Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress

The two goals I developed for my personal GAME plan are:

• To determine how collaborative tools such as blogs, podcasts, and VoiceThread can be used to promote student reflection and incorporate these reflective tools regularly into instruction.

•   To create new authentic learning experiences and real world problem solving activities with technology as I develop my third grade common core curriculum.

          So far I feel like I am making progress towards reaching these goals.  In the past week I attended a week long class in which I learned ways to teach the new core math standards while integrating science, language arts, and creative arts standards.  I learned some really creative and authentic ways to teach using the mathematics core standards.  Next week I will be attending a few professional development days through my county focusing on teaching the new core mathematics standards.  Following these PD days I think I will have a better grasp on how I will be teaching the core standards this coming year so I can begin to create more authentic learning opportunities for the new standards.  In addition, I am curious to find out how my county’s vision of the core standards and how they should be taught will fit in with what I learned last week.

            I am really excited about using technology as reflective tools in my classroom this coming school year.  I plan to have a computer station in both math and reading.  My vision is for students to reflect on the text we are reading throughout the week as they participate in discussion and answer prompts about the text.  In math I plan to have a weekly problem posted in which students can share how they solved the problem, ask questions, and view different examples from their classmates.  The main technology resource I will be utilizing will be our class blog on kidblog.org.  I would also like to utilize podcasts and VoiceThread as collaborative and reflective tools more often.  If you know of effective ways to use these tools for this purpose please share.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

In order to carry out the GAME plan I developed in my previous post I will need to gain additional information.  First, third grade will be beginning to use the Common Core Standards in math as well as a brand new reading program next year.  In order to create authentic learning experiences for my students I will need to gain an understanding of the new third grade standards I will be meeting in math and the new materials and resources I will be required to use in both reading and math.  In order to develop authentic learning experiences I will need to review this information so I can effectively create real world problem solving within my content standards and resources.  In addition, I will need to experiment with and research different ways I can use blogs, VoiceThread, and podcasts for students to reflect on their learning and share their thinking so I am comfortable and knowledgeable of how to use these tools to support my instruction (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).

To prepare for the upcoming school year, I am participating in a grant through the local university to learn how to teach integrated using the common core standards for math, science, and creative arts.  Through participating in this grant I am beginning to become more comfortable with the math common core standards and ways in which I can incorporate authentic learning experiences in math while integrating aspects of science and creative arts.    

As I carry out my plan I will also need multiple resources to assist me.  I will need to collaborate with other third grade teachers and professionals knowledgeable about the new common core standards in order to develop authentic learning experiences.  I will also need access to computers, internet, a class blog using Kidblog.org in which each student has their own user name, a VoiceThread account for my students to use, Kidspiration, Audacity, and microphones. 

References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). Enriching content area learning experiences with technology, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

My GAME Plan

As I prepare my students for the 21^st century workplace, it is my responsibility to develop skills needed to be successful.  Prensky (2008) notes technology skills, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, ethics and responsibility, and global awareness as the 21^st century skills our students need. The skills needed for our students to be success mirror the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS).  When reviewing the standards and indicators of the NETS there were some standards I felt fairly confident with and some standards I knew I needed to further develop my confidence and implement more into my instruction.  I decided to create a personal GAME plan to increase my confidence in two indicators of standard one, “Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity,” (ISTE, 2008).  The two indicators I want to integrate more in my instruction are indicators b and c (indicator b. engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources, indicator c. promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes), (ISTE,2008).

Integrating technology into instruction effectively requires knowledge of how to teach content using the digital tool, confidence with getting students to use the tools, belief that student centered instruction and hands on learning makes for good teaching, and a supportive culture as I integrate new technologies into instruction (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).  Through developing and following my personal GAME plan I strive to integrate technology into instruction effectively in order to engage my students and improve learning of content and 21^st century skills (ISTE, 2008).  My GAME plan will allow me to set specific goals, take action to meet those goals, monitor my progress toward achieving those goals, and evaluate whether the goals were achieved (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).

My GAME plan:

·         Goals:

o   Determine how collaborative tools such as blogs, podcasts, and VoiceThread can be used to promote student reflection and incorporate these reflective tools regularly into instruction.

o   Create new authentic learning experiences and real world problem solving activities with technology as I develop my third grade common core curriculum.

·         Action

o   I plan to use cooperative learning and problem based learning experiences to engage my students in authentic learning activities with technology.

o   I plan to have my students regularly collaborate and reflect on problems in math using technology.

o   I plan to use various technology resources such as blogs, VoiceThread, podcasts as reflective tools during reading and mathematics instruction. 

o   I plan to use various technology resources such as concept mapping tools, kidspiration, webquests, blogs, VoiceThread, and podcasts to engage my students in authentic problem solving activities in math next year.

·         Monitor

o   I will use formative assessments to determine if my students are learning content as they engage in reflection and authentic learning activities.

o   As my students engage in authentic learning activities and reflection using collaborative tools I will use observations to reflect “in action” to determine if I need to make modifications as my students work. 

·         Evaluate

o   At the conclusion of new learning activities I will determine how well the activity went, if the activity had the intended outcome, and what I can do differently next time to improve the outcome.

References

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

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Enriching content area learning experiences with technology, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teacher (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

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