Evaluating the GAME Plan

In evaluating my GAME plan, the actions I took were as effective as they can be during these summer months. Being out of school for the summer makes things a little more difficult because I don’t have easy access to our technology coordinator (not a teacher, just the person who troubleshoots everything). I also do not have students at the moment to try some of these techniques out. I am looking forward to the end of August when I can start implementing some of these lesson plans. But for the most part, I found what needed to be found when it comes to resources and feel ahead of the “game” when it comes to to start school!

I have learned the important of digital citizenship. This is not something that I had really thought about in the past but plan to apply it to my future. I need to be the model to my students when it comes to citing sources. I have also learned how technology can meet the needs of special needs students. I plan on utilizing as much technology as I can when it comes to my special needs students. However, our district isn’t equipped with the numerous technologies that would aid the special needs students. Lastly, I have learned some news ways of assessment through the means of technology, especially in problem-based learning. I plan on incorporating as much of this type of assessment as I can within my classroom throughout the coming school year.

I still have a lot to learn! There are so many technologies out there it is almost overwhelming! I also still need to work on putting together a collaborative project with one of my former colleagues that is now at a new school district. I would love to work with her through a wiki and have our students do some kind of project, but that is still on the back burners of my mind. Taking baby steps in technology can be beneficial. I have still been finding new things to utilize in my classroom, such as WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment) and TELS (Technology Enhanced Learning in Science) put out by the National Science Foundation. These groups have a portal for problem-based learning activities. It is one of the great resources I have found during this course.

I will adjust my plan to fit my current needs by looking at the needs of my students first. Some of my students have not been exposed to technology and so some instruction on the technology itself may be required. This can take up valuable and precious time and so that needs to be considered. Not having a true technology teacher at our district has its pitfalls and that is one of them. I will just have to monitor as the school year gets started and progresses and add in what I can throughout the year.

Monitoring the GAME Plan

So far, I have been finding information that I need in order to carry out my GAME plan. I have found some instructional videos on how to do a wiki and what a wiki is that I can use in my classroom (found at www.commoncraft.com and called Wikis in Plain English). There are a lot of instructional videos at this particular website that can be used in the classroom to help a student’s understanding of the technology they are supposed to be using. A classmate, Samuel Thompson, also posted a great resource that deals with copyrights. This would be great to use for my students when dealing with digital citizenship and responsibility. I have spent the last few days going through my PowerPoints that I use in my classroom and putting citations in for videos and pictures. Most of my videos come from Discovery Education. This is not quite accomplished yet, but I still have about 5 weeks until I have to get back into the swing of school!!

At this point, I do not have to modify my action plan. Most of this will be ready for the 2010-2011 school year, so I am glad to have this time in the summer to work on what I want to change for the coming year. I have learned that there are so many resources out there to utilize in the classroom, but not only that, there are resources to help you learn how to use the resources! These are great to bring into the classroom as well to aid the students along their path with technology. I have also learned that the hard part is not the planning but the implementing. I can’t imagine what it is going to be like with my students as most of them have used very little technology and we have no technology teacher to teach them the skills. That brings a new question into my mind: Am I going to be able to effectively do this without the support of a technology teacher? This is something that I will have to answer when the school year approaches.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

What resources will you need to carry out your plan (video, reading, experts or colleagues, etc)?

In reviewing my GAME plan, I see that I need a wide variety of resources to carry out my plan. When approaching the NETS-T standard that addresses assessments and digital age learning resources, I will require videos to incorporate into my lessons, online rubric builders such as Rubistar, and video conferencing equipment and capabilities. I may also try to incorporate Skype into these lessons and utilize that when working with colleagues from other school districts. The videos that I will acquire I will get from Discovery Education and United Streaming. There is a variety of resources at this site, even some presentations that have been made up to align with certain state standards. I want my students to be a part of the rubric building at times, so Rubistar is a great choice to allow students to help in the process of building a good rubric. I may eventually allow them to create a rubric for their own project that they would have another student grade them week. This would be more of a peer assessment strategy. I also would need the web resources when searching for alternative assessments. I want my students to have the abilities to utilize wikis, podcasting software, and the knowledge of how to upload things onto a wiki or website. These alternative assessments could serve as a portion of their cumulative grade for a chapter or unit.

When approaching the NETS-T standard that addresses modeling digital citizenship and responsibility, I will need mainly time. This time will be put to use by going through all of my PowerPoint presentations that I have already made up and including the citations of where I found the particular pictures. I may need to “refind” them in order to accomplish this. I also have found a website that I may incorporate with my students. This website (http://www.openc.k12.or.us/citeintro/citeintro.php?Grd=Elem) is a citation maker. Students will be able to put in the required information and it saves the citation and allows them to copy and past it into whatever document they are working on. This will help students learn what parts of a citation are necessary and how to put them together. It will also show them that I feel this is a vital step to completing their work by citing their resources.

What additional information do you need?

I may need additional information from experts as far as the video-conferencing equipment and capabilities are concerned. This is something I would have to learn how to work and implement into the classroom. I will be gleaning any information I can from our technology coordinators in this area of my GAME plan. I would also like to find more alternative assessments and do some more research on ways to incorporate more technology into my classroom from a lecture standpoint. I have an InterWrite board in my classroom that I want to utilize, especially in my math classes, but would like to attend a professional development session to learn how to properly use this item of technology and get the most of out it for both me and my students.

What steps have you been able to take so far?

As it is summer and school is no longer in session, I have only been able to do the research for different virtual field trips and alternative assessments. I have one virtual field trip ready to set up for the coming school year with the Grand Canyon’s educational programs. This is something I hope to get signed up for, as it is on a first come, first serve basis only. I will be speaking to my principal and technology coordinators about it this week so as soon as the time comes to sign up, I can be first in line! I will continue to do research in finding great resources to utilize in my PowerPoint presentations in the coming weeks.

GAME Plan

• Goals for confidence and proficiency in at least two indicators in the NETS-T.
• The two indicators that I want to work toward confidence and proficiency in would be Indicator Two: Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments and Indicator Four: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility. I do not necessarily lack the knowledge in these areas but I definitely could build my confidence levels, especially with Indicator Two. I struggle when it comes to effective assessment. I find it difficult to know what to assess, how much to assess, and how to change my assessments to fit the needs of my students at times. I am the kind of person that always puts in too much rather than too little. I want to be able to hone my ability of choosing what to assess as well as how to assess it. I also want to look into the technologies available to me for assessment as well as learning experiences. I also feel that I need to become more proficient in modeling digital citizenship. I need to take more time to cite where I find pictures for my presentations. Modeling is a good way to show our students the correct way to do things. When they see the teacher modeling what is appropriate, they are more apt to take it upon themselves and do the same with their resources.
• Actions I will take to achieve those goals.
• I want to spend more time finding authentic assessments on the web as well as researching ideas on assessment. I want to explore the realm of technology when it comes to implementing different ways of bringing the outside world into the classroom. One action I would like to achieve for the coming year is a digital field trip. I want my students to experience something in the science realm that they would not normally experience and I want to do it through technology. I would also like to work on a collaborative project with another classroom in the local area. I have a few friends that are teachers at different districts and I would like to link up with one of them through a wiki and do a collaborative project. I feel that these digital age learning experiences and assessments will help me achieve confidence in Indicator Two. With regards to Indicator Four, my actions would be to start citing all pictures, video, and information I gather from other sources in my PowerPoint presentations. It is not enough to cite them, however. I want to bring attention to my students where I gathered this information and how important it is to cite something.
• How I will monitor my progress.
• One way that I can monitor my progress is to keep a small journal and write down what things worked and what didn’t work in the classroom. If an experience with technology did not work the way that I expected then I need to write that down so I remember for the next time. I can then tweak the experience to fit the needs of my students. Teaching is a trial and error kind of profession. If we do not keep track of what works and what doesn’t, however, it makes it hard to adjust our lessons. I also will pay attention to if my students start citing websites on their own. Even if they write down the name of the book, author, and page number or just list the website where they found their information, I will know that they are taking what I am modeling into consideration.
• How I will evaluate and extend my learning.
• I will have the journal to look back on with what worked and what didn’t work. I will also have my students write down what they enjoyed and what could have been done better. I do this at the end of each school year with my students as a rule because as a beginning teacher I want to know what is working and what isn’t working. One has to be objective in reading the responses because sometimes students just don’t like school and very little you do will get them to change their mind. I know that my PowerPoint notes need adjusted and that is the first thing that I am going to work on. I can also evaluate my learning by how much the students are retaining and if they are enjoying the process of learning. I can go to my peers for help or even offer some advice when they have issues with technology in their classroom. I can also keep researching on the latest technologies that can be utilized in the classroom. Keeping up with the times is a good way to extend my learning.