EDUC 6713 Reflection

The blog series for this course had students creating, reflecting, and sharing posts based on a GAME plan created based on the NETS-S standards. I found this series of blog beneficial. Firstly, I was not aware of the standards to a large degree. Having a consistent set of guidelines in preparing a class for using technology in the classroom is a good reminder for teachers. This set of standards is also helpful as a benchmark for teachers in many areas of the world. With these standards, students around the world will receive like standards, which is advantageous as we continue preparing learners in the 21st century. Preparing a GAME plan was a good exercise in using new methods and information on a topic area. This was a hands-on activity that gave me the experience my students would have if they would use the GAME plan in their school work.


Creating a GAME plan was another reminder that as teachers, we need to be reflective practitioners. The GAME plan is a systematic way of going through a thought process of a teaching or learning goal you have set. The monitoring and evaluating were the most helpful in the process. While you monitor and evaluate it forces you to think and reflect on what has happened. It forces you to consider changes, take a different approach, or redefine what you need to know. I can see myself using the GAME plan with my students. The entire process would be part of a self-assessment for any assignment. By going through a GAME plan I would be able to see the depth of the learning that has happened during the course of an assignment. This can also lead to a more authentic learning by students as they monitor and evaluate what they have done.

I am not sure if there are any immediate plans or changes that I will make in my teaching practice regarding the integration of technology. However, this course has reminded me of a few things I must do as a teacher. Firstly, it is imperative to always be reflecting and thinking about learning. Thinking about this is not enough; you must also be prepared to take action and make necessary changes based on monitoring and evaluations you have made about your goals. Secondly, I have realized that I have many good lessons and units that can be altered so that technology can be infused into the learning. To go along with the idea of changing lessons and units rather than starting from scratch, I have learned that you must choose where technology properly fits into a lesson. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) wisely state that technology must be used for a purpose, not just for the sake of using technology. If what I do in the classroom does not advance the learning and understanding of my students, I have not done my job.

Technology offers abundant opportunities for students to show their learning. Technology helps students become better 21st century learners. By incorporating technology into my lessons, and having a GAME plan in doing so, offer my students a better chance at success in their learning (and in my teaching).

References:

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 with Students

The NETS standards for students are a good compliment to the teachers’ standards. In fact, most of the standards are isomers of each other. For example, teachers are to demonstrate good ethical use of technology. Students are to demonstrate that they use technology in an appropriate way. Upon closer inspection, most of the standards work in this way. Based on some of the work done in the Walden courses, I could see myself doing a similar style of assignment with my students. I would introduce my students to all of the standards and discuss each one with them. As they year progressed, I would ask them to use a GAME plan in implementing the standards as they went through different technology assignments during the school year. These GAME plans could be uploaded into their ePearl portfolios to show that they have been thinking about and using the NETS standards in their work.


As I look at the standards, these are the many of the things I ask my students to do on a regular basis. These standards are very closely related to my provincial technology curriculum (http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/tech/lict/show_me/continuum.html). One of the toughest areas for my students in using technology is the aspect of safe, legal, and responsible use of technology. Sometimes my students forget that most of the technology they use at school is not their own. In some cases, students tend to use copyright material without permission. Other times students purposefully try to access inappropriate web sites by getting around divisional blocks. Although these incidents are low, they do happen. Here is where my teaching and examples of proper use of technology can be a guide for my students. However, if students are more aware of standards they are to work toward, this can serve as incentive for achievement. I teach middle years, and at this age, students love contests with structure. If they are to begin setting goals, taking action, monitoring, and evaluating their work towards their goal, they can start telling you and showing you that they have used technology in a proper and ethical way. It is the "look what I did" mentality.

GAME plans can be multifaceted and have uses in many applications in our everyday lives and in our professions. The NETS-T and NETS-S are only two examples where GAME plans can be implemented. Teachers are told to be reflective practitioners. When teachers use GAME plans it becomes a systematic way to be reflective. There is a focus and purpose. If students have a purpose and focus for their assignments, learning and projects become more meaningful.

References:

Literacy with ICTAcross the Curriculum; A Developmental Continuum located at http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/tech/lict/show_me/continuum.html

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.blogger.com/goog_1849475459
2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

National Education Standards for Students (NETS-S) located at http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Student_2007_EN.sflb.ashx

Revising the GAME Plan

I have a reoccurring theme in my blog posts; be patient. A question I have is can you reach a goal? Is there room for complacency in teaching? Should I have my lesson and unit plans laminated? My answer is no to all. I believe I can be happy with my progress in my GAME plan. I can be happy and proud of the strides I am beginning to make, but I am not convinced that you can “make it” in teaching. I believe you can always improve. With this in mind, I suppose my GAME plan will always be evolving and changing. I am the type of person who will always seek professional development opportunities. I just received an email about a course on Kudo animation. However, I will not be attending the in-service. Does this mean I need to revise my GAME plan because I was not allowed to attend? Again, the answer is no. A colleague of mine who is finishing this program in December will work with me and we will investigate this tool together. I believe working within the context you have is a key to succeeding in any GAME plan. I will continue to lobby for programs and technology tool I believe will benefit the students at my school. Although not necessarily technology based, I have been recently appointed to a behaviour committee at my school. I am growing into a stronger leadership role in my school.


Unwittingly I have been trying to inspire student learning and creativity by the use of technology in the classroom. Without investigating the NETS-T standards, I did not know I was working on this goal. My experience is that students want to use technology in their learning. They use technology as an everyday part of their lives. Why should school be such a drastic change for them? I have two adapted students who have done research on an endangered species. They have incorporated their research into a script and will make a video for their presentation. Without my encouragement, I do not know if they would have been this excited about this project.

I look at the NETS –T and see they are separated into five distinct goals. I am not sure if you can achieve them one by one. Although I see value in a GAME plan and they are important, these standards weave themselves into each other to make a whole. You can hardly work on one of these standards without touching on the other four.

References:

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

Evaluationg GAME Plan Progress

As mentioned in previous blog postings finishing my master’s degree is first and foremost on my agenda in terms of professional growth and leadership. The courses continue, the learning continues, and the ideas continue to formulate. I believe the area in which I am slowly changing is allowing for more student centered learning rather than teacher centered learning. Ertmer and Simons (2006) talk about problem-based learning (PBL). Taking their ideas of presenting a real world problem to students before a unit begins is of interest to me. I think there is real value in these types of lessons and units. However, as they suggest, start off with something small. In most cases this type of teaching and learning will require a learning curve on both the students’ and teachers’ sides. I would like to be patient with myself to incorporate these ideas correctly. I want to do them with skill and correctness so I can fully pass on the information to my colleagues.


I do not know if it is my nature, the master’s program, or that I am a more senior teacher in my school, but I have started to take on more issues on behalf of my fellow teachers. I do not like people standing around and complaining or comparing a situation to somewhere else. I find myself raising these issues at meetings to get a healthy discussion going. Mostly, I find myself in discussions with my principal lobbying for new technology for our school or allowing various web tools to be used on our school network. Currently I am not enrolled in any new courses or programs, but I have gained the confidence to speak my mind on issues and make proposals that I believe would make our students more successful in school.

Being so involved with work and university, my goal to use more technology with my students is going slower than I expected. I have had the chance to try Google Sketchup with my class. They really enjoyed experimenting with it and I believe I can incorporate this tool with a PBL unit. I also have three students who receive heavier adaptations to their program. These three students have elected to do research on an endangered species. They have also indicated that their preferred method of presentation will be a video. It looks like I will be learning Moviemaker with my students.

In the grand scheme of things I am happy with how my plan is unfolding. I am a person who likes to really think about things before I act. My plan may take some time to complete, but I am alright with that. I also feel that I am willing to make any changes necessary as they arise. I have also thought about changing school divisions if that is what it takes to more fully reach my goal.

References:

Ertmer, P., & Simons, K. (Spring 2006). Jumping the PBL implementation hurdle: Supporting the efforts of K-12 teachers. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 1(1), 40-54. Retrieved from http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=ijpbl.

Monitoring GAME Plan Progress

I believe that my GAME plan has some long term components to it. Firstly, the master’s program is a 20 month process. I am learning an unbelievable amount of information; however, it may take some time to fully implement some of the ideas I am formulating. Most of my time is spent doing my course work and fulfilling my teaching obligations. Also many courses and programs cost money and I have to pace my spending. My school division is not willing to pay for all courses I take. This being said, I am doing what I can to pass information to my fellow teachers and my administrator.


I am trying to model more technology with my students each week. As with the first goal, this second goal will take time. As of late, I have been introducing my students to their e-portfolios. I used my e-portfolio on the provided site as an exemplar. I got my students logged in and they have most recently personalized their home page. Within the week the class will receive instruction on how to upload assignments to their portfolios. Lambert, DePaepe, Lambert, L., & Anderson, (2007) say e-portfolios help with learning, but these portfolios also help students work with technology. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) encourage teachers to use web based grade books to help keep assessments in order. This past week I showed my students the web grade book I was now using, and that they would soon be getting user names to create student accounts for themselves and their parents. They will be able to track their progress as the term progresses. I have also been able to work with my school division to set up divisional e-mail accounts for my students. Communication should improve as well as giving students more options to hand in their assignments.

One thing I am learning as I go ahead with my GAME plan is that working at it slowly is alright. Nothing has to be done immediately. I do not think I need to modify my plans at this time other than be realistic about the time frame.

A question that has been creeping into my brain recently is what happens when I encounter road blocks in my plan? I may have it all worked out, but my plan does involve other people. I may not get the in-servicing I want. I may not get a chance to set up a committee. I may have to cross those bridges when I get there, but I will mostly work within the system. I do not want to be a pest to the division, but I will keep pitching my ideas to the necessary people within the division.

References:

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.

Lambert, C., DePaepe, J., Lambert, L., & Anderson, D. (Winter 2007). E-portfolios in action. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 43(2), 76–81.

Carrying out the GAME Plan

My GAME plan for professional growth and leadership has already started. I teach grade 7 with two other teachers in my school. We have a homeroom system where we all teach our homerooms all four core subject areas. We have collaboration time for seventy minutes per cycle. In our last meeting our topic of discussion was the lack of math skills our students have this year. I suggested a meeting with our division curriculum support teacher for math. The principal of the school allowed us to have a half day meeting to discuss strategies that would clear up any math misconceptions or deficits in math concepts. The meeting was successful and all three of us have started to implement these strategies in our math classes. As we use the techniques to discover misconceptions we will monitor students’ progress in each of the math strands. For some of our weaker math students more diagnostic tools would be appreciated to establish their actual math and numeracy levels. Wahl and Duffield (2005) talk about curriculum developers and textbook publishers going online to make material accessible and changeable for learners at all levels. I would like to investigate this idea further and try to bring this into my school.

Seeing that one of my goals is to bring more usable technology into my classroom, I would also need the necessary budget and training to implement these programs. Some years ago I had a student who was issued a computer through government funding. One software application loaded on the computer was a text to speech word processing program. I was given no training on this program whatsoever. I was told by our resource teacher that the student knew how to use it. Not true. However, that is where it was left. The student did not get full benefit of the program. If had had to do it again, I would demand the training required for the student and myself. I have mentioned to my administrator that other software programs could be used to benefit some of our more special needs students (not only in my classroom, but in our school). At this time our division is going through somewhat of a revolution of its technology policies and standards. No schools are receiving money for technology at this time.

In my last post I mentioned there was a possibility of creating a web literacy program for teachers in my school and division. Talks have slowed down and I am dealing with more staff that sees no real advantage to using technology in the classroom. I feel it is even more important to negotiate for this web literacy program. If we do not pursue this matter, we stand a good chance of failing our students in preparing them for the workforce of the 21st century. I am comforted in that one of my colleagues is finishing this program in December of this year and can help in the negotiations for my technology support for our students.

References:
Wahl, L., & Duffield, J. (2005). Using flexible technology to meet the needs of diverse learners: What teachers can do. WestEd, pp. 1–11. Retrieved from http://www.wested.org/cs/we/view/rs/763.

Developing a Personal GAME Plan

In looking at the NETS-T for teachers, I find myself drawn to several indicators where I would like to strengthen my teaching career. I will use Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer’s (2009) GAME plan to illustrate my intentions. The two indicators I am working on now are Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership, and Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. What is my GAME plan?

Set the Goal. Being involved with a master’s program at Walden is a big jumping off point to increasing my professional growth and leadership. I believe that integrating more technology into the classroom will be nothing but beneficial to our students. I also will be looking to join committees on technology in my school division to promote and advocate for an increase in technology availability in the division. As for the second indicator, I plan to get better at using technology personally so I can integrate more choice into my lessons. Although the program at Walden is introducing me to many areas of technology, as a student, I get just a taste of what is available. I would like to more purposefully search out and master different web tools appropriate for my class.

Take Action. As mentioned, taking a master’s in integrating technology into the classroom is my first action towards the goal. Also, getting to know which committees are taking on members, subscribing to blogs about technology education, and blogging on the topic itself are other ways to take action. Investigating courses at local universities or PD sessions on web tools of interest will bring me closer to my goal. I am in negotiations with my school division to help create a web literacy program for teachers to implement in their classrooms. I have also been a peer coach in technology in the school where I teach. Lastly, I am working with my division to get an ePals membership. Networking with others around the world to strengthen our students’ 21st century skills is imperative. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) indicate that webconferencing is another way to get involved professionally to make better use of technology in the classroom. Prensky (2008) asserts that classrooms should be places where collaboration happens around the world electronically. Therefore, teachers should also collaborate internationally to improve their teaching.

Monitor. Monitoring is like reflective thinking. As I endeavour to model digital learning and work and increase my professional development, I have to reflect if what I am doing is working for me. Are committees the right way to go at this time? Can I have a true impact on my students? Am I using technology for the sake of technology or is the technology actually strengthening learning? Are my contacts helping me help my students?

Evaluate. As with monitoring, I must ask myself if my goals are being met. Are teachers using my input and advice? Are my ideas being listened at the committee stage? King-Sears and Evmenova (2007) point out teachers need to practice and demonstrate technology with their students. This allows for evaluation of the use of that particular technology in the lesson. What could be changed for future lessons? These authors also indicate that teachers need to incorporate technology as an important way to deliver instruction in the classroom. Once again it allows students to see how technology can be used. Another point these authors make is that teachers need to examine the technology and use it before a lesson takes place. Again this allows the teacher to evaluate the usefulness of the tool for the original purpose.

I know my abilities in using technology. I will not fool anyone into thinking that I am some sort of techie. However, with using a proper GAME plan, I can be a better teacher preparing my students for the 21st century.

References:

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.

King-Sears, M., & Evmenova, A. S. (2007, Sep/Oct). Premises, principles, and processes for integrating TECHnology into instruction. Teaching Exceptional Children, 40(1), 6–14.

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

Prensky, M. (2008, March). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40-45.