Reflection (week 8)

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.

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.

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.

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.