Reflection

When I developed my GAME plan at the beginning of this course, I had two different goals. My first goal was to develop more personalized learning activities to address the needs and interests of various types of learners. Developing lesson plans for this course has aided me in accomplishing this goal. When creating my lessons, I truly considered the various types of learners I have in my classroom. With them in mind, I tried to develop activities that would appeal to many different types of learners. My lessons allowed for great creativity, and each of them required students to create a product to show their learning. I was also careful to consider the needs of students of varying ability levels, and allowed for accommodations accordingly. As I move forward, I will continue to put careful thought and consideration into developing personalized learning activity for the diverse students I have in my classroom.

Using technology more effectively to communicate with parents and students next school year was the second goal I created. I began working towards this goal at the end of the school year with my grade-level team. Together, we decided to obtain all parent e-mail addresses and develop a weekly team newsletter to increase communication with parents. As a whole, it does not seem that my team is ready to develop a website in addition to the newsletter. Therefore, I am going to make it a personal goal to create and maintain a classroom website with information about my class. I would like to involve my students in the updating of this website as well, and because I will be teaching language arts this coming school year, my idea is for them to participating in writing updates about our classroom to be posted to the website.

I came away from this course with new ideas about how to incorporate problem-based learning, online collaboration, and digital storytelling into my classroom. This course helped me realize that these instructional methods fit very easily into the content I teach. Furthermore, authentic learning strategies in social studies “provide opportunities to foster creative thinking skills in the social studies classroom” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 295). Many of the lessons included activities that could have been done without technology, but were enhanced through the inclusion of technology and encouraged student creativity. For me, the easiest way to plan these lessons is to determine the content I need to teach and then see how I can incorporate technology to make my lessons better and more engaging for my students. In social studies, technology allows students access to materials they otherwise might not have access to, which plays a vital role in facilitating real-world connections for students in social studies (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).

Resources:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

GAME Plan Progress

So far, I am pleased with my progress in carrying each of the goals in my GAME Plan. Although it’s an interesting time of the year to be working towards goals, since the school year is winding down, I still believe I am making positive steps toward achieving my goals. My goals are:

1)      Develop more personalized learning activities to address the needs and interests of various types of learners.

2)      Use technology more effectively to communicate with parents and students next school year.

At my last grade-level department meeting, I introduced the idea of developing more personalized learning activities for various types of learners throughout the school year next year. We discussed possible ideas for activities that might be appropriate for various units, and also agreed to bring any books we might have with helpful ideas to our next meeting. I feel that the best way to approach introducing more personalized learning activities is to tackle one unit at a time. It is overwhelming for me to think about how to differentiate for every single unit throughout the school year, but if I make it a goal to only differentiate for my unit on Ancient India, for example, that seems to be a more manageable and attainable goal.

I am very eager to begin work on my goal of using technology to communicate more effectively with parents and students. My team for next year is scheduled to meet within the next couple of weeks to begin working on our team goals. I have already let my colleagues know that further use of technology for communication is one of my goals. Many of my other team members are proponents of technology use as well, and they are eager to pursue this goal along with me. So far, I have spoken with other teachers who have websites or communicate with parents through e-mail newsletters to garner some feedback. Hearing what they like and also what they might do differently in the future has been helpful to me so far. Just like my first goal, though, I feel I need to approach one thing at a time. I may become overwhelmed if I try to communicate with parents and/or students via both a website and e-mail newsletters. Therefore, my plan for now is to focus on creating a website. Once I feel comfortable with that, then I can move forward and explore other ways of communicating with parents and students using technology.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

In order to properly carry out my GAME Plan, I decided to analyze each of my goals separately and determine what resources and information I will need to be successful. My first goal is to develop more personalized learning activities to address the needs and interests of various types of learners. My immediate thought is that I will need more time. There never seems to be enough time in the day to accomplish all that needs to be done, and while I cannot magically create more time, I can work to utilize the time allotted for my department meetings to help accomplish this goal. Going along with this, I will also need the feedback and input of my colleagues. Working together, I know we can achieve success in developing more diverse learning activities. Finally, I will utilize books that my colleagues and I have which focus on differentiation. I will also use the internet to research lessons and ideas. So far, I have discussed this goal with my grade level department team. They are enthusiastic about it as well, and to me, that is a very positive first step. This year, our major goal was to create common assessments for each unit. We have accomplished that goal and are now looking to diversify our learning activities for next year.

My second goal is to use technology more effectively to communicate with parents and students next school year. The resources I will need are similar to those necessary for my first goal. I will need the support of my colleagues, as I would like for this to be something our team works on together. I am very excited about the possibility of creating a team website. I have not yet had the opportunity to discuss this at length with my team for next year, however, because I will be on a new team next year and we have not met together yet. Additionally, I will need to find the best possible website to host our team website. I have begun to do some research and have ideas, but am not quite sure what would work best. One thing I have considered is a wiki, but I would like to garner feedback from others who have experience with a team or classroom website to see which ones seem to work best. Finally, I will need time to work with my team on creating this website. We have already scheduled a professional development work day for the week after school lets out to accomplish this and other goals we have. Overall, I am excited about both of my goals and feel that they are realistic. I am looking forward to following through with them and watching things come together throughout the next school year.

My Technology GAME Plan

After reviewing the International Society for Technology in Education’s standards for teachers, I felt that while I regularly utilize technology in my classroom and incorporate it into my lessons, there are certainly areas I would like to improve on. The two indicators I would like to strengthen my proficiency in are 2c (customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources) and 3c (communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats). Developing a GAME plan will help me take steps to direct my own learning process about technology (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). The following are my GAME plans to improve on the two indicators mentioned above:

Indicator 2c GAME Plan:

• Goal: Develop more personalized learning activities to address the needs and interests of various types of learners.
• Action: Collaborate with my grade level department team to develop varied learning activities for the units we cover in social studies throughout the year; continue my research on differentiated instruction and how this can be applied to technology.
• Montior: Ask students for feedback after implementing lessons designed to fit their learning style; discuss activities with my grade level department team and reflect on positivites and negatives of lessons.
• Evaluate: Self-reflect after each lesson and make notes of what worked well and what might need improvement; discuss with my grade level department team.

Indicator 3c GAME Plan:

• Goal: Use technology more effectively to communicate with parents and students next school year.
• Action: Create a classroom website to list assignments, provide enrichment activities, provide access to handouts and helpful information, etc.; collaborate with my team of teachers to develop a team website to further communicate with parents and students.
• Monitor: Survey students and parents to determine accessibility and helpfulness of website.
• Evaluate: After seeking feedback, determine if changes need to be made to make communication more beneficial. If so, develop a plan to implement changes and improve success of website as a tool for communication.

Resources:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

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

Living the Process of Inquiry with a Real Teacher-Researcher: A Case Study Journal (Part 2)

Prompt #5

I made several observations as I examined the reports of Sienna’s notes regarding May’s redirections. First of all, “listen up” was rather ineffective, because it had to be said repeatedly in a short span of time. There were others that seemed to be ineffective as well, such as “guys” and “shh.” I noticed that generally, these redirections were often given one after another, and sometimes intermixed, but because they needed to be said over and over, it was clear that they did not refocus the class as May would have liked.

During the first observation, Sienna forgot to write down the times of the last three redirections, which makes that data less valuable than when both the redirection and time were recorded. In addition, during the third observation, Darby, the RtI coach, was not there to help Sienna with her data collection. On that day, Sienna did not record times of teacher redirections nor did she write any thoughts or observations about the redirections.

There was not a clear pattern amongst all four days in regards to timing. Some days, there was more redirection needed at the beginning of the period than the end, and on other days, it was the opposite.  

Judging by the number of redirections that took place during the observations and the fact that they seemed to occur in clusters, I feel that May’s class might have difficulty with transitions. I noticed that a few redirections took place in a short period of time, and then there was often a break. Perhaps during those breaks, the students easily became off-task and were difficult to bring back. After transitions, it is easy for students to lose focus. I feel that the students may have initially ignored May’s attempts at redirecting them after moving from one activity to the next.

I also noticed that the first day of observation had the highest number of redirections, even though Sienna commented that there probably would have been more redirection if “L” and “D” had been in class that day. Unfortunately, in the later observations, it was not made clear whether these students were there or not. I did notice that the first day had the largest number of observations, despite the fact that the two students mentioned by Sienna were not there. If they were there for the other observations, then it seems that they were not the biggest factor in getting the rest of the class off-task.

Prompt #6

May’s class graph showed the number of students who were able to successfully complete the “Five Minute Challenge” over a nine day span of time. The initial number of students able to complete this was 11. On day two, the number rose to 15, followed by a drop to 13 the next day. Beginning with day four, the number of students able to complete this task steadily rose and on day eight, the last day on the graph, the number reached 20.

Students likely became used to the routine after it was initially announced, and therefore, the longer it was done, the more successful the class as a whole was at completing the task. It is also likely that as students saw their peers successfully meeting the challenge, they were more encouraged to do so as well.

Because the class was very successful in the “Five Minute Challenge” after nine days, May should look to decrease the amount of time allowed for beginning of class activities from five minutes to four minutes. The students met the challenge and could likely do the same activities in a shorter amount of time, which would provide more instructional time for May.

Prompt #7

Anthony’s and Leah’s both made very positive progress. Their data showed that they both began the process taking over three minutes at the beginning of the class. By the end of the data collection period, both Anthony and Leah had drastically decreased the amount of time spent at the beginning of the period copying homework down and doing bell work.

I think it would be beneficial to discuss the data with each of the students individually and convey how impressive their progress was. I also think it would be helpful to interview them to gain feedback on what they feel might help them stay on task for the duration of the class period. May might be able to develop a self-monitoring chart for them to keep on their desk so they can keep track of their own progress throughout a class period. A visual reminder is often very helpful for students who tend to be off-task.

Prompt #8

If I was May and my principal asked me to present my research findings to my colleagues at a faculty meeting, I would first try to compile a very brief summary of each step of the process to hand out. I think it is important for people to understand each step of the action research process, particularly if they are unfamiliar with it. An ideal way to do this would be to create a brochure. The format of a brochure is appealing and would be less likely to intimidate or overwhelm other teachers (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009). Brochures are clearly set up and easy to read.

In addition to creating a brochure to hand out at the faculty meeting, I would likely create a PowerPoint or Prezi (http:// prezi.com) slideshow to provide further explanation of my research. This would be ideal for displaying charts and graphs that were not included in the brochure. I could also include more information and detail in my presentation. The four areas I would focus on would be background information, inquiry design, findings and supporting data, and concluding thoughts (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009). My colleagues could reference my brochure while viewing my slideshow and listening to my explanations. At the conclusion of my presentation, I would give my colleagues the opportunity to ask questions. I would also try to schedule a time during which I could explain my research further to anyone interested in learning more about my findings.

References

Dana, N., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2009). The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Living the Process of Inquiry with a Real Teacher-Researcher: A Case Study Journal

Prompt #1

The literature provided her with further insight into the issues of both classroom management and engaging 21^st century students in learning. One particular book helped May describe problem behaviors in a clear and concise way.

May was able to clearly state observable behaviors rather than making vague, emotional judgments about students. The PBS conference gave May knowledge about how to deal with low-level misbehaviors that interfere with the learning process. May also learned about positive psychology, or the theory that no human being wants to fail or be difficult to love. Therefore, teachers can learn to appreciate the strategies developed by students to survive difficult situations. May was able to imagine the experiences some of her students may have had that likely influenced their behavioral choices.

May also learned about the idea of collaborating with her difficult-to-teach students by developing research teams. In this scenario, students help their teachers collect data and are an active part of the decision-making process in terms of what could improve the learning environment. May decided to incorporate this strategy into the design of her inquiry.

Prompt #2

May was overwhelmed with the prospect of collecting data on five different class periods. Her team suggested focusing on one class period, rather than five, to make her first foray into research more manageable. May also experienced difficulty in determining which class period should be the focus of her inquiry. Through discussion with her colleagues in which she described each of her class periods, she decided that her fourth period class would be the best period to focus on.

As May completed her research, she discovered that two of her students exhibited problem behaviors not only in her class, but in the classes of her colleagues as well. A great benefit of her research was that it would help her colleagues determine how to best work with these students in their own classrooms.

May shared her idea for implementing a Positive Behavior Support system on a smaller scale in her fourth period class. In discussing the PBS model, her teammates became interested in the concept and Darby, the RtI coach on the team, realized the PBS model closely mirrored the RtI model. May’s team became excited about the implementation of the PBS system in May’s classroom, and hoped they would gain insights that would help them to share the benefits of such a model with the entire school. This is an example of the positive and far-reaching impact that action research can have. It not only helps one teacher or even one team of teachers, but it can potentially impact an entire school building.

As a result of their collaboration and discussions about PBS and RtI, May’s team became the PBS/RtI intervention team. May used their input and guidance to determine key outcomes and developed an action plan that included implementing strategies, monitoring students’ progress, and assessing data. She was then able to determine which of her students fit into the various levels of the tier model.

Collaboration in the action research process is invaluable. Research is difficult and draining, but by collaborating with others, teachers are able to build on the work of each other (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009). May had some ideas of her own, but her team’s input was of great importance to her research from the beginning. For example, when May was having difficulty determining which classes to focus on for her research, it was her team who helped her decide that her fourth period class would be ideal. Furthermore, May’s collaboration with Darby, the RtI coach, allowed May to successfully incorporate her knowledge of PBS into her classroom. Collaboration provides the opportunity to improve ideas by accepting the advice and input of others.

Prompt #3

I feel that the most meaningful part of May’s data collection plan will be her journal with reflections about Sienna’s response to her role as inquirer’s assistant. The students that May’s research is truly targeting are those who need tier 2 and tier 3 interventions. While it is important to see if the rest of the class can complete their beginning of class routine in a timely manner, it is even more critical to see what kind of progress students such as Sienna make.

The most practical form of data collection will be time-on-task graphs that the students will complete. I like that this idea blends a math concept with self-monitoring, and it is a form of data collection that can easily be integrated into the classroom. It will not take much extra time, yet will provide a great deal of data to inform May of the progress of her students.

It would be difficult to rely on a student to collect data and truly be an assistant to the research process in a typical classroom. In May’s case, with Darby’s help in working with Sienna to teach her what she will be observing, this form of data collection might be possible. In a typical situation, however, this would be impractical because it would require extra time on the part of the teacher. This is yet another example of the importance of collaboration, however. Without the support of her team, and Darby in particular, May’s research would be more difficult and likely not as successful.

One additional form of data collection that might benefit May’s research is student surveys. This idea is similar to that of the student interview, although it might be more practical. May could still ask students what they envision a high-performing classroom to look like, but with a survey, she would receive more responses in less time. Surveys allow students the opportunity to share their thoughts about various topics, including teaching techniques, classroom structure, lessons, and units (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009). This form of data collection might also allow her to ask more questions than an interview would allow for, and, if done with a website such as Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com), it would be easy to analyze the responses.

Prompt #4

As I read through the responses to May’s request for “Wish List” items, it was very clear that groups of students in her class viewed the class differently and had different priorities. It seemed that the majority of her students wanted structure and for the class to be run smoothly. On the other hand, there were some students who did not provide serious, realistic answers. I developed three categories based on patterns I noticed in the responses: “Students Looking for Structure,” “Students Frustrated by Classmate Behavior,” and “Students with Unrealistic and/or Unrelated Requests.” 

“Students Looking for Structure” responded that they wanted a clear routine in their classroom. One student provided this suggestion: “Have our agenda done when the teacher comes into the classroom. We can have out our paper and pencil, be ready to learn, and have our homework out.” Another sample response from this category was “Class would be good if it started on time every day.” The students with these types of responses obviously care about learning and want to get the most out of each class period.

There were many students whose responses indicated their frustration. A response that fit into the category of “Students Frustrated by Classmate Behavior” was “I wish people would stop being loud in this class. It is loud sometimes.” This response made it clear that the noise level was interrupting this student’s learning. I found it interesting that one response named particular students and showed that their behavior was making it difficult for others to learn: “I wish L and T wouldn’t bring in so much of their drama into class so we could get going on time.”

Some responses stood out very clearly from the rest, as they seemed to focus less on the structure of the class itself but more on what would make particular students happy. It also seemed that these responses showed a lack of seriousness about this topic. One response in the “Students with Unrealistic and/or Unrelated Requests” was “To give me an A for no reason and to just be kind to people. Having a little bit of fun and not having all this homework. To be Friday every day!” There were a couple of other responses very similar to this, such as “Saying there is no homework! Saying we don’t have to do nothing to pass!” Students who answered in this way likely do not view learning as a priority.

If I were May, I would be encouraged that many students do want to learn and understand the importance of structure, cooperation, and respect. I would also be frustrated that some students obviously do not consider learning to be important. The positive thing, however, is that these responses would inform my next step by illustrating that many students were seeking structure. Developing a strong classroom routine would be my immediate goal. There will always be students who have a strong desire to learn, while there will be some who are uninterested in school and do not take their jobs as students seriously. By creating a structure and setting high expectations for all students within her classroom, though, May might be able to increase the cooperation of some of her more challenging students. Therefore, my first goal would be to increase the productivity of the class in general, particularly at the beginning of the class period. I would also focus on the students who were getting the class off track and try to implement tier 2 and tier 3 interventions with them. Often, a small number of students can upset the dynamic of an entire class. By working to improve their behavior, May would likely notice a positive change in her entire class.

References

Dana, N., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2009). The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Final Reflection

Personal Learning Theory Reflection

My personal learning theory has not changed dramatically throughout since the beginning of the course. I now have a better understanding of major learning theories, however, and have discovered that each of them has a place in my classroom. When I first developed my personal learning theory, I believed strongly in aspects of both the constructionist and social constructivist theories. Looking back, I still believe in the constructionist concept that “ideas are most likely to be created when learners are actively engaged in building some type of external artifact that they can reflect upon and share with others” (Orey, 2001). I also feel that students must interact and collaborate with others, thereby supporting the social constructivist notion that learning is a social process (Orey, 2001).

While my belief in both the constructionist and social constructivist theories has remained strong throughout this course, I have become much more familiar with both the behaviorist and cognitivist learning theories. I was surprised to find that I support aspects of these learning theories as well. For example, I have always believed it to be important to provide students with frequent positive reinforcement, but did not realize that this practice is actually a form of behaviorism. In addition, many of my lessons involve graphic organizers and visual explanations of concepts to help students make connections with material. These support the theory of cognitivism, which I was relatively unfamiliar with. All students learn differently, and it is important to incorporate ideas from a variety of learning theories in order to reach all students.

I have used technology in my lessons since I began teaching a few years ago, but I continue to learn more about the wide variety of resources available to enhance learning. This course gave me the opportunity to explore new technologies, such as Voice Thread and Webspiration, and also helped me understand how these technologies support various learning theories. I have found myself thinking more about how the use of technology in my lessons will support my learners based on the various learning theories.

Technology Tools and Instructional Practice

I have already incorporated new technologies into my classroom as a result of this course. My students just completed an assignment using Webspiration, and the lesson was very successful. They enjoyed working with the technology and did a terrific job presenting their graphic organizers to the class using the interactive white board. My goal is to continue to find ways to incorporate new technologies discussed in this course. Although my students use Microsoft Word frequently and are very proficient with the technology, I have not yet utilized the graphic organizers available within the software. I would like to use these graphic organizers to help students make connections between concepts we learn in social studies. One area we focus on frequently is cause and effect, and how the events of one civilization impacted others. My students could easily use Microsoft Word’s cause/effect pattern organizer to illustrate this concept.

I would also like to use Microsoft PowerPoint in a different way. This is another tool that my students are very familiar with, but generally, the slideshows they create are filled with text. I plan on having students create presentations regarding an upcoming topic using only visuals in their slideshows. Then, while they present their visuals, they will explain to the class the connections between the images they chose and the content, thereby focusing on nonlinguistic representations of the material. I feel I now have a much better understanding of the reasoning behind the implementation of learning activities and technologies, and am eager to incorporate new and creative ways for students to interact with the social studies content.

Long-term Goals

One goal I have is to have students create nonlinguistic representations of material on a more regular basis, and then present these to the class. There are so many different ways to approach the idea of nonlinguistic representation. Students can use Webspiration, Microsoft Word graphic organizers, and Microsoft PowerPoint, just to name a few. This will allow for greater creativity on their part and will also facilitate more hands-on learning. Meanwhile, students will be working to create products more frequently, which will help them to better understand concepts. Doing so will accomplish the same goals as teacher-centered lecture, but will be more meaningful and have a greater impact on my students since helping students to use nonlinguistic representation has strong effects on achievement (Pitler et al., 2007).

A second goal of mine is to establish communication between my students and students in another area of the world, using a program such as ePals. This will broaden my students’ perspectives and help them to learn about other cultures and languages in an entirely new way (Pitler et al., 2007). As we learn about various ancient civilizations, my students become very fascinated with other cultures and intrigued by the vast differences amongst these cultures. I strongly believe that partnering with another classroom in a different part of the world would open their eyes to another culture in a way not possible just by studying the culture in the classroom. Today’s technology tools provide opportunities for unique learning experiences that may not have been possible even ten years ago, and “keypals” is a perfect example of that.

References

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved November 5, 2010 from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.