GAME Plan Review

While reflecting on my GAME plan, I am pleased to say that I have made quite a bit of progress. I have already attended a couple of conferences in the area, and have sat in on some webinars. All of these experiences helped me gather new ideas and strategies that I am excited to implement into my class next year. The evaluation of this goal will happen once I try these new strategies with my students. However, I realize this may lead to new goals, but I am excited to try them out.

What I realized going through my GAME plan is that I already do these steps. Now I am categorizing them into the four defined areas. As teachers, we are expected to set goals for our students and our lessons. It should also be a natural idea to make goals for ourselves. One of my goals is to receive my masters' degree. I am in the action and monitoring stage of this goal right now. I may not have specifically laid out my goal in the GAME plan format, but I am following the steps all the same. When we set goals for our students and lessons, we determine how the lesson will be executed and the assessment method we will use. This, again, follows the GAME plan format.

It would be interesting to have students create their own GAME plans at the beginning of the school year. After going through the overview of the course, students could choose an area they would like to work on specifically for their goal. This could be something simple like improving their technology skills or maybe finding ways to transfer the content we learn into other classrooms. They could come up with something more challenging, if they choose. Regardless, setting the timeframe within our 20 week course would provide students with ample time to work towards their goal, while getting through the steps of the GAME plan efficiently.They would not have to set it up as a GAME plan, exactly, but if they set a goal and determine action steps, they will be able to naturally monitor and evaluate their plan given time in class to do so.

I am very excited to enhance the technology use in my classroom. This seems strange since I teach a computer class. But I have expanded the list of technology applications that I could incorporate. For example, instead of just using PowerPoint or Google Presentation, students could also use Prezi, Haiki Deck, SlideShare, and many other applications. I really think students will appreciate having more options than I currently give, and will be able to better apply what they learn into other classes and future projects.

While I already use problem-based learning and digital storytelling in my class, I am looking forward to expanding on the blogging realm for my students. I implemented blogs into one of my classes this past semester, and had great success. With a few tweaks and updates, I think students will enjoy using blogs and will learn the value of collaboration with feedback from peers. I will continue to look at various ways PBL and digital storytelling can be expanded to provide a quality experience for my students, and am looking forward to working with my PLC to encourage more of these types of strategies in other classrooms.

GAME Plan Updates

This has been an interesting week, as we have finished school and the focus has been in tying up loose ends, final exams, posting grades, and cleaning up our rooms. Because of this, my GAME plan has made minimal progress. My personnel resources have been unavailable as they focus on their own year-end tasks.

I was able to find some time to work on it, as I knew that I needed to make it a priority if I wanted to stay motivated. In the time that I had, I reviewed my compiled list of conferences and webinars that I felt would help me in becoming a better educator and help my classes to be more engaging and authentic. This was a fun task for me, as I was able to further explore the initial list and found a small handful of my priority learning events. These are the conferences and webinars that I will be presenting to my principal as the top choice events.

For my second goal of widening the variety of assessment tools that I use, I have been in continuous contact with our technology coordinator and my colleagues to gather ideas and best practices. This week I am attending the teacher quality professional development day offered at our school. Two of the sessions that I am attending are focused on assessments and differentiation. I am very excited about these, and am hopeful that I am able to get some good resources from them.

At this point, I am still pleased with my action plan. Throughout the summer, I will be spending a lot of time determining appropriate assessment tools for my classes from what I have gathered. I am looking forward to the learning opportunities that I have committed to, and am excited to be able to apply what I learn to my plans for next school year.

The biggest thing that I have learned to this point is that there are a lot of teachers out there that are willing to share their ideas and best practices. I have known this to a certain extent, but the amount of responses I have received just in my building alone is astonishing. These responses have even come from the teachers who generally do not participate in these types of email requests. I am very pleased and encouraged by these responses, and will definitely continue to call upon my colleagues for ideas in the future.

One question that I have in regards to my GAME plan is: what types of webinars or other online sessions have other teachers attended or researched that may help me in finding assessment tools or new uses for technology? I have been asking my school colleagues, but I would like to expand into the blogging world. If you have resources, or even best practices that you're willing to share, I would love to hear from you!

Gathering Resources

As I review my GAME plan, I see places where resources and information will be required in order for the plan to be effective.

First and foremost, I need administrative support. I will be working closely with my building principal to find conferences that will help my professional growth. I will also need to work with our Technology Coordinator in finding technology-based assessment tools.

As I begin my search for assessment tools, I will need access to online resources, as well as my peers. I will be counting on the feedback of my colleagues to gather opinions on the usability and application of the various tools they currently use. I think an initial survey through Google Forms will be helpful in gathering ideas from my colleagues, allowing them to describe the tools they use while collecting the data in an easy-to-read format.

I am excited to begin my GAME plan adventure. Both of my goals will be much easier to carry out if I have all of the resources ready and available. I know through discussions that I already have my principal and some of my colleagues ready to help me achieve my goals, which will go a long way.

If you have any input on ways I can continue to improve upon my GAME plan, I would appreciate your comments.

GAME Plan

In order to continue to increase my own knowledge and development, I have come up with a personal GAME plan. This plan is to help increase my own skill set in order to provide a better learning experience for my students.

My GAME plan is as follows:

1.      Set Goals

a.      I would like to find or develop multiple and varied formative and summative assessments that align with content and technology standards. This is ISTE-T standard 2d. While I currently use a few types of assessments to gauge student progress, I have found it difficult to vary my assessments for my computer classes. I would like to find new ways to assess students in a way that is more engaging to them. I will explore this goal throughout the rest of this school year.

b.      In order to improve my professional practice and model lifelong learning, I would like to participate in more local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning, which is ISTE-T standard 5a. This is something I have wanted to do for a while, but have not been able to make work. Attending conferences, webinars, and other learning opportunities is a great way to gather new ideas and collaborate with other educators. I would like to spend my summer exploring opportunities available and beginning to attend these learning events so I am ready to implement the new technology applications at the beginning of the next school year.

2.      Plan Actions

a.      I have set up a meeting with our technology director to discuss what types of assessment tools are available for our school. I have also become engaged in online research to find other ways to assess my students, and will speak with my PLC and other colleagues to help develop my list of tools.

b.      Working with my building principal, I have found a couple of potential conferences I can attend this June which are focused on technology in the classroom. I have also signed up for some webinars through Adobe, which should help in developing ideas for new and innovative projects in my graphic design class.

3.      Monitor Actions

a.      I will implement the assessment tools that I find and am introduced to in my classes. There will be a trial period for each of them while I determine if the assessment tool is appropriate for my classes or not. While this will be easily determined prior to use for some tools, others will need to be tested with students before any decisions are made.

b.      I will develop a portfolio of things that I learn at conferences and webinars. This portfolio will include a description of the technology application, along with a list of potential uses in each class that I teach.

4.      Evaluate Actions

a.      Evaluating the success of this goal will be in determining if the assessment tools were engaging and provided accurate information in regards to student progress and understanding. If I am not able to see these types of results of the assessment, I will need to try a different tool.

b.      While the development of this goal will be an ongoing process, I plan on sharing the portfolio with my PLC to determine the usefulness of the technology applications that I learn about. With the help of my PLC, I will be able to find the most appropriate uses for each application and even come up with other ideas that I had not previously discovered.

This is a basic draft of my GAME plan. While I put a timeframe on both of my goals, realistically they will both be ongoing as I aim to become a better and more innovative teacher. I am open to ideas and suggestions for how to improve this plan, especially in regards to the evaluation process.

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.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Putting it all together

At the beginning of this course, I stated that my personal learning theory was that students will learn from experiencing various instructional strategies, calling upon prior knowledge, and being active in their own learning. This theory falls in line most specifically with the behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism theories. Thinking about everything that I have learned, I would only modify this by adding an element of technology. I think that I would be fooling myself if I thought that students today learned completely without technology. I believe it could still be done, but with so many forms of technology available and being used in society, learning without technology is not reality. Technology adds efficiency and expands on the capabilities of students tremendously. Therefore, my new personal learning theory is such that students will learn from experience various instructional strategies, calling upon prior knowledge, utilizing various technology tools, and being active in their own learning.

I have spent time each week of this course thinking about what I could change in my own classroom in regards to technology to make it better for my students. One thing that I have started and will be really emphasizing on after winter break is the use of blogs. I have started having my students respond to blog posts for exit slips, which has been a seamless process. I will continue to do this, but I will also have students begin their own blogs. This will be a great way for parents to become more informed about their students learning, and is a great way for students to communicate about the classroom topics. I am excited about this prospect and seeing where it takes my classroom.

Two new technology tools that I would like to infuse into my class are wikis and concept mapping tools. Wikis are similar to blogs, but instead of just one student writing their thoughts and other students commenting, students can better collaborate on the content. I have hesitated to use wikis because of my unfamiliarity with them, but after using one in my last class and reading more about them in this course, I’m encouraged to incorporate them into my classroom. With wikis, students can all contribute to the page, add links and references where necessary, and can even contribute to other groups’ wikis if they are set up right. The possibilities with wikis are extremely endless, as it is truly student-driven and project-based learning through and through. Concept maps are a very easy way to get students to take notes and begin to determine how things are or are not related. Programs such as Inspiration or websites like www.SpiderScribe.net are easy to use and help students stay very organized throughout their notes. I have found that oftentimes students just need some help organizing their thoughts or notes, and their notebook doesn’t have enough room to do this efficiently. This is one of the great advantages of a computer-based concept map. Instead of spending time trying to decipher their scribbles, students can focus on the topics and ideas themselves and can begin to apply them. (Pitler, Hubbell & Kuhn, 2012)

One change I would like to implement is the use of a screen capturing application. I would like to start by capturing my own lessons on the computer, along with my voice, to 1) provide students with reinforcement of the lesson at any time, and 2) ensure students who may have missed my class don’t miss any of the content. While there are several advantages to capturing your lessons, these are two that I would like to focus on. I’m sure that every teacher has had those students who constantly request for you to go over something again. This is not a problem until they are at home doing their homework and their teacher is not there with them.  Having access to the recorded lesson will help students to become more comfortable with the material should any questions or confusion arise. We also have all had students miss some of the most important lessons, even multiple lessons in a row. This puts them severely behind, sometimes putting them in a declining position within the class and their grades. Instead of having them trying to double up on their work to catch up, students could easily watch the lesson at home and not miss anything that went on for that class. The advantages are truly endless, in my opinion, and it is something that I would really like to start doing next semester. Eventually, I would like students to be able to capture their own screens for projects.

A second change for my classroom would be to increase the collaborative work that is done. I have had a hard time trying to find regular group activities within my computer classes since I want them all to be able to show me their understanding of the skills. I have started using Google Drive for this, as it is the perfect online collaboration tool. However, I would like to find new ways to implement this. I have had them creating group presentations and documents, but I want to challenge them in new ways. If I can find new activities to do, I feel I would be greatly benefiting my students and would better prepare them for their future.

I am really excited about the new resources and ideas I have obtained throughout this course. My students will benefit immensely, and I know I will become a better teacher, as well. I am even more excited to start sharing these tools and strategies with my colleagues and coming up with ways to improve our school overall.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD

Learning...socially

Collaboration in the classroom has been the primary focus of our professional development this year. Our school leaders have seen the importance of having the students work together for a common goal, and have encouraged us, as teachers, to try different strategies in our classrooms. This is what the social learning theory is all about. We want students to work together, whether they are using technology or not, in order to ultimately help each other learn. Dr. Orey mentioned Lev Vygotsky and his point about having a “more knowledgeable other” who will help the student along the way (Laureate Education, 2011). I have seen students trying to learn from various people, including parents, teachers, peers, and technology as Dr. Orey suggests (Laureate Education, 2011). From my experience, students learn best from each other. They speak each other’s language, share interests, and have the natural ability to bring the content to life as it applies to them. As teachers, we try to do this every day. But unless we are in the role of one of our students completely, we will never truly understand them as their peers can.

Technology can be a great instrument in the social learning theory. Google Drive is regularly used in my classroom. This is, in my opinion, one of the easiest ways to get students to work collaboratively. Pitler, Hubbell, and Kuhn (2012) mention Google Drive applications several times within their collaborative learning section. Students can be at their own homes and still work together on a project. Two features that I really like about Google Drive is the chat feature and the comments feature. Students today live in the world of texting. Chatting on Google Drive is like the computer version of texts. They can communicate instantly and give and get ideas or suggestions to help improve their overall project. The comments feature is perfect for providing feedback. This could come from either a peer or a teacher. The comment gets put into a bubble on the side of the document for easy viewing, all while leaving the original document in its proper form.

Another technology tool that I am interested in, but have not used, is The Sims (http://thesims.ea.com). We all played the various Sims growing up and know how much fun it is to build a community, a farm, or even an amusement park. The Sims today is more collaborative and focuses on daily life (Pitler, et al., 2012). This would be a great collaborative tool for a class that is focused on culture, or possibly even just for use as a discussion tool. Instead of actually doing the face-to-face interaction, students can be at their own computers working on a project, but using the simulation game as a place to ask questions or get ideas for their project.

The social learning theory is one that is extremely prevalent in student learning today. If we continue to encourage students to work together when appropriate, and show them the various tools available to help them along the way, we could see tremendous things happening in our classrooms.

A third example of a technology that can be used for collaborative work is a VoiceThread. As an example, I have created a VoiceThread that I can show my students as an introduction to a collaborative project. The wonderful thing about VoiceThread is the ability for other people to comment on the work. They can either type their comments or record them through audio. Check it out and see what you think: My VoiceThread.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program eight: Constructionist and constructivist learning theories [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E.R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA”ASCD.

Constructionism In All It's Glory

Constructionism is one of those theories that just makes sense to me. While all theories have a place in my class, this one is front and center every day. The idea behind the constructionism theory is that students create an artifact to share with others in order to learn (Laureate Education, 2011). One class that I teach is focused on using Adobe software applications to design and create various products. The class is set up so that students engage in a lot of self-discovery. In my experience with technology and students today, this is the best way for them to learn. They are constantly using their phones or ipods, helping them to establish a specific schema about how technologies work in their lives. In my class, I encourage students to call upon their prior understandings and see what connections they can make with the new applications. This is an accommodation mechanism, but also encourages assimilation in regards to the new software (Laureate Education, 2011).

Throughout the process of using the new software to create products such as logos, business cards, advertisements, and other items, students are forming hypotheses in their minds about how the tools of the software work and what the final product will look like (Pitler, Hubbell, & Kuhn, 2012). In order to further encourage the development of these hypotheses, I may pair up the students so they can discuss their ideas with a partner. This has helped open up the lines of communication in my class to the point that I do not have to direct the students to partner up any more. They are constantly working together or discussing a tool or topic of the software, then taking what they discussed back to their products to test it out and see how it works. If it does not turn out to be what they are looking for, they automatically turn back to their partner, or maybe even a different one, to help generate new ideas and hypotheses (Pitler, et al, 2012). Finally, I have the students record their hypotheses and findings into a blog. We use a secure blog resource called Kidblog (www.kidblog.org). This is a way for them to communicate their thoughts and participate in a discussion regarding what tools and processes did and did not work throughout the project (Pitler, et al, 2012). The blog follows along with the constructionism theory in a simple and natural way, as students have to think through the process and call upon existing schema to help discover and communicate new ideas and understandings as they work to link the knowledge to their current situation (Laureate Education, 2011).

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program seven: Constructionist and constructivist 

learning theories [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learnCourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E.R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA”ASCD.