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
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
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.).
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
I am a strong believer that communication between parents, students, and teachers is the key to a student's success. Our district has required each teacher to create a teacher webpage and keep it updated weekly. I have found this to be a great challenge. I find that it is difficult to update it daily if homework assignments change due to the students' previous misunderstandings of concepts I thought they might grasp more easily. I would encourage you to make note that your website contains information that should be accurate however, they should still view their child's assignment book for the most current assignments. I have found this to be quite helpful when I need to change an assignment.
ReplyDeleteI have similar goals in my GAME plan. Do you already have ideas of making your lessons project-based? Do all of your grade level members share your same passion for technology, or will you be swimming upstream with this endeavor? I was just wondering how much support you will be getting as you try to make the curriculum differentiated. It sounds like you have put a lot of thought into these goals.
ReplyDeleteI would like to use my website mostly for updating parents about what is going on in class. I'm not sure that I plan on putting weekly homework assignments on it due to the fact that things change so often based on how a class period goes.
ReplyDeleteAs far as my grade level members are concerned, I am the most into technology, but they are very open-minded about it and are willing to work to develop project-based learning opportunities. I do not mind taking the lead and presenting them with my ideas, as I know they will be willing and eager to contribute. I realize I am lucky because some teachers might encounter more resistance if they had a goal similar to mine.
Our district sends home quarterly newsletters to every parent or caregiver. However, if each school had a page on the school's website, this would eliminate alot of paper trash. I also think that it would be neat to have a website per grade level or classroom. I teach music, and it would be great if I could even upload audio examples of each band's progression or what we are doing in the general music classroom.
ReplyDeleteI understand the frustration about keeping up with weekly assignments. It's one more thing to do.
Our school has a program called Progress Book in which students and parents can login in and check assignments, grades, missing assignments, etc. My sophomore is constantly on it. However, it doesn't work if teachers cannot keep up with updating the assignments and grades.
Keeping an online presence that is relevant and updated seems to be a consistent challenge for educators who spend the majority of their time in the classroom and with students. I have found that embedding a google doc works great for weekly newsletters. Any update to the doc itself is automatically updated on the website in which it is embedded. This way you not only have updated your document and have a printable version, but also your website without an extra step. Lead and they will follow!
ReplyDeleteCollaborating with other teachers is such a strong way of improving what you are already doing. I consider myself so fortunate to work with as many expert teachers as I do. One thing I have seen over the years is teachers who talk about what they do in class that works with their students. This is great, but the truth is that even though the ideas are shared, they do not always get put into practice by the teacher who it was shared with. That is really no ones fault, as it is always the individuals choice as to whether or not they want to use a shared strategy. When it comes to implementations of technology I think we have a unique situation on hand. One thing about technology is that we often have a digital copy of something we can share. For example, I am often creating powerpoint Jeopardy games to review a unit or chapter with my students. The truth is that the rest of the teachers in my grade level would probably benefit from such a resource, and all it takes on my part is attaching it to an email for them to have. One idea I would like to try with my grade level sometime is having a digital resource swap. We could easily put resources we use and feel are effective on a cd or usb drive and share them with each other. This way, we would not be left having to always recreate the wheel. Instead, we could tap into a storehouse of resources collected over time by a group of competent educators.
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