Effective educators are life-long learners. It is important for teachers to continue their education by setting goals and being self-directed. Dr. Cennamo suggests organizing a GAME plan in order to achieve this (Laureate Education Inc., 2011). The GAME plan includes setting goals, taking action, monitoring progress, and then evaluating the process. One of my major goals as an educator is to meet students at their level and foster individual growth. This aligns with the NETS-T standard 2c: custominzing and personalizing learning activities to meet the needs of the students using digital resources (2008). Through the integration of technology, I have had some success. Online tools such as the Khan Academy and Study Island have enabled my students to learn and practice new concepts at their own pace. This is a student-centered enrironment where my role is more of a coach than the focal point. I wish to continue to find similar resources as well as online simulations to engage my students. I plan to look to my colleagues both in my school and my district for such resources. I will send an email to all themath teachers at my school and other schools in the county to ask for resources. Once I compile a list of resources, I will take some time to explore which tools are appropriate for my students. I will then look at my curriculum to see where the tools could enhance my instruction. If I see connections, I will add the resources to my wiki which was created for collaboration of integrating technology into classroom instruction. I will share this wiki with those interested. Compiling and sharing this information correlates with the NETS-T standard 5a: participating in learning communities with the goal of integrating technological resources. I have already started this process because it connects to my professional learning goal as an educator, so I am likely to reach my goal.
Resources
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program one: Promoting Self-Directed Learning With Technology [Video webcast]. In Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6489417&Survey=1&47=8554320&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Mrs. Williams,
ReplyDeleteIts good to see that you are looking for additional resources for your students and going through the process of reviewing them as well. In the hopes to save you some time why not ask the teachers in your district. The help of professionals will help you reduce the amount of time you spend researching the information. Teachers can then also give you reasons for why the program will work best for different aspects of your class.
I like that adding the resources to a wiki aspect. The end result will lead to a centralized location that other teachers can add to or take information from. This can be a great way to collaborate with other teachers in your district without having to meet after hours.
Mrs. Williams,
ReplyDeleteYou have chosen very lofty and important goals to set for yourself. They really can go hand-in-hand, however. One of the biggest challenges that I believe teachers face in this new digital age is actually finding appropriate resources. This may sound funny given the abundance of information that is out there and the ease with which we can usually locate it. On the contrary, because there is so much information, it can often be difficult to narrow down what specific information will help you best and what the best way to go about finding it will be. Therefore, I think your idea about collecting resources from other teachers in your school and your district is a great idea. I have always thought that professional developments should focus more on actually developing our strategies and skills that we as educators use in the classroom. One of the ways to do this is to share best practices. Do you have in-school professional development meetings very often? If so and you think your principal would be receptive, perhaps you could begin a learning community of teachers right there at your school just by having two teachers share and demonstrate one best practice that they use with a technology tool or resource. This allows other teachers in your school to understand who the "experts" are on certain tools or resources.
Another suggestion I wanted to make: I think it is a great idea to use technology to try to enrich and enhance your lesson. Another way you can use technology to help you address various learning levels and styles is to use technology to address any achievement gaps you have in your classroom. For example, if you work in an inclusion classroom as I do, you have the highest and lowest students sitting in the same classroom. While the highest student is absolutely bored when you are using directed instruction (which the majority of the class might need), perhaps they can be working on an extension project on the topic. Alternatively, I know one of the biggest challenges our math teacher faces is that many of our special education students do not know even the basic of math skills needed in order to perform on the topics at hand. Perhaps they can work on some drill and practice websites that might help them learn and practice the skills in which they are lacking (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
Finally, creating a Wiki space is such a great tool to help gain and share information and strategies with other teachers. Once you get the hang of using your Wiki with other educators, perhaps you can have a classroom Wiki. Here, you can help students create, add, and share tools and resources for other students to use. Advanced students could even create podcasts, blogs, chats, or videos in order to create lessons or tutorials much like those offered through Khan Academy (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
The biggest idea I walked away with this week in class was to stop trying to make my lesson work around a piece of technology. The technology needs to help you and your students in order to be beneficial.
Good luck on your GAME plan!
Caitlin Ward
Caitlin,
DeleteThank you for the suggestions. I do meet with colleagues for professional development weekly, but the content in the meetings are based in theory. Practical application is placed upon individual teachers to develop. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I wish to compile resources which are practical and actually helpful in enhancing learning experiences for my students.
In lieu of lecture, I do give my students options of learning content in different ways. For some concepts, I know that studens will be able to learn the material through collaboration with peers and the textbook. This enables students to learn at their own pace. While some students work collaboratively, I am able to give more support and structure to the students who need it. This sort of differentiation can work with some concepts, but not all. It does give both my students and myself a nice break from direct-instruction.
Sarah
Sarah,
DeleteWe also meet weekly for house meetings. We take away instructional time and accomplish almost nothing. I wish we could use that time for something more productive. Do you find that your meetings are helpful?
Caitlin
Mrs. Williams:
ReplyDeleteI think you have composed an excellent GAME Plan that will serve as a means to enhance the learning experiences of your students. I am an 8th grade language arts teacher, and I work with a team of 6 teachers. There are 2 language arts teachers, a math teacher, a science teacher, a history teacher, and a reinforcement teacher. The reinforcement teacher uses a program called Compass. Compass is like Study Island. It is a computer-based tutorial for both math and language arts skills. Most of our students attend reinforcement classes daily, so I never considered using online tutorials in my classroom. Having students to work independently from tutorials that have been pre-selected to meet students individual needs is an excellent and effective way to create a “technology-enriched learning environment” (Cennamo, p. 87, 2009).
Your goal to expand your technological knowledge is one I am currently working towards as well. That is why I am in this master’s program. As educators we have an obligation to foster students’ need to explore through technology (Cennamo, p. 23, 2009). I have not used technology as much as I should have in the past, but I am integrating it more and more into my curriculum. In order to stay on the cutting edge, I must stay abreast of what is happening in the technology world as it relates to education. Participating in professional development that is technology-centered is one way I can do that. I also dialogue with the computer-technology teachers just to stay updated.