After taking this course, I have used the GAME plan, not only in developing future lesson plans, but also in everyday life skills. Being able to organize your thoughts and information gained is vital to create a path in achieving your goals. By mastering the organizing life skills, I will be able to use this strategy for lesson plans as well as passing this strategy to my students in creating more meaningful goals along with achieving them.
After exploring all the useful applications on Facebook for students to use for collaboration, I came to a realization that schools may not allow the usage of such social site. As the course moved on, I have discovered Ning.com that Vicki Davis (2009) suggested to use in its place. In the beginning of my GAME plan, I wanted to strengthen my lesson plans with more meaningful and authentic lessons for my students. In order to do this, I created a discussion with former colleagues to collaborate in creating authentic math lessons. Surfing the internet was another way since it is full of resourceful information on web 2.0 since we all want our students to be successful in their learning. Having the GAME plan provides more relevancies while creating my lesson plan. As for my second goal, implementing more technology into my lesson plan than just PowerPoint presentation or streaming, the resources provided in this course, inspired me to expand my horizons and experiment with what is out there on the internet and seek more tools to use in my lessons.
Immediate adjustments to my lesson plans would be incorporating technology to aid in memory retention rather than just utilizing technology because research states that more learning happens in a 21st century classroom. Technology should be used as an aid. After creating the lesson plan using storytelling, I find it intriguing of what students can do by using their creativity when given the chance.
This course was packed with information and resources to incorporate into the 21st century classroom, as well as a new way of organizing skills, setting goals, and planning on how to achieve them. I am looking forward to another course filled with this type of information to help my future students to become more successful.
Resourceful:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Student ISTE NETS GAME Plan (week 7)
After viewing the ISTE NETS for students, I see that my students are successful with just understanding the basic operations of a computer. They are able to type a letter and add a clip art to a document file, as well as having the ability to surf the internet.
However, I feel that my students need to develop more awareness of the internet of validating information on the internet and understand the danger that lurks within it. Also, when researching, students need to understand that using the information from someone; they would have to cite in order to give the person, who wrote it, credit. As my some of my students, they learned how to search information on the internet, however, they spend more time clicking to see if the site is what they are looking for and if not, then they continue to look. My students need to work on social and ethical uses of technology, using technology for collaboration, and research tools from the ISTE NETS for students.
As I experienced the GAME Plan way of thinking, I feel that students and the teacher (me) should set a goal to emphasis on and take a few minutes to brainstorm the GAME Plan with them. Because students come up with the goals, they will be more apt to work on it and focus their attention. With a GAME Plan on the wall for that class, students will see it every day when they come into the classroom as a reminder. This allows students to have some additional help in their organizing skills for the future as well as having students develop metacognitively.
As for ,my GAME plan, my goal is for my students to master at least 5 out of 6 ISTE NETS by the time they reach 11th grade. My action is to allow my students to set their goals and plan how they will achieve them. The monitoring for this task is by observations and they meeting the standards of mathematics using the technology assigned to them. Evaluation will be part of the monitoring, however at the end of the goal or project, positive and negative events must be recorded so that the following year, the same mistakes will be avoided.
However, I feel that my students need to develop more awareness of the internet of validating information on the internet and understand the danger that lurks within it. Also, when researching, students need to understand that using the information from someone; they would have to cite in order to give the person, who wrote it, credit. As my some of my students, they learned how to search information on the internet, however, they spend more time clicking to see if the site is what they are looking for and if not, then they continue to look. My students need to work on social and ethical uses of technology, using technology for collaboration, and research tools from the ISTE NETS for students.
As I experienced the GAME Plan way of thinking, I feel that students and the teacher (me) should set a goal to emphasis on and take a few minutes to brainstorm the GAME Plan with them. Because students come up with the goals, they will be more apt to work on it and focus their attention. With a GAME Plan on the wall for that class, students will see it every day when they come into the classroom as a reminder. This allows students to have some additional help in their organizing skills for the future as well as having students develop metacognitively.
As for ,my GAME plan, my goal is for my students to master at least 5 out of 6 ISTE NETS by the time they reach 11th grade. My action is to allow my students to set their goals and plan how they will achieve them. The monitoring for this task is by observations and they meeting the standards of mathematics using the technology assigned to them. Evaluation will be part of the monitoring, however at the end of the goal or project, positive and negative events must be recorded so that the following year, the same mistakes will be avoided.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
The GAME Plan Continued... (Week 6)
As I explored the Facebook application, I felt that it was going to be quite useful in many ways. But it has come to my attention that many students may not be able to access it through the school system until it is approved with the school and having this social site unblocked. I am exploring Ning, something that Vicki (2009) suggested for “educational networking”. I want to be able to understand it and seems like it will be like Facebook. I have thought about the “tagging” that Vicki (2009) mentioned in the DVD. Perhaps this will help solve some of the challenges that I may have in the future. As for the first goal of creating authentic lessons for my students, I feel that I have come to the conclusion that creating these lessons, maybe two time a year will not be too overwhelming. Trying to make every lesson authentic all at once in a year is quite tiring, and I do not want to be burned out in trying to make great lesson plans. I am still connected to my former colleagues and mentors to receive ideas of creating authentic lesson plans. We collaborate together and receive a better product then I expected. Because this is online collaboration, the collaborating part is slow since we all have teaching jobs and creating out our lesson plans since we are all on different levels of mathematics.
I would love to continue working on the authentic lesson plans even after I have graduated from this program since it takes time to create a well-thought-out lesson plan. Doing a few a year will be more effective and will accumulate more over the years to become a better teacher. As for the social networking, I would like to explore Ning more and perhaps, the school will be more willing to unblock this site since it is for educational collaboration.
I feel that I have not met my goals completely until a few years later for creating authentic lesson plans. As for the social networking, I feel Ning is like Facebook, thus I will be able to pick up on it and its uses in a few short uses. I would like to work on legal matters for the internet such as copy rights and what can be used in the classroom, and what can I print and how many. I enjoy knowing all the laws since I want my students to have respect for other people’s property, thus I need to demonstrate this by following the rules of the internet.
I believe I just need to spend more time exploring and reflecting on what I can do with my new knowledge once it has been explored. Finding faculty or connect with other teachers, then communicating with them about internet use for the curriculum will be most helpful so I can teach my content, still meeting the standards, and exposing our students to new technology they will need in their future.
Reference:Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.
I would love to continue working on the authentic lesson plans even after I have graduated from this program since it takes time to create a well-thought-out lesson plan. Doing a few a year will be more effective and will accumulate more over the years to become a better teacher. As for the social networking, I would like to explore Ning more and perhaps, the school will be more willing to unblock this site since it is for educational collaboration.
I feel that I have not met my goals completely until a few years later for creating authentic lesson plans. As for the social networking, I feel Ning is like Facebook, thus I will be able to pick up on it and its uses in a few short uses. I would like to work on legal matters for the internet such as copy rights and what can be used in the classroom, and what can I print and how many. I enjoy knowing all the laws since I want my students to have respect for other people’s property, thus I need to demonstrate this by following the rules of the internet.
I believe I just need to spend more time exploring and reflecting on what I can do with my new knowledge once it has been explored. Finding faculty or connect with other teachers, then communicating with them about internet use for the curriculum will be most helpful so I can teach my content, still meeting the standards, and exposing our students to new technology they will need in their future.
Reference:Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
The GAME Plan Continue (week 5)
As I am continuing my journey on the GAME Plan, I have to admit that my action plans are going well, and been brought some additional information from my colleagues. For example, the Facebook application page suggestions for students that Miriam. I thank you for the wonderful applications all in one page. My students will definitely benefit from this, from organizing their work, and additional tutoring. I also joined the “I AM TEACHER” from Facebook so I can expand my connection from not only just my former cohorts, but to all networks around the world. Also, this application allows you to download visuals of all sorts for different subjects for free under “freebies”, and of course, the other downloads are for a price.
So far, I am still playing with the applications, and just getting to know how to use VoiceThread more. I might start using introducing the Facebook applications for organizing for my tutorees. I also might started a Twitter as Diana suggested to post my lesson plans, instead of a blog.
Right now, I am just infatuated with the applications on Facebook, and would like to know how it works and the VoiceThread as well. Perhaps, just asking, what lesson can I use this on? What will the principal say to this if the website was blocked at school? How will I teach my students how to use this application in school and still be able to teach the TEKS? I am sure these are common questions that many would ask.
As of right now, I would like to test some of these applications and implementations on my tutorees. That way I know what I am up against. I can see what the timing will be for students to learn how to use these applications as well as any other integrated piece of technology.
So far, I am still playing with the applications, and just getting to know how to use VoiceThread more. I might start using introducing the Facebook applications for organizing for my tutorees. I also might started a Twitter as Diana suggested to post my lesson plans, instead of a blog.
Right now, I am just infatuated with the applications on Facebook, and would like to know how it works and the VoiceThread as well. Perhaps, just asking, what lesson can I use this on? What will the principal say to this if the website was blocked at school? How will I teach my students how to use this application in school and still be able to teach the TEKS? I am sure these are common questions that many would ask.
As of right now, I would like to test some of these applications and implementations on my tutorees. That way I know what I am up against. I can see what the timing will be for students to learn how to use these applications as well as any other integrated piece of technology.
Monday, November 23, 2009
The GAME plan Continue…. (week 4)
So far, I am doing well on my GAME plan. My goal for creating more authentic lessons for my students is going well. I have more and more people coming in to join my Facebook. I still feel that I might have to supplement internet resources over the Facebook application since most of the teachers are extremely busy. I have learned that communication with both experienced and inexperienced teachers is a plus since everyone has something to contribute. Some questions so far that has arise are, Are there other ways of doing this? What are some modifications for students who are so behind, that they are still in my classroom, but they are not graded on the level. How will I continue to engage them in the real life experience but not lose the rest of the class?
As for incorporating more technology into my classroom, I find it nice to have support from my former teachers, professors, and colleagues. Although some of them are very fearful of technology, but in the end, they contribute to the collaboration. I am now enjoying just playing with voicethread so I can create more lesson plans with this until I play with additional software. I enjoy Geometer’s Sketchpad to be a tool to use in the next year. I am ready to start the New Year with more knowledge up my sleeves to better our future society.
As for incorporating more technology into my classroom, I find it nice to have support from my former teachers, professors, and colleagues. Although some of them are very fearful of technology, but in the end, they contribute to the collaboration. I am now enjoying just playing with voicethread so I can create more lesson plans with this until I play with additional software. I enjoy Geometer’s Sketchpad to be a tool to use in the next year. I am ready to start the New Year with more knowledge up my sleeves to better our future society.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The GAME progress (week 3)
Goal 1: To create more authentic real life lessons to engage my students in critical thinking.
My goal seems to be like many novice teachers, having not enough experience in creating life like lessons in the world of mathematics. Often in this subject area, we have many students with a variety of learning styles and with many gaps to go along with this already challenging scenario.
My action last week was to invite teachers that I formerly work with to my Facebook. By becoming friends, we are able to share ideas when possible. Most of my colleagues have access to Facebook with their mobile phones since this wonderful collaborative software is blocked from their school. This allowed me to ask questions creating a nice atmosphere to collaborate and anyone who is willing or is fascinated will read or contribute. So far, I have had a few hits with discussions. Not only is this a great way to collaborate, but also a great way to record data and keeping it onto a server where I have the ability to access anywhere as long as there is internet. Another action that I did was to manually call my student teaching mentor and the head department of mathematics to ask for advice on certain lesson plans that I tended to have low success levels. While engaged in conversation with my mentors, I have the ability to take notes on my lesson plans, and take time to reevaluate what I have to enrich the lessons for better success. In addition to these steps I have taken, I would also need to purchase a large binder to hold all my revised lessons so that I all my new lessons will be in order and ready to be executed.
Because this is the beginning of my journey through the GAME plan (2009), I feel that I am not completely into the program yet, but just getting it started so that next week, the collaboration will begin on a larger note. I understand that teachers are very busy with their own lesson plans, and that is where Facebook becomes so convenient. By revising my lesson plans, I will see more engagement of the students, as well as better scores, and better attitudes. Hopefully, I will have great collaboration on my Facebook and a nice large notebook full of new ideas in my revised lesson plans.
For my evaluation, I have not accomplished much, just a little bit of collaboration with my former mentors. I have learned much and in hopes to become like them in the future. I know I will be there. For now, I am still in the beginning of the stages, thus it is too early to evaluate.
Goal 2: To incorporate more technology into the classroom not limiting to PowerPoint and streaming.
My action for this goal is to again collaborate with my colleagues and former mentors. However, since they are more helpful in creating the lesson, the Instructor of Technology may be more helpful in this case. This week, I was not able to collaborate with him, however hopefully I will in the future during this course. For the meantime, I will collaborate with my colleagues in Walden University and read more than the necessary required readings to expand my knowledge of the new technology in the corporate world. As for my Facebook, I have become a friend to an Examiner of local Dallas for Technology. Every week, I see a piece of writing about new software or new ways of using software on my Home page. Though his is just beginning his Examiner career, I cannot wait until he starts to find more and more information to where he is putting a posting a day. Also, I have added some technology blogs in blog reader to view what is new or the talk about in the future. It is interesting to see what is happening and what is developing as well. Not only is this great, but sometimes deals on the internet are advertised, for example, I was able to download two types of software for free when they would have initially cost $50 if downloaded some other time. Although, they are just converters, but it would be nice to convert an .avi to DVD format. If you have a student that is having trouble, you could make a video and send it home. They would be able to play it in their DVD players. This will help if I am absent, they can watch a video of me teaching, causing the class to not be behind so much upon my arrival. The materials that I need are my laptop, converting software, blank DVDs and CDs, Facebook, internet, and my blog.
As for my monitoring, just watching my technology use in the classroom is great way to indicate if I am using technology to enrich my lessons. Also, a binder with many saved streaming and DVDs as well, so I will be able to do this again with future students.
For my evaluation, I feel it is a little too early to evaluate my progress since this is only the beginning of the journey for this goal.
My goal seems to be like many novice teachers, having not enough experience in creating life like lessons in the world of mathematics. Often in this subject area, we have many students with a variety of learning styles and with many gaps to go along with this already challenging scenario.
My action last week was to invite teachers that I formerly work with to my Facebook. By becoming friends, we are able to share ideas when possible. Most of my colleagues have access to Facebook with their mobile phones since this wonderful collaborative software is blocked from their school. This allowed me to ask questions creating a nice atmosphere to collaborate and anyone who is willing or is fascinated will read or contribute. So far, I have had a few hits with discussions. Not only is this a great way to collaborate, but also a great way to record data and keeping it onto a server where I have the ability to access anywhere as long as there is internet. Another action that I did was to manually call my student teaching mentor and the head department of mathematics to ask for advice on certain lesson plans that I tended to have low success levels. While engaged in conversation with my mentors, I have the ability to take notes on my lesson plans, and take time to reevaluate what I have to enrich the lessons for better success. In addition to these steps I have taken, I would also need to purchase a large binder to hold all my revised lessons so that I all my new lessons will be in order and ready to be executed.
Because this is the beginning of my journey through the GAME plan (2009), I feel that I am not completely into the program yet, but just getting it started so that next week, the collaboration will begin on a larger note. I understand that teachers are very busy with their own lesson plans, and that is where Facebook becomes so convenient. By revising my lesson plans, I will see more engagement of the students, as well as better scores, and better attitudes. Hopefully, I will have great collaboration on my Facebook and a nice large notebook full of new ideas in my revised lesson plans.
For my evaluation, I have not accomplished much, just a little bit of collaboration with my former mentors. I have learned much and in hopes to become like them in the future. I know I will be there. For now, I am still in the beginning of the stages, thus it is too early to evaluate.
Goal 2: To incorporate more technology into the classroom not limiting to PowerPoint and streaming.
My action for this goal is to again collaborate with my colleagues and former mentors. However, since they are more helpful in creating the lesson, the Instructor of Technology may be more helpful in this case. This week, I was not able to collaborate with him, however hopefully I will in the future during this course. For the meantime, I will collaborate with my colleagues in Walden University and read more than the necessary required readings to expand my knowledge of the new technology in the corporate world. As for my Facebook, I have become a friend to an Examiner of local Dallas for Technology. Every week, I see a piece of writing about new software or new ways of using software on my Home page. Though his is just beginning his Examiner career, I cannot wait until he starts to find more and more information to where he is putting a posting a day. Also, I have added some technology blogs in blog reader to view what is new or the talk about in the future. It is interesting to see what is happening and what is developing as well. Not only is this great, but sometimes deals on the internet are advertised, for example, I was able to download two types of software for free when they would have initially cost $50 if downloaded some other time. Although, they are just converters, but it would be nice to convert an .avi to DVD format. If you have a student that is having trouble, you could make a video and send it home. They would be able to play it in their DVD players. This will help if I am absent, they can watch a video of me teaching, causing the class to not be behind so much upon my arrival. The materials that I need are my laptop, converting software, blank DVDs and CDs, Facebook, internet, and my blog.
As for my monitoring, just watching my technology use in the classroom is great way to indicate if I am using technology to enrich my lessons. Also, a binder with many saved streaming and DVDs as well, so I will be able to do this again with future students.
For my evaluation, I feel it is a little too early to evaluate my progress since this is only the beginning of the journey for this goal.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
The GAME
Every person in the world should always have goals in their life so that they have a reason to keep living, the same idea in the 21st teaching realm. We, as teachers, should always have goals so that we have a reason to continue our profession. As a student teacher, my mentor taught me only how to direct teach, while working on my masters, I feel there are topics to learn and goals that needs to be set and reached in order to fully feel accomplishment in our teaching career. After reviewing the NETS-T, I see the broad spectrum of what needs to be learned in order to enrich my curriculum. As a professional, setting goals and viewing what my weaknesses and strengths are as equally important as to understanding the curriculum. By using the “GAME”, suggested by Dr. Cennamo (2009), this will help aid me in the process of creating my goals and accomplishing the as well.
Strengths
I feel my knowledge of using technology to teach in a classroom, such as using PowerPoint presentations or online streaming, is a strong point in my teaching career. Also, I encourage my students to be creative in developing a way for them to remember mathematic process. This is an example of promoting creativity in the classroom. Promoting collaboration is another strong point that I have. The ability in working together as a team is an important asset in our students’ lives and their future.
Weaknesses
Some of my weaknesses are probably common to for the novice teacher, such as creating authentic lessons that contain real life situations for our students every day. As for a mathematics teacher, there should be numerous ways to do this, but I still feel that I need to improve on this portion. Having my students validate websites will also be my weakness because I need to work on this process myself. Another weakness that I know I will need to strengthen is to properly assess my students’ work on instruction and their digital development.
The GAME
Goals:
The most important goal, I feel, is to create more authentic lessons for our students to understand the main reasons why we all need to learn mathematics. The second goal that I would love to strengthen is creating an engaging atmosphere not limited to Power Points and streaming.
Actions:
In order to broaden my view of lessons and creating authentic lessons for my students, I feel that collaboration with colleagues and perhaps some mathematic professors will help me with suggestions for certain lessons. There are many resources; however, I feel that an example with a face-to-face human interaction will solidify my memory and better understanding of the situation presented. As for the second goal, following technology blogs will inform me of the new software that are out there, and see what our corporate world is using. Also, as for presentations, it would be nice to create a movie clip of some sort to teach the lesson or even try to get the school to purchase a smart board. Also, collaborating with my fellow technology majors will help in my broadening of my views on teaching.
Monitor:
As I learn more about different scenarios for authentic learning, the more revisions on my lesson plans, the more I am improving my instructions. My train of thinking will be more geared towards authentic instructions. Also my students’ progress in learning the material will improve since the relevancy of the instruction is much higher than direct teaching. As for the second goal, compiling a list of options of all possible technology software to use in the classroom will be a good start, then contributing time to explore those options and list below of each software what it would be good for, instruction wise.
Evaluation:
As stated earlier, the evaluation stage would be seeing the complete compile forms of revised lesson plans for creating authentic lesson plans. When asking myself, “Did I learn anything?”, I would be able to say, “yes” since I kept of record of it. This gives me the opportunity to reflect on what I learned as well as improving my lesson from the beginning and how much improvement I have made. As for the second goal, just seeing my lesson plan include different software is a great way to see how much you learned. There are always software that you can learn and figuring it how to use it in your lesson is great way to see how much you learned.
All in all, we as teachers should always strive to better our profession. In order to do that, we consistently need to have goals and reach them at our pace. Without accomplishing any goals, we would be stuck in the boring same routine and the same type of scores as well.
Reference:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.
Strengths
I feel my knowledge of using technology to teach in a classroom, such as using PowerPoint presentations or online streaming, is a strong point in my teaching career. Also, I encourage my students to be creative in developing a way for them to remember mathematic process. This is an example of promoting creativity in the classroom. Promoting collaboration is another strong point that I have. The ability in working together as a team is an important asset in our students’ lives and their future.
Weaknesses
Some of my weaknesses are probably common to for the novice teacher, such as creating authentic lessons that contain real life situations for our students every day. As for a mathematics teacher, there should be numerous ways to do this, but I still feel that I need to improve on this portion. Having my students validate websites will also be my weakness because I need to work on this process myself. Another weakness that I know I will need to strengthen is to properly assess my students’ work on instruction and their digital development.
The GAME
Goals:
The most important goal, I feel, is to create more authentic lessons for our students to understand the main reasons why we all need to learn mathematics. The second goal that I would love to strengthen is creating an engaging atmosphere not limited to Power Points and streaming.
Actions:
In order to broaden my view of lessons and creating authentic lessons for my students, I feel that collaboration with colleagues and perhaps some mathematic professors will help me with suggestions for certain lessons. There are many resources; however, I feel that an example with a face-to-face human interaction will solidify my memory and better understanding of the situation presented. As for the second goal, following technology blogs will inform me of the new software that are out there, and see what our corporate world is using. Also, as for presentations, it would be nice to create a movie clip of some sort to teach the lesson or even try to get the school to purchase a smart board. Also, collaborating with my fellow technology majors will help in my broadening of my views on teaching.
Monitor:
As I learn more about different scenarios for authentic learning, the more revisions on my lesson plans, the more I am improving my instructions. My train of thinking will be more geared towards authentic instructions. Also my students’ progress in learning the material will improve since the relevancy of the instruction is much higher than direct teaching. As for the second goal, compiling a list of options of all possible technology software to use in the classroom will be a good start, then contributing time to explore those options and list below of each software what it would be good for, instruction wise.
Evaluation:
As stated earlier, the evaluation stage would be seeing the complete compile forms of revised lesson plans for creating authentic lesson plans. When asking myself, “Did I learn anything?”, I would be able to say, “yes” since I kept of record of it. This gives me the opportunity to reflect on what I learned as well as improving my lesson from the beginning and how much improvement I have made. As for the second goal, just seeing my lesson plan include different software is a great way to see how much you learned. There are always software that you can learn and figuring it how to use it in your lesson is great way to see how much you learned.
All in all, we as teachers should always strive to better our profession. In order to do that, we consistently need to have goals and reach them at our pace. Without accomplishing any goals, we would be stuck in the boring same routine and the same type of scores as well.
Reference:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
