Reflection

  In the past six weeks I have set goals to incorporate two items into my classroom and my teaching pedagogy. These two items are the promotion of digital citizenship and improving the design of digital-age learning experiences. With these goals in mind, I embraced many of the ideas put forth in the course. I did not intend for my two goals to be unrealistic, knowing I could adapt them if the effort was more fruitful than I had first planned.

            One of the key items that made a huge difference was the concept of Problem Based Learning (PBL), and how the students work through a major problem or project. I could incorporate the digital citizenship into many smaller lessons, but making the bigger project was the real challenge. Improving the digital learning experience would be improved by the PBL. The benefits of the PBL, specifically those regarding the students learning the content in more of a covert manner, was enticing. Having an authentic learning experience for my students was also something that I had desired to use within a project, and brainstorming some ideas from this class helped me to come up with a project. The students would disregard a real-life restriction in order to create new ideas and use of land within their own community. The students felt as if mathematics was now part of their real lives, using math in such a way to affect their own community.  Using the PBL of a major project, I could actually improve on both of my goals. I enjoyed seeing my students' interest increase based on authentic learning. While in previous attempts to do larger projects saw the students struggle, the students felt a connection to this project; therefore, they pushed through the difficulty. I believe this perseverance was due to the connection to the assignment.

            In order to continue my integration of technology into my classroom, I have adapted lessons to incorporate the responder system in accordance with my original projection of one per week. There has been some increase in the efficiency of my work, but there has not been some kind of magic method to dramatically decrease my time. I have attempted to get other teachers involved with the responder system; however, they have been resistant to the technology. This is surprising to me as their students show a much higher level of engagement. Perhaps they are apprehensive about the technology, their time, or their knowledge of the technology. I must still look for a partner who I can collaborate with on the responders into our Algebra curriculum.

A website and its content that has really gained some traction in my classroom and with my students is VoiceThread.com. This free software mirrors Facebook and social media very closely. There are several key differences with VoiceThread compared to Facebook. VoiceThread is a private community; only my students are members, and they realize that they are being watched and cannot post any inappropriate content. Within these constraints, they collaborate, give opinions, and have a good deal of fun. Several of the parents have commented to me that VoiceThread was the first time they saw their webcams used for schoolwork. I invited the parents to be part of the community in order for them to observe the happenings. I offered to get webcams for the parents if they would reimburse me, and several took me up on the offer. The students have requested we do more work using VoiceThread. I will absolutely look to incorporate VoiceThread into the PBL in my classroom.

            The other area that I can actually continue to improve upon is that of the digital citizenship. The students need to learn the requirements early, and this is best done by setting expectations and modeling good examples. This process needs to start earlier within the school year; essentially as soon as possible. Good habits are easy to maintain once started, and bad habits are difficult to reverse. By modeling examples and including proper digital citizenship into the grading of assignments, this improvement will more of a continuous process rather than a single time event.

 

            The past several weeks have brought several seemingly independent items together to form a basis for change in my classroom and my teaching pedagogy for the better. I feel more comfortable expanding out of the textbook material, and the students have responded in a positive manner. With those two results, I hope to continue along to reach and further enhance my goals.

Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress

Setting goals and trying to accomplish them is a major part of teaching.  I only have been teaching for 3 and a half years now, but I have accomplished a lot.  A GAME plan is not something that we should have just created for our master’s class, but something, which we should have to go by in our everyday teaching.  The game plan that I created for this class are the goals that I am currently working on.  Teaching technology gives me an advantage over other teachers because the students I have are surrounded by technology almost every minute of every day.  They were born into a technological world and as part of my job; I need to show them the “educational” way to incorporate these technologies into their lives.  Discussing and interfacing with current technologies is what I have been doing, but I need to incorporate more real life situations.  I have found that my students connect on a deeper level with matching something to what they are interested in.  I deal with more of the machinery technology then with the computer technology because my school district is a low-income community.  I am teaching my students a life long skill they will help them greatly.  In my 9th grade Algebra 1  class, I spent a couple weeks teaching the tools so that I knew my students could use them.  We then made a mini project so that the students could get the feel for what we are doing and how each machine works.  Now we are in the middle of a major project and about 85 percent of my students are working right along with no problems.

I have been putting a bunch of different mini projects and will start implementing them throughout my classes.  These are more for skill builder than anything.  I have a hard time getting my students to be creative and the only way I can see getting them to think “outside” the box is to make them practice.  I cannot just tell them to be more creative, I must show them.

As a young teacher, I know I still have a lot to learn.  I want to offer my students the best education they can get with the resources that I have available to me.  To accomplish this, I attend at least one conference every year, which is only on technology.  I do a ton of research online looking for new things that I can incorporate into my classroom, and most importantly, I am making community connections.  My first couple of years were a bit intimidating and I kind of kept to myself.  Now that I have some years under my belt and have been granted tenure, I have been working on many things.  I have developed a few community connections, which have benefited my classes greatly.  I have developed a website and have been keeping the community updated with what is going on in my class.  The outpouring of support for my classes has been amazing.  By keeping my community updated, they are in full support of what I am doing and teaching my students.

GAME plan continue

Now that I have put together my GAME plan, I need to figure out what it is going to take to get my GAME plan ready to implement.  My co-workers play a vital role in my success as a teacher.  I have many days where I pick their brain for ideas regarding many different aspects of my class.  They are always willing to help me out and give me ideas.   Teaching technology, which is considered a specials area, I work closely with the art teacher who is right next store.  We sometimes combine ideas to work cross-curricular to give the students more experiences.  Working with other classes, I will create many different mini-projects which will give the students more challenging projects and ones which will help teach them to be more creative and think outside the box. The projects I create will give the students experience in more than one area of technology.  In a school, which is in a low-income very rural area, it is harder to give the students the experiences they are going to see out in the real world.  Slowly I am getting more of those experiences into the classroom.  Most of my students use cell phones and ipods, incorporating those into a project is definitely on my list.

More of my projects will take place in the computer lab.  More and more jobs are becoming involved in the field of technology.  It is crucial that my students get as much experience in technology as possible.  Part of my goal is to introduce them to at least 3 new areas of technology in the first couple weeks.

Besides needing input from my colleagues, computers, the smart board in my classroom, I will be needed materials and supplies for my classroom.  My classroom budget plays a vital role in determining what I can actually do with my students.  I have been lucky so far to not get it cut.  Some supplies I can get donated, some I will bring in from home and others I will buy from the local stores.  I will also have students bring some in for their own use.  Another key aspect that I will introduce them too is recycling.  Reusing the materials for another purpose is a great way to help save money in my classroom.

Making community connections and keeping the community updated on what we are doing in class goes a long way with keeping the program around.  Parts of my projects always include working with the community directly or indirectly.  My students need to learn what valuable resources they have to use. 

To make myself more up to date on what is happening in the field of technology, I attend conferences every year.  This not only benefits myself as a teacher but also benefits my students greatly.  I get introduced to many of the newest technologies that are coming out, get valuable resources to use and gain much knowledge of what other technology teachers are doing in their classrooms.  I will always be gaining new information and building my resources, which will help me teach my students what they need to know to be successful in high school and there lives.

G.A.M.E. for Self-Directed Learners

After reading through the National Educational Technology Standards for Students, there are two areas I need to work on to increase my confidence with technology in the classroom.  Teaching technology has opened my eyes to many things.  I have figured out that most students do not know how to read a ruler, all they want to do is cut wood and getting them to sit in their seat for more than 10 minutes to go over a lesson or introduce a project is a challenge.  One themes that keeps happenings is that students have no inspiration or creativity anymore.  I find that I have to keep hinting ideas to my students until then come up with something that will solve the problem but is not the most creative thing in the world.

The first part of my GAME plan is going to be in the section: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity under section (b) which states engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).  Determining goals to set, actions to take, how to monitor progress and how to evaluate the learning that is taking place will be the major challenge.  My goals are to create real life projects, which get the students to think outside the box.  One idea I have is using an article that is written about a city in Brazil and how the engineers are always thinking ahead when building the city.  We could use virtual tour or Google Maps to look through the city. 

My math classes are, where students create their own projects has become somewhat of a nightmare.  They need more guidance than just reviewing the project and letting them go.  My goals would be to create mini projects, which would help students to open there mind to creativity.  My actions would be to implement the projects and to make sure that students are understanding the concepts and presenting the results.  Monitoring and evaluating can take place once the project has been started.

The second part of my GAME plan is to dip into section number 5: Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership concentrating on part (b) which states: exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).  .  Growing as a teacher is part of the job as far as I am concerned.  I have been teaching for about 5 years and I have been to at least one conference every year.  Growth is a very important aspect because not only are we growing as individuals but also we are working together to build a better school.  My goals for this section are to become a leader in getting more technology involved in my classroom and working closer with my colleagues to make sure that we are incorporating technology as much as possible.  Living in a digital society, technology is about as common with our students as peanut butter and jelly.  It is everywhere they turn.  Working in a low-income area, many of my students do not have access to the most high tech gadgets.  Another one of my goals is to make sure all of my students get introduced to a technology such as a computer to develop some basic skills which will be very important to them as they get closer to entering the work force.  Not only do my students need to develop their skills, I also need to develop my teaching skills and grow as a professional. Another goal of mine is to attend more conferences.  I have built quite a connection with many teachers around Montana, which allows me to trade information which them.  This is a very handy resource to have because it gives more variety to my students.

 I have been trying to cross-curricular with many of my colleagues for a while now.  I would like to try and built upon that relationship to incorporate more classes with mine.  For the past 3 years my students have built the props for the drama production.  Not only does this benefit the drama students with nice sets to work with, but the art class gets experience painting and my class gets experience working with tools, reading blueprints and hands-on construction. 

Part of my goal is to make better community connections and to make sure the community knows what we are doing in my classroom.  This can be very intimidating because sometimes change is not welcome in a system that has been operating without change for quite some time.  The community support is what keeps the school alive; tapping into this resource would be beneficial to all students, not just the ones in my classes.  It would also benefit me greatly because once those connections are made, we can begin to built long lasting relationships.

International Society for Technology in Education.  (2008).  Iste NETS-T, Advancing Digital Age Teaching.  Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx.