that only 11 states were on this list. Looking at this for the first time, and reading all the emphasis they are doing to coordinate government and schools and get everyone together, one would assume that all 50 states would be applicable to this. Once these 11 get with the program what will happen to the other 41 states? Who will catch them up while the first 11 get ahead?

Georgia is not on the list of 11 states, but there is no reason why I cannot go ahead and start implementing these strategies in my classroom. Once Georgia gets on the list, I would like to think that because I advocated being a contemporary educator, my students (regardless of what grade they were in) would be a step above the learning curve of technology wherever it may fall at that moment. The ICT/Global awareness is something that will be implemented in my class next year; it can be achieved at different levels and made age appropriate. My students will benefit greatly from these new skills and I feel as they go to middle school, highschool and college, they will feel more confident in themselves and the amount of technology they have been taught to better them for their future.

Utilizing Blogs in the Classroom

This would be my first time blogging or even posting! I think that starting a blog for students can open up to a world of opportunities. I would probably start off by having the students blog about what interests them and how they learn best. I would show them examples of what are proper and improper ways of "answering blogs." Something that has had an impact on my previous students is showing them the wrong and right ways of doing something (it doesn't matter what subject is being taught).

When children blog all in the same area, this could be available for the parents to see their work firsthand. I think that blogging enhances the lesson because if there are children that do not want to raise their hands and "speak" in class, would most likely write more in depth and share more on the blog vs in the classroom. I was one of those children. I would much prefer to write something than to publicly speak in front of anyone! Since then, I have overcome my fear of raising my hand, but it might ease children into it!

The grade I would use it in would be 4th grade, and I would give the children a writing prompt. Starting with something easy to get them used to the blogging atmosphere like what they would like to be when they grow up and why. I would then have them respond to a certain number of classmates, commenting on their career choice. I feel this would be something that each child could relate to each other about. I think every child has thought at one time or another about what they want to be "when they grow up." My rubric would consist of how well they made comments on each others post and how well their writing was. I have always had children that could explain themselves better with writing, than have to answer multiple choice. This is where the future is going, and I believe that the sooner they are exposed to it the better.