My Reflections on Educ. 6713

Reflections on My GAME Plan

            

     






        According to Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2010), it is important to set goals for your own professional growth.  I created two goals or myself in the beginning of this course. The GAME plan includes setting goals, taking action, monitoring progress, and evaluating whether goals were achieved (Cennamo et al, 2010). Reflecting on my GAME plan, I can see that it will take longer than I expected to reach the goals I set for myself. While progress has been made, I have had to change the plan as time has gone on.

Goal 1: To model ethical use of Internet resources by citing references and holding students accountable by requiring a reference section for all digital projects for all information, graphics, or videos students use. The goal is based on the standard 4a, Advocate, model, and teach legal and ethical use of digital information and technology (ISTE, 2008).

Goal 2: To participate in a leadership role to increase technology infusion and to help increase my colleagues use of technology in their classroom. The goal is based on the standard, 5b Exhibit leadership by participating in decision making and developing technology skills of others (ISTE, 2008).

            For goal 1, I have included in my own worksheets and notes where I found the information and images I have used. I have also included references as part of each project I am having my students create. Correctly citing sources is included in the rubric for grading students’ projects. I feel that I have reached this goal and plan to continue modeling the ethical use of information for my students. Finding the California library standards for citing references was a big help to justify requiring students to cite their references. There is no district wide policy for acceptable use for students. I want students to realize that copying and pasting someone else’s work is wrong and is considered plagiarism. I never really considered the fact that when I copy an image without citing where it came from, I am modeling for the students that it is okay to not give credit to the owner of the image. I am now making a point to show students where I got images and information from.

            Goal 2 has been a challenge for me to achieve. During week 4, when I monitored my progress, I realized that the goal I created was too much to be able to accomplish. I decided that creating a technology committee this year was not going to happen. I have a principal that does not understand technology so does not see the need. I plan to work with him to get him to see the importance of technology in today’s educational system. I am hoping to get a tech committee started at the beginning of next year. I have been working with colleagues to increase their use of technology. I want to continue working with more teachers next semester. I hope to be able to teach anyone that wants more help using technology to incorporate more of the 21st century skills we need our students to have.

            Using the GAME plan with my students should be an interesting task. I would like to have my advisory students create a goal that they would like to achieve by the end of the semester. I then would have the students write up a plan on how they will reach their goal. Throughout the semester, I will have the students reflect on their progress towards reaching their goal and see if they need to modify their plan. It would be great to see the students achieve their goals. If they reach their goal, I will have them create a new goal to work towards. If their goal is not met, I will have them continue to work towards completing their goal. I could also have my science students create a goal to reach by the end of the semester and have them plan, monitor, and evaluate their progress towards achieving their goal. 

Adjustments to Instructional Practices

            This course has continued to teach me about the importance of integrating technology into my classroom. I have learned about problem-based learning, online collaboration, and digital storytelling. Each of these strategies incorporates technology to make learning more relevant and interesting for students. I have been using some of these strategies without realizing what the strategy was called. I hope to continue to incorporate more opportunities for students to use these great strategies in my class. The challenge I face is access to technology which I am trying to work on by getting more technology into the school.

            Problem-based learning (PBL) allows students to learn content as they learn higher order thinking skills (Laureate Education Inc., 2009b).  PBL allows students to master content standards using higher order thinking skills to find a possible solution to a problem the teacher provides to the students. PBL is an instructional strategy that I have not widely implemented into my classroom instruction because I have never attended a staff development or training that addressed PBL. I want to use PBL more in my teaching so I am going to try and find a training or webinar that I can complete to learn about creating good problems for students to research.

         

       Online collaboration is something I have only done with my students a few times. . Benefits of online collaboration include: allowing students to work in and out of class, challenges students to perform at higher levels, and allows learning language from native speakers (Laureate Education Inc., 2009c). I think the experiences I have gained throughout this course will help me better integrate online collaboration and social networking into my teaching because before starting at Walden, I had never participated in a blog, discussion, wiki, or any of the other web 2.0 tools I have learned to use throughout my courses. I plan to incorporate at least one online collaboration project each quarter for students to complete.

           

         Digital storytelling is the sharing of words, thoughts, music, pictures, music, narration or video (Laureate Education Inc., 2009b). Digital storytelling reaches across the curriculum and allows students to use their higher level thinking skills in any subject. Digital storytelling builds skills in research, analyzing, creative thinking, problem solving, and interpersonal (Laureate Education Inc., 2009b). I had my students create a children’s book this year on the cell. It was the first time I ever used digital storytelling and it was an exhausting but enriching experience for my students and me. I definitely will have students do this project again next year. I also plan on having students create a story of a body system during second semester. Since my students have already done this once, I hope to see some very amazing projects.

            Throughout this course, I have learned to set goals for myself that are reachable even if they have to be modified. Plans may have to change due to unexpected situations but as long as progress is being made, I feel like I am accomplishing something. Technology should play an important role in educating today’s students. I am continuously working to learn and use new technology that will help my students become more successful, learn the standards, and learn the 21st century skills they need to compete in today’s global society.  

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009a). Integrating technology across the content areas: Spotlight on technology: Digital storytelling, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009b). Integrating technology across the content areas: Spotlight on technology: Problem-based learning, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009c). Integrating technology across the content areas: Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, part 2. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Bottom of Form

Image References

Academic integrity image retrieved from: http://www.tarleton.edu/library/images/documentation/wordle_images.jpg

Collaboration image retrieved from: http://in.kahootz.com/Portals/184327/images/Collaboration%20Image.jpg

Digital storytelling image retrieved from: http://www.giveitaway.net/uploads/9/9/0/3/9903157/6134959_orig.png

Goal image retrieved from: http://www.mindpowereducation.com/images/mpe_career_edge.jpg

Knowledge sharing image retrieved from: http://comps.canstockphoto.com/can-stock-photo_csp15283527.jpg

PBL image retrieved from: http://www.crazyteacherlady.com/uploads/5/1/4/8/5148626/4067159_orig.png

Struggling scientist image retrieved from: http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html

Self-reflection image retrieved from: http://myworldmark.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/self-reflection.jpg

Technology pyramid retrieved from: http://classroomaid.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/teaching-with-technology.png