Final Reflection on my GAME plan

At the beginning of this course, I created a GAME plan to achieve success in integrating at least two indicators of the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) into my professional life. A GAME plan is when you set goals, take action to try and meet the goals, monitor your progress, and evaluating where you have met the goals or not (Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P., 2009, p.3). My GAME plan that I developed throughout this course involved collaboration between me and my students, the parents, the community, and other professionals. Each week I reflected on my GAME plan, monitored, evaluated it, and made necessary changes. The two indicators I chose to integrate were: indicator 3b: collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation and indicator 5a: participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning (NETS-T Standards). After creating my GAME plan, I thought that the first chosen indicator would not be difficult to achieve, but maybe the second indicator would be the more challenging one. As I am now reflecting upon the last eight weeks, actually the first indicator seemed to be the more challenging in some ways.

For the first indicator, I chose to set up a blog on my already established teacher webpage through Blackboard. This is how I would incorporate communication using technology with my students, parents, and the community. Throughout the process though, I discovered that my students and parents (with the student’s login information) could access my webpage, but members of the community could not. So as a result, I created a new teacher webpage using Edublogs.com. By using this new website, everyone was able to gain access to my teacher webpage where I posted class information, my PowerPoint notes, details for assignments and projects, blogs, and a new wiki project we are beginning after the holiday break.

For the second indicator, I joined an online professional learning network through http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com/. Although, this network might be a good learning opportunity for some educators, I found that professionally I did not grow much from joining this particular network. One last minute change that I did make to achieve this indicator was joining Twitter. I know, I know, I told myself I would never join Twitter. I am a technology mentor for my school district, and in one of our monthly meetings, we had to report one action we made that month to grow as a professional. I was shocked when my colleagues mentioned that had joined Twitter for professional reasons. However, I have discovered in the short amount of time that I have been active with it, I have “followed” some people who I believe I might be able to benefit from professionally.

One new learning and “ah hah” moment I had was no matter how much I planned, I always had to make changes. I thought my original teacher webpage would work for the first indicator. Then, I thought that I would benefit professionally from the original professional learning network I joined. However, to achieve success for both indicators, I had to make big changes throughout the process. I discovered the important part was that I realized I had to make those changes in order to be successful in the long run. After making those changes, I found it much easier to achieve my goals I had set in the beginning.

I have made several changes to my instructional methods in teaching my social studies classes. One change I made was integrating more digital storytelling into my repertoire. The students had a blast with them! Another change was regarding how I plan my lessons now. Use to I would think of how I think my students should learn the material, but now I am beginning to think more in a middle school-age position. As my principal says “we must teach how they learn, not how we learn”. Lastly, I look at problem-based learning in a whole new light. In the beginning I was confused by the concept, but now I understand more of what PBL is and how to integrate it into my curriculum using technology.

Overall, I strongly believe that the GAME plan, the PBL content-area unit plan, and the course overall helped me to grow as a professional. I can honestly say that because of this course I feel that I have begun to make my transition from novice to master (well, kind of) teacher :).

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.

National Education Technology Standards for Teachers: http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

Technology Integration in Education network: http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com/

Evaluating my GAME plan

To my group: I am so sorry that my post did not go through. Below is what I thought I posted last Wednesday night (before everything with my internet connection--or lack there of since then--started happening). Thank goodness I saved this in a Word document :)

My actions so far have achieved some of my GAME plan goals. First, I set up a new free educator blog site so parents, students, and the community can have free access to it: http://abroberts08.edublogs.org/ By creating this new webpage everyone is able to have access to it. My former classroom webpage was created through Blackboard, where it is password protected. The only people that could gain access was my students (and parents through using the student's log in information). However, I did not want to leave out easy access for parents and the community so that is why I chose to create a new webpage. This new webpage through Edublogs.org has allowed me to gain closer achievement to my first indicator: "collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation".

My second indicator was not so forthcoming though. I was able to find a personal learning network to join, but unfortunately did not find it very beneficial. The link to the network is: http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com/ I constantly was having to ask for my membership to be changed from pending to a full member. The administrator of this personal network was very slow and late in getting back with me about my membership. Unfortunately, this put me behind on gaining access to the blogs, discussion boards, chats, videos, and other cool resources (like free podcasts!). My whole point in wanting to join this network was to work on reaching my goal for my second indicator: "participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning".

After all this being said, I believe that for the most part, my actions were somewhat effective in trying to reach my GAME plan goals. One lesson that I have learned that I can apply to my instructional methods in integrating technology in the classroom is you have to be very patient. When using technology, not always is your first or second plan of action going to work. After creating a teacher webpage, then finding out not everyone (including my Walden classmates) could gain access to it, then creating a second teacher webpage, and finally trying to fight the battle of becoming a member of my PNL...I never thought that I would have to jump through so many loops. At this time I do not have any questions about how to continue with my GAME plan. The only thing I need is more time to work on my newly created teacher webpage. In addition, I am still awaiting the verification email saying I have been granted full access to my PLN. One way that I am going to adjust my plan to fit my current needs is I am now on the search for a new PLN. Instead of waiting, I am currently in the process of searching for a new PLN. Any suggestions?

Monitoring my GAME Plan Progress

I believe I have made good progress on my GAME plan. Regarding the first indicator, communicating with students, parents, and community using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation, I have set up my teacher webpage, blog links, and sent home my first newsletter to parents—in addition, putting a copy of the newsletter on my webpage. Regarding the second indicator, participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning, I have read and communicated with other educators on my PLN.

As I have monitored my GAME plan progress, I have found some modifications I need to make. I have found out that there is no way that I can make my Blackboard teacher webpage open to the public. Only my students and parents with usernames and passwords can login and have access to my teacher webpage. This week, I am creating a new webpage so everyone can gain access to it. In addition, I believe that instead of sending out a newsletter monthly, I am going to send one out every quarter (9 weeks instead of 4 weeks). I have learned that even though you create a detailed plan where originally you do not foresee any flaws; there will always be changes you need to make.

One question that I do have is: can anyone recommend a good website where a teacher can make a webpage that is free and everyone can have access to?

Thank you,
Amy

Carrying out my GAME plan

1.) What resources will you need to carry out your plan (video, reading, experts or colleagues, etc)?
- Computer with internet
- Continue to establish my teacher webpage (Blackboard)
- Collaboration with my ITS at my school
- Microsoft Publisher to create a newsletter send to parents


2.) What additional information do you need?
- Reminder of how to set up group email spreadsheets using Excel or Word—this I am collaborating with my ITS about.


3.) What steps have you been able to take so far?
- Established my teacher webpage through Blackboard
- Established a blogging link on my webpage
- I have already signed up to be a technology mentor through my school district. This allows me to attend the monthly technology meetings to learn different ways to integrate technology into my curriculum
- I have joined a PLN: http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com/

Beginning of my GAME plan...

The National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) outlines the standards and performance indicators that teachers should meet when integrating technology and engaging our students in today’s curriculum. A set of standards and performance indicators have also been created to explain the skills students should be able to meet too.

After reading through and reflecting on the standards, I have chosen the following two indicators for my GAME plan:
- Indicator 3b. collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation
- Indicator 5a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning

Goals:
- I plan to communicate with students via a classroom blog set up through my teacher webpage, and communicate with peers, parents, and community members via email, monthly newsletter, and my teacher webpage. In addition, I plan to attend my school district’s monthly technology meetings to collaborate more with my local community about ways I can improve student learning with integrating technology. Lastly, I recently joined an online personal learning network to communicate with other educators on ideas to integrate technology into the classroom. The personal learning network is: http://www.technologyintegrationineducation.com/

Actions:
- In order to meet my goals I need access to a computer with internet. Through meeting my goals, I will definitely be a self-directed learner.
- To Do List: set up blog on classroom webpage, verify I have the correct email addresses for parents, create monthly newsletter in Microsoft Publisher, contact my ITS (Instructional Technology Specialist) at my school to verify the dates of the district’s technology meetings.

Monitor:
- I will monitor my progress monthly. I will check to see if I have integrated all these communication tools into my monthly practice. Of course, not wanting to get too overwhelmed, I understand that the first month or so I might not integrate everything 100% at once. Realizing this, I will make sure after the second month, I am integrating all of these tools on a monthly basis.

Evaluate:
- In the end, I will evaluate my progress based on records on my teacher webpage—did I communicate with my students through blogs on a monthly basis? Did I consistently email parents about their child and/or send home a monthly newsletter by email? Did I attend each month’s district technology meeting? What tool did I learn each month, or more often, from my personal learning network?
- Through reflecting back on these records, I will be able to successfully evaluate myself on my “GAME” plan progress.


References:

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

EDUC-6713I-6 Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas

Let's begin...

I just wanted to post a "hello" message to everyone in Group 3. My name is Amy Roberts and I teach 7th and 8th grade social studies in Columbia, South Carolina. In addition to teaching, I am a technology mentor for my school district as well as the coach of the dance team at my school, Kelly Mill Middle. I love technology, and am obsessed with how it has revolutionized education and our world. I look forward to blogging with all of you during this class!

-Amy

p.s. I really want an iPad!

Reflection of EDUC 6712I-1

In reflecting back on this course, I realize I have had many surprising moments. However, the most surprising element about teaching the 21st century literacy skills is the amount of time and ways of integration into my already time restraint curriculum it demands. I do agree though that teaching these skills is a necessity for our students to learn to enhance their knowledge for their future jobs. By teaching these 21st century skills, we are bringing our students closer to achieving the demands they must fulfill for their future jobs. The most startling thought for me is that I am preparing my students for some jobs that do not even exist yet. Since I am still a novice teacher (just beginning my 5th year teaching), I am still pretty current with the technologies in our world and ones that can be implemented in our classrooms. I have integrated some such as, blogs, wikis, and podcasts, into my curriculum already. In order to teach my students the 21st century literacy skills, I plan to continue integrating technologies but in a more critical way. My goal already for this school year and beyond is to integrate into my lessons the 5 new literacies: questioning, searching, evaluating, synthesizing, and communicating (Laureate Education, 2009). I believe as long as we follow by the guidelines of the 21st century literacy skills and try to strengthen those in our students, we are doing our job. I also agree with Mr. Warlick with his philosophy in we need to stop teaching our students how to be taught, but for them to know how to learn and teach themselves (Laureate Education, 2009). Our society has changed and so should teaching and how our students learn. We are a much more hands-on, constructivist society now rather than the traditional ‘being told what to do’ industrial times. Instead of our students being told what to do, we need to have our students questioning what should they do next (what is the next step)—inquiry. Just like Dr. Hartman said we need to teach our students how to develop good questions (Laureate Education, 2009). I strongly agree with this statement. If our students are always expecting someone else to tell them what to do, then we are not preparing them for their future. After this course I have made it a professional goal of mine to take advantage of more of my school district’s technology classes. I am very lucky to be a part of a school district that offers free professional development classes to teachers in all areas. First I will need to go online and register for these classes. After registering I will take my laptop to the classes so I can follow along as the instructor is teaching about the technology skill. Finally I will integrate this new technology into my classroom. Like I stated before, I have already integrated blogs, wikis, and podcasts into my curriculum, however I would like to add digital storytelling, screen casts, and more.
Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). A teacher's perspective: evaluating information online [Motion Picture] Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore: Author.
21st Century Fluency Project. (2010).The digital citizen. Retrieved September 28, 2010, from http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/fluencies.cfm
Warlick, David. (2005). The New Literacy: Reading, writing, and arithmetic no longer guarantee students a place in the workforce. A different skill set is in high demand. Retrieved September 29, 2010 http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=263

Screen Cast

Based on the instructions given, I analyzed the following website using a screen cast program, Jing. Please copy and past the following link to view and listen to the screen cast.

http://www.screencast.com/t/OxVVo7c6

Voice Thread: Social Studies Curriculum Demands

http://voicethread.com/share/1041840/

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Connectivism is when learning takes place in a cooperative group using technology to enhance the relationships between individuals and the content/curriculum. A great example of connectivism and social learning was in the article, "Social Constructivism Vignette", when Mrs. Smith divided her class into groups and assigned each group one act of the play, Hamlet (Orey, 2001). After Mrs. Smith had realized for years that she had struggled teaching her students about Shakespeare's plays, she turned to social learning instructional strategies. As each student was to complete their part of the project, the end product of a modern-day puppet show was created through a social learning process. In the end, each student's mark was on the project, and they were able to feel a sense of ownership (Orey, 2001).

An instructional strategy that could be a great example of a social learning activity is a "wiki". The whole idea behind a "wiki" is for each student to to put forth their unique ability and talent to the project so the end project is a result of a "diversity of network" (Orey, 2001). I strongly believe that students can just as well learn from other students as well as the teacher. Just like Mr. Orey says a social learning project is where "the students [bring] their diverse interests and collaborated to create their finished product" (Orey, 2001). That is the true definition of a "wiki".

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.

Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Constructivism in Practice

The constructionist approach is all about the student’s process of learning is through building artifacts. Just as one of the types of constructionism, Learning by Design, says that the "emphasis is [on] the value of learning through creating, programming, or participating in other forms of designing" (Orey, M., 2001). I agree that students learn better from manipulations than from cut-and-dry class lectures. Some of the best memories I have personally as a student in school are the projects that I created and built, not worksheets that I completed. There are many activities in my classroom and other colleagues’ classrooms that exemplify the constructionist learning theory. For instance, in Social Studies during our World War I unit, students created models of a battlefield, including the trenches, “no man’s land”, and barbwire. In using technology to prepare for the building of the model, students had to research what the World War I battlefields looked like. From ETV streamline video clips to websites (www.firstworldwar.com) that we had viewed in class, students were able to picture in their minds the various elements on a battlefield. The students had so much fun with this project! In this project, and in others, the students became the learner and teacher became the facilitator or guide. This week's resources talked about generating and testing a hypothesis. When the constructivist theory is practiced, roles in the classroom change and a hypothesis can be tested. When activities and lessons are student-centered, students will have a better chance on learning and remembering—and of course that is the whole goal.

References:

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.
Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Experiment with VoiceThread

Hey Everyone,

I skipped ahead and created my account for VoiceThread. I was playing around and created this little album.

http://voicethread.com/share/1012760/

Enjoy!

-Amy

Instructional Strategies Paralleled to the Cognitive Learning Theory

This is by far one of my favorite topics! Almost all the instructional strategies explained in chapter 4 & 6 in our text are great. Fortunately I have used a good bit of them in my classroom or have seen them in action in a colleagues' classroom.

I am a big fan of the program, Inspiration (Pitler, 2007, p.79). My first year of teaching I had my students create a concept map using Inspiration as an organized way to gather their research for their World War II research topic. After creating the concept map, students then had an outline for their research paper and media project they were creating next. In the program, Inspiration, if you change the view from 'concept map' to 'outline', literally the students have typed a good outline to a research paper. The students were amazed (and so was I) how much they remembered and comprehended by using technology and visual cues.

Also, the BrainPop website (www.brainpop.com) is a great place to find short animated video clips based on your state standards topics (Pitler, 2007, p.80). The students are engaged to the lessons the characters Tim and Mobey explain. Hey, we all know our students would rather watch a guy and a robot have a conversation and explain a lesson rather than us (aliens! :) In addition to BrainPop, my school has access to the online Ignite Learning program (online version of the "Purple COW--Curriculum On Wheels"). This program also provides short animated video clips based on state curriculum standards. Check out the following website link to learn more about Ignite Learning: http://www.ignitelearning.com/ . Both of these websites are great sources to find educational visual images that your students will learn and remember--supporting the cognitive learning theory.

After reading in chapter 6 about using the program Inspiration as a note-taking template, it really got me thinking about a new way to have my students take notes. Even though it is required in my school that every student takes "Cornell-style notes", using Inspiration is a great way too. Like it says in the text "using a variety of note-taking formats" can provide students with a new and maybe better way to organize their information (Pitler, 2007, p.128). To learn about "Cornell-style notes", please visit the following website: http://coe.jmu.edu/learningtoolbox/cornellnotes.html. I believe Cornell notes are a good way to have students organize the learned information, but Inspiration is digital--something that will engage students anyway because it is using a computer rather than paper/pencil. I also think that the program Inspiration has the students more actively taking notes rather than just writing notes. With the program Inspiration, it allows the students to move around where and how they would organize their information based on how they learn--talk about individual differentiated instruction!

References:

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

Concept Mapping Website

For this week's assignment, we have to create an account on a free concept mapping site. After looking through all the choices under 'Tech Resources', I decided that bubbl.us is a great website! Check it out!

-Amy

New Walden Course: Bridging Learning, Theory, Instruction, and Technology

Hello everyone!

Here we are again with our blogs! I love "blogging"! I teach 7th grade World History at Kelly Mill Middle School in Blythewood, SC (northeast Columbia). I have been teaching for 4 years. I am also the dance team coach at my school. In addition to teaching and coaching, I love to shop, hang out with my friends and family, and travel. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone in Group 3!

-Amy R.