GAME Over!

Reflection: Final Blog Post


Developing a GAME plan seemed like an artificial exercise to me at first; just another way to do the same thing. However, as I paid attention and went through the process, I noticed that although goal setting and monitoring are steps I often take in planning lessons, I didn’t have a systematic approach. The GAME plan approach is easy to follow, makes sense, and is user friendly. With it in mind, I found that I was able to think through several teaching ideas and devise procedures for my students that seem to work better.

Using the GAME plan impacts my teaching because lesson delivery, monitoring, and assessments will be more timely and systematic. I also envision teaching my students to use it as they set personal writing and reading goals. With this in place, students have a way to monitor their learning on their own. Being able to see the path knowing where you are and where you need to go creates self-directed learning habits that apply to schoolwork and life in general.

I have made adjustments to my instructional practice as a result of my learning in this course. I’m adjusting curriculum documents to include technology. These additions enhance and extend the locate and state standards I must teach since they bring in more student engagement and interest. I plan to continue adjusting and enhancing. The next step is to share these ideas with other teachers in my building so that more students receive the extensions to their learning. I’ve learned a lot in this course and from my colleagues and hope to continue learning new strategies for innovation.

GAME Plan and Students

     The GAME plan process is to set goals, take action, monitor the goals and actions, evaluate and extend. In the classroom, this step-by-step process can help students individualize their learning. For instance, when teaching the writing process, a teacher could have students review their writing portfolios and make a list of areas needing improvement. Each student could create his/her own GAME plan to improve writing skills. A possible scenario might be that the student sets a goal of two or less errors in punctuation in the next several writing assignments. As students write each assignment, they pay particular attention to the punctuation error types on their list. At the end of a designated period or the end of a quarter, students chart their scores and evaluate teacher comments. If progress has been made, the student moves on to another area of need or to an area of enrichment. The GAME plan can be implemented for the next step.


     Teaching students to implement GAME plans creates reflective, self-directed learners which to me is teaching an important life skill.

More monitoring

So far, my Wiki experience is a little frustrating…the class wikis are set up, the handouts and explanations are ready to go, the computers are reserved, the students are excited, I’ve set up their accounts and passwords, and eureka! Their access is denied!


I had an emergency plan ready (just in case) and, unfortunately, I used it! I have been in contact with the site managers, so I’m still hopeful that things will be ironed out by tomorrow, but I have a back-up plan ready again just in case.

Based on the NETS-T, I still need to work on technology operations and concepts. I love all of the ideas, but I’m still not skilled enough to know what to do when a problem occurs. I am getting better, but there’s a long way to go. My approach to the need to increase my technology skills is to give different products a try.

And the GAME goes on...

How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?


What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?

What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?

How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?


Last week I talked about creating classroom wikis.  Permission slips have been distributed and I'm waiting to get them back.  Honestly, I thought the kids would be so excited to have this opportunity. The permissions are dribbling in rather slowly.  In reality, I think I am the one who is excited...they blog/text/IM/ect. already so this will probably be "old hat" to them.  I'm the one who's new to the game! 

Anyway, I still need to play (learn) with the wiki before its maiden voyage next week.  Everyone who has used one seems so happy with the experience and says how easy they are to use.  I hope this is true!  A new question:  on a wiki, can you hide the discussion application? Can you delete discussion posts?  That's something I need to find out. 

Although I am a bit apprehensive about this project, I am very excited as well.  Learning about the new technologies and using them with my classes has added interest and engagement for me as well!

Monitoring My GAME Plan

This week my students used the web quests to research information.  They read information from a lot of sites, used Word documents to take on their findings, and seemed interested in the assignment.  Some of them will be creating a character based on the 19th century, gold rush era, as they begin reading The Call of the Wild.  Others will be creating brochures, news articles, Powerpoint presentations, etc. and sharing the information they learned about aviation, heart attacks/health, survival, or the Canadian wilderness as they prepare to read Hatchet.  One student discovered she had a relative who rushed to the Klondike and participated in the gold fever.  Once the project is completed, students will post their work on a class wiki and participate in the discussion forum there. 

I have created a wiki for each class.  I've written and copied the parent/student information letter & permission slip and will distribute this next week.  I haven't done any more personal reading about using the wiki yet, and I need to learn how to personalize it and navigate around it a bit.  I also want to practice adding images and other document types so I have a general feel for how to do it.  I feel that I can get help from some of my students and my media specialist if we get stuck. 

I have learned that students like to have choices in assignments, that most of them enjoy using technology, and most are interested in using their creativity rather being "told" what to write about.  I'm glad I made the time to create this opportunity for my students.  My question is, despite my interest & enthusiasm for this project, why are there always a few students who find it "boring...?"  Happy Thanksgiving!

Carrying out my GAME plan...

In order to carry out my GAME plan, I need to search for more pertinent website possibilities to create a hot list for students who may have trouble using or understanding the texts on the web quests. I believe in the Girl Scout motto, “Be Prepared.” So it’s important for me to have some additional ideas and sites ready just in case. If a student gets “stumped” my plan is to help them through the research process, what do I know, what do I want to know, how can I find information, and what will I do with the information, before suggesting personal findings. In theory, with additional guidance, students should be able to settle on effective questions and key-words. In practice, I’ve found that Murphy’s Law rears its ugly head more often enough to always have alternatives in my back pocket.

To carry out my plan, I need to ensure that my students understand the process of reading, paraphrasing, and citing information. They need practice using word processing software. I personally need to familiarize myself with the help section offered by the wiki site I am using, I need to develop a daily routine for reviewing student posts, and I need to create a rubric for assessing the posts that students make.

I would appreciate any helpful tips from those of you who have used wikispaces to make my experience as smooth and effective as possible. Advance thanks to any who offer advice.

Game Plan!

After examining the National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T), I believe I should focus on two standards and indicators: Standard 2, design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments, indicator a, design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity; and standard 4, promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility, indicator a, advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources (ISTE, 2008).


To achieve these goals, I will examine my curriculum documents to look for content areas that can be enhanced with technology use. For example, my seventh grade students will soon be reading one of two novels, Call of the Wild or Hatchet. Both of these deal with an individual’s ability to adapt to his/her surroundings. In the past, I have provided background knowledge of the setting and time periods through paper documents, lectures, and pictures. This time my students will participate in a web quest that I have found on the internet. In both cases, the web quests have been created by another teacher, but I have created a task sheet for my students that will incorporate parts of the already created website, mainly the links to informative sites, and use the information they find to create a product incorporating that information in another way, such as a diary entry, a poem or song, a skit, a news article, etc. While doing this I will also advocate, model, and require appropriate documentation of sources, both text and graphics.

I set a goal for myself for this year. I plan to modify at least one curriculum-required assignment so that technology is embedded. After the first assignment, I plan to survey the students about their interest, engagement, and comments about using the technology to learn background knowledge for the book. Once the second assignment is modified to embed technology, I plan to extend its use by sharing my work with colleagues who teach the same course. At this point, I hope my enthusiasm and my students’ enthusiasm for the projects is such that other teachers will want to participate. Hopefully, the student projects will be shared with other classes and parents. Then, I’ll ask for a class set of wireless computers!

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.

Course Reflection 10/25/09

Rooney says, “Just as Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press transformed the process of learning, digital technologies are revolutionizing the way people read and write (Rooney, 2009). As an English teacher and a lover of books, I want my students to share this passion. Sadly, many do not, so while they may understand how important reading is to me, conventional reading does not appeal to them. Yet, what a lucky time to live in! These same students who find reading a book a bore may be exactly the ones who will be reached through new technologies and innovations. When a student is engaged in finding information to create a podcast or webpage, he or she may not notice how much reading is accomplished.


Becoming a “guide on the side” intrigues me. The more I learn about the power of technology to help students make meaning in their education, the more excited I am to hand over the reins (in a sense) to my students. Of course, my students need me to set the context for the learning, whether it is for background information for an author or novel study, a research question to determine a humanity issue, or determining both sides of an issue before choosing a side to argue. As an English teacher, they also need me to teach them the mechanics of writing.

During my master’s course of study, I have created individual lesson plans and an extensive unit plan that encourage and expect the use of technology. I am excited to use these new plans. Last year I incorporated wikis into my classroom with limited success, but learned a lot in the process. In the last few weeks I have acquired strategies and innovative materials to teach my students to be more effective researchers and website evaluators. I need to stop thinking of the things that can go wrong, the difficulty of reserving computers, and the problematic logistics that occur with technology use and, as the Nike company says, “Just do it!”

One personal professional development goal is to take the mandatory tasks included in my district curriculum and incorporate 21st century skills into them. Initially, I must try to do two things: incorporate the use of a class wiki for students to use to publish their writing and incorporate a unit project that requires students to do online research with a choice of project product. I have most of the necessary skills to do this and my students probably have (or will figure out) the rest. I need to take the attitude of Vicki Davis who urges teachers not to worry about knowing everything before teaching it (Edutopia.com, 2009). As I found when I introduced the wiki to my students, we experienced a few difficulties, but the student interest and excitement made up for any struggles. I must remind myself that “The process of learning is more important than the end product…” and enjoy the process of teaching my students to be 21st century learners (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007).



References:

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Edutopia: What Works in Public Education. Harness your students' digital smarts (Video). Retrieved on 10/23/09 from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-teachers-vicki-davis



Rooney, J. (2009, March). Teaching two literacies. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 92–93.

Course Reflection

It’s been eight weeks since I created this blog. Back then, creating a blog seemed like an amazing and impossible task. However, that was the easiest of the tasks I’ve worked on in this course. I learned how to use a wiki and I created a podcast. My skills and expertise and especially, my confidence, increased due to the information I’ve gained in this course. Like many teachers, I use technology for research and homework examples, for critical questions to assess deeper a level of understanding from my students, and for increased student collaboration.

As a teacher, this course deepened my knowledge of the teaching and learning process. I gained insight about the instincts and awareness of my students and their learning progression. Prensky’s articles assigned a name, “digital natives,” that defines those who have grown up in the digital world (Prensky, 2001). I find his explanations to be extremely understandable, insightful, and useful. Additionally, the use of learning objects to enhance student understanding puts a name to resources I’ve been utilizing with the Promethean Interactive Board, thereby validating my instincts and professional skills (Cramer, 2007).
These and other articles gave me increased knowledge of my students abilities and encouraged me to consider student use of cell phones, video games, and Internet social spaces as ways to harness the skills they use so often and competently outside of the classroom. This course caused me to change my mind about the impact of technology. Rather than viewing these things as a hindrance or as competition to education, I can see the benefits they offer. Administering a technology use survey to my students showed me that student use of the Internet and other technology within the school building is really much less than its use outside. I now look at its use in a different way.

I feel increasingly competent in my ability to introduce and use technology in new and different ways within my classroom. As I experience the pitfalls of the first few collaborative experiences, I know that I will learn navigation skills. I’ve also learned that I’m not alone. The internet is not the scary place I imagined where everyone else is an expert compared to novice me. With the plethora of blogs and search engines out there, if I have a question, I now know that I can send my question out there and a helpful person will most likely answer my question or point me in the right direction.

Developing technology skills will enhance student engagement. This course advocates the use of critical thinking and reasoning skills as 21st century skills that will be crucial to student success. Because I am a “digital immigrant” (Prensky, 2001) I have to work to keep up the momentum I felt at the beginning and middle of the course as I created a personal blog, collaborated on a wiki, and interviewed students for a podcast. At the time, I couldn’t wait to integrate these exciting resources into my classroom. I signed up for classroom wikis, I reserved computer labs, and I created an assignment. However, the computer labs were needed for school-wide testing, I had trouble navigating the wiki space, and my student assignment was pushed back. It would be very easy to fall back into old habits, old teaching strategies, and old assignments. But, I can’t let that happen. This weekend, I plan to jumpstart my ideas, sharpen my skills, and ready myself for the wiki experience.

Increased engagement leads to increased achievement. I envision that creative, authentic assignments, repleat in student digital native skills will result in less missing, incomplete, or sloppy student work. In this innovative classroom, my hope is that I will not be tracking students down to complete their work; they’ll be tracking me down to turn it in.

Two long term goals I have are to use technology to do different things and to update assignments to have a student-centered approach. I have begun to change my perspective from being teacher-centered to being student-centered. In the last few weeks I have incorporated more student discourse in my classes by including opportunities for students to collaborate on some part of the lesson as often as possible. My goal is to make this happen daily (at the moment this occurs about two to three times per week).

The biggest difference I can see so far is that the reading I have done and will continue to do has made me examine my habits. As Thornburg says, “Teachers must do new things, not just do old things in a different way…It’s not ok to put old wine in a new bottle” (Laureate, 2008). My plan in the short term is to incorporate the use of wikis in my classroom. This quarter, I expect that students will have the opportunity to publish at least two projects there. The long term goal I have for the next few years is to look at my curriculum with a new set of eyes. Presently, each quarter, there are common assignments that are mandated to be written across the county. Rather than looking at these as an obstacle, I plan to use my students’ interest in technology as an impetus for creative assignments. These “must-do” assignments can be “tweaked” to include a student perspective; I need to make the learning and the application as authentic as possible. For instance, instead of just talking about the humor in Shakespeare and hoping students notice and understand it, I asked my students to bring in examples of humor they see on television, in books, in movies. Using these ideas as a stimulus, we then looked at the humor in Shakespeare in a new light. My students are beginning to make connections between the past and present easier and more enthusiastically. We all win.

References

Cramer, S. (2007). Update your classroom with learning objects and twenty-first century skills. Clearing House, 80(3), 126–132.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, & Society. "The Changing Work Environment, Part I." Baltimore: Author.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5).

Podcast - Understanding Student Use of Technology at Home and School

I surveyed three classes of 7th grade English students to find out how they use the technology we have been learning about at home and at school. All of my students say they have computers and most say they have computer access. As you'll hear in the podcast...we need to work on enticing students to use the technology for good (education!) instead of teenager stuff!

21st Century Skills

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a Web site dedicated to infusing 21st century skills into education. I spent several hours perusing the site and reading many articles (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/). It offers information on the topic of technology and its importance to education. One of the things I discovered that surprised me is that there are only ten states that have initiated discussions and programs to address the issue of specific technology skills. My state is not one of them. This surprises me because we have a great education system that seems to be in the forefront of new initiatives. Perhaps we are in a “wait and see” mode.

My initial reaction to the Web site is that it seemed to be one-sided, a “cheer-leader” for 21st Century Skills and a shopping mart for education resources. As I delved deeper, I was happy to find opposing viewpoints. Bill Tucker, the author of “Beyond the Bubble: Technology and the Future of Student Assessment” comments that these 21st century skills will be invaluable if they result in more equitable and effective schools. I worry that the access or non-access to technology will create an even wider education gap between those students with home access to computers and those without. I especially agree with his comment about American education, “…a tendency to run after every shiny new idea often leads to faddishness that slights the most disadvantaged students” (Tucker, 2009). In the quest to do what’s best for our students, it’s easy to jump on the nearest and newest bandwagon. I’ve been through a myriad of “this will work; use this!” vocabulary programs, reading programs, thematic units, grammar teaching, no grammar teaching, etc. and it’s hard not to think that this focus on 21st century skills is just another wagon. The article, “What to learn: ‘core knowledge’ or 21st –century skills, debates whether one or the other is the best way to go. E.D. Hirsch is quoted as saying that without core knowledge, critical thinking can’t occur. He advocates leveling the playing field for all students by teaching extensive background knowledge (Toppo, 2009). I believe that a more centric approach is important; to teach content in a technological environment. Claus von Zastrow proposes this in his blog that, as educators, we shouldn’t have to choose between content and skills (Zastrow, 2009).

The implication of this debate is not earth shattering at this time. I will continue to teach the English curriculum content. I will however, acknowledge and implement critical thinking skills and the collaborative process in my lesson planning. This knowledge of the possible (and probable) future expectations my students will most likely meet requires innovation on my part as an educator and also as a leader of other teachers in my department. It reminds me that teachers need to be learners too.

References
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved March 25, 2009, from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

Toppo, Greg. (2009, March 5).What to learn: ‘core knowledge’ or ‘21st-century skills’? USA Today. Retrieved March 25, 2009, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-03-04-core-knowledge_N.htm

Tucker, Bill. (2009, February 7). Beyond the bubble: technology and the future of student assessment. Education Sector Reports. Retrieved March 25, 2009, from http://www.educationsector.org/research/research_show.htm?doc_id=826893

Zastrow, Claus von. (2009, March 2). Do we have to choose? Blog. Retrieved on March 25, 2009, from http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/node/2343

How to Get Students to Care?

I've just survived the first day of state testing. My students were well-prepared and ready. We have read, written, discussed, quizzed, laughed, wondered, re-written, developed, homeworked, graded, peer-graded, reading strategized, etc. all year. Why, then, do some of them choose to RACE through the state test? Either I've helped them become brilliant and efficient test takers and students, or they just want to finish and move on to something else? I'll keep my fingers crossed that it's the former! Have other teachers experienced the same feeling of disappointment, dismay, or disbelief that I am at this moment? What can we do as educators to help children see that everything really does matter?

On the other hand, there were many wonderful, dedicated students who took the test today very seriously. I guess I've answered my own question...

Any ideas?

Blogs in The Classroom

My 7th grade English students have just chosen an independent novel related to the unit theme. They read the books on their own and then meet every so often in a Literature Circle to discuss (with three other students who are reading the same novel)questions related to theme, characterization, plot, etc. Instead of the traditional "sit around four desks and talk about the book when the teacher walks by," discussion, I wonder if students could be assigned a specific question on a blog, asked to respond to the question, required to read the posts of the other students in the group, and then asked to respond to a certain number of comments. It seems to me that the students might be more interested if they actually put their comments where others can see them and then have the opportunity to also put their comments in a public place.

I have several concerns about this:
Is it possible to create a blog that is only used by students in my class? At this time, my school district does not allow for public blogs, so I'm wondering if there is a "private" blog.
To keep it appropriate, do I have to monitor every post and comment before it goes up?
How does a teacher manage this without having to read a huge amount of entries?

The other idea I have is to use a blog to showcase student work. Students choose a writing assignment to post and share with the rest of the class and perhaps the school.

I look forward to hearing from teachers who have done this before.

Donna

English Teacher Blog

Teaching English to middle school students is a challenge, a trial, and an exciting opportunity. On the one hand, students strive to show their knowledge, sophistication, and maturity. On the other hand, they like to play, dream, and act silly. The adolescent learner wants so much to be grown up, respected, and cherished. Being around middle school students makes a teacher feel old and incredibly young. Bringing technology to my classroom and my students may help to combine the old and the new. If I'm interested in the newest technology, I imagine my students are too.

Donna