The value of the GAME Plan is its systematic approach to new challenges. While I do reflect on my teaching, considering the impact of each lesson (and the divide that sometimes occurs between my expectations and reality), I could be more proactive regarding taking on new goals. The GAME Plan provides a structured means of identifying an appropriate goal, taking action, monitoring and adjusting progress, and evaluating my process (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
I am particularly pleased that in this class we integrated the GAME Plan with technology goals (International Society for Technology in Education, 2011). Technology opens a vast number of doors for educators, providing opportunities—both for us and our students—that were impossible only a few years ago. At the same time, technology comes with numerous challenges: What applications best suit my students and our learning objectives? Do I need to be proficient with a certain piece of software before I introduce it? What are the potential pitfalls with a specific technology? The questions can seem endless.
At any given time, I have lists of Web sites, blogs, and other online services that I want to learn more about. The GAME Plan gave me the opportunity to make real, focused progress on several of these items. While I would not say I have mastered either the Web quest or the issue of fair use, I am much more proficient and comfortable in both of these areas. My students have benefited from the opportunity to complete the Web quest and by receiving better instruction about intellectual property rights.
I am particularly happy that my students were able to complete their Web quest before this class ended so that I could include some final evaluative remarks. Because this was a new approach to learning for all of them, there was a steeper learning curve than I had expected; there were some students who were lost simply because they didn’t bother to read the instructions. By the end of the first day, most understood what was expected of them. However, this was an important point for me to note. At the beginning of next year, I will create a simple Web quest that introduces the students to me, the class, policies, and so on. This will provide them with necessary information at the same time that it sets the expectation that they will need to be willing to work for their answers.
Students began to turn in their Web quest products (a memorial to Anne Frank and the Holocaust) today. Although I haven’t yet graded them, I am pleased by the effort and creativity students put into their work and the amount of thought they put into their written reflection. After I have evaluated their work and held an end-of-unit debriefing with my students, I will use this knowledge to further tweak the Web quest so it is improved for next year’s students.
Another immediate step I will take is evaluating my students’ grasp of citations as they finish creating their commercials. I have been monitoring the notes they take for their bibliographies; some have been more diligent than others, so it will be enlightening to see how well they do with their final citations. This is an area that we can continue to study, however. Next year, I will begin the discussion of fair use and correct citation earlier in the year so we have more time to build these skills.
Experiencing success in these new undertakings has made me more confident about choosing new goals to pursue. I plan to collaborate with my media specialist on lessons in creating electronic book talks (a goal we meant to work on this year); I also plan to find an appropriate means of helping my students develop electronic portfolios (another goal that has been too long neglected).
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2011). NETS for teachers 2008. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
A GAME Plan for Students
I have to admit, my concern with using the GAME Plan with students is the first step—setting goals. So many adolescents lack educational goals; they expect to be told what to do so they can do it and move on to the next thing. I’m afraid that some of this comes from the educational process. We are so concerned with covering content and meeting objectives that our students have little say in what they would like to accomplish during the course of the day. I think it will take careful modeling to help students recognize appropriate and meaningful goals that will help them with their long-term plans.
During the past two days my students have begun the Anne Frank Web quest I chose to develop as one of my personal GAME Plan goals (http://questgarden.com/122/42/5/110404073307/index.htm). The problem that became immediately apparent is that many students were not willing to take the time to read the instructions and follow them. Part of the responsibility for this I take upon myself; next time I will be more deliberate in introducing the activity. However, the lion’s share of the responsibility does rest on the shoulders of my students. It is much easier to ask “What do I do next?” than to take the time to the instructions, find one’s place, and analyze the next task. We have got to break students of this habit, though, if we want them to be critical, capable thinkers.
With this in mind, I would like to use the GAME Plan to address Standard 4: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making (International Society for Technology in Education, 2011). I would like to develop some lessons that require students to work through a series of challenges. To begin, I could create a situation where all materials needed to complete the challenge are readily available if the students follow the instructions. When they master that, the challenges could become steadily more complex, requiring students to rely more on their own problem-solving skills to locate answers. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.
Part of developing these skills requires a certain work ethic, of course, and I worry that I am not sufficiently influential in my students’ lives to shape that work ethic.
References
International Society for Technology in Education. (2011). NETS for students 2007. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx
During the past two days my students have begun the Anne Frank Web quest I chose to develop as one of my personal GAME Plan goals (http://questgarden.com/122/42/5/110404073307/index.htm). The problem that became immediately apparent is that many students were not willing to take the time to read the instructions and follow them. Part of the responsibility for this I take upon myself; next time I will be more deliberate in introducing the activity. However, the lion’s share of the responsibility does rest on the shoulders of my students. It is much easier to ask “What do I do next?” than to take the time to the instructions, find one’s place, and analyze the next task. We have got to break students of this habit, though, if we want them to be critical, capable thinkers.
With this in mind, I would like to use the GAME Plan to address Standard 4: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making (International Society for Technology in Education, 2011). I would like to develop some lessons that require students to work through a series of challenges. To begin, I could create a situation where all materials needed to complete the challenge are readily available if the students follow the instructions. When they master that, the challenges could become steadily more complex, requiring students to rely more on their own problem-solving skills to locate answers. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.
Part of developing these skills requires a certain work ethic, of course, and I worry that I am not sufficiently influential in my students’ lives to shape that work ethic.
References
International Society for Technology in Education. (2011). NETS for students 2007. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx
Monday, April 4, 2011
GAME Plan: So Far, So Good
What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice? What goals are you still working toward?
I’m glad I chose the Web quest as a goal; it is a skill I had read about and considered for a long time but never made myself investigate. I’ve found that it is not as intimidating as I originally thought and that there are many quests that can be adapted easily. I look forward to trying out my first quest with my students next week.
I had a block of time today to devote to tweaking my Web quest. I made some minor changes, including rewording “Web log” to “response log”; since my students cannot blog, I will give them the option of writing their responses on a printed log or typing their responses on an electronic log which can then be submitted to my online dropbox.
I had already checked the links to ensure they were working properly, so I thought I was finished with that step…and then I remembered last week’s problem with student access to the FreePlayMusic site. I realized I had checked the links under my teacher-level access; when I checked using student-level access, I discovered that several of the links could not be reached. I found alternate sites for those resources. While I was checking links, I also discovered a few sites that were better than the ones hyperlinked in the original quest, so I changed those as well. I spent some time playing around with the features (changing the look of the site, adjusting font sizes, and so on) to build my comfort level.
I modified the rubric as well, as I mentioned in last week’s update. My students will not be presenting their work to the class, so I eliminated that category. I created a category for reflection. Once students complete their memorial, they will take some time to write a reflection that explains why their memorial is appropriate and the choices they made as they progressed through the project. Reflection will help students evaluate the decisions they made—and their effectiveness (Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer, 2009).
I’ve decided to keep the quest on QuestGarden for now, at least. It’s easy to use and offers tools to help me evaluate my own work.
I’m at a standstill for the moment on the issue of digital citizenship; my students have had to take a break from their commercials due to scheduling issues. (State science testing takes over the computer lab this week, then a county-based extended writing assessment occurs next week.) We will return to the commercials the following week; at that point I will be able to evaluate how well my students are managing the issue of citing sources and creating a correctly-formatted bibliography.
Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself? If you are not ready to set new learning goals, how will you extend what you have learned so far?
While I am still working on my first set of goals, I’ve given some thought to new goals, particularly the standard of engaging in professional growth and leadership (International Society for Technology in Education, 2011). Since I’ve started my graduate work, I haven’t taken advantage of many professional development opportunities in my district; there simply isn’t enough time in the day. While I value my learning at Walden—especially in its immediate applicability to my job—I also look forward to being able to take part in local workshops and training that support our available resources. In addition, I hope to extend my work with both our local and state reading councils; I have offered to take over the maintenance of the state council’s Web site next fall.
One of the original extensions I set during week two was to share appropriate online resources with the school community. I have offered to share the Anne Frank Web quest with another eighth grade reading teacher; as soon as I complete and publish the quest, it will be available online. (I’ll post that link here when it’s ready.) I recently learned that a district-wide space was recently created for file sharing among the members of the ELA department, so I plan to share some useful links and documents on there as well.
What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?
The learning approach I’ve taken—searching the Web and talking with experts—has worked well for my two initial goals. Monitoring my progress has been helpful as well, as was setting a timeline for implementation. I anticipate that this approach will work for my newer goals as well.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2011). NETS for teachers 2008. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx
I’m glad I chose the Web quest as a goal; it is a skill I had read about and considered for a long time but never made myself investigate. I’ve found that it is not as intimidating as I originally thought and that there are many quests that can be adapted easily. I look forward to trying out my first quest with my students next week.
I had a block of time today to devote to tweaking my Web quest. I made some minor changes, including rewording “Web log” to “response log”; since my students cannot blog, I will give them the option of writing their responses on a printed log or typing their responses on an electronic log which can then be submitted to my online dropbox.
I had already checked the links to ensure they were working properly, so I thought I was finished with that step…and then I remembered last week’s problem with student access to the FreePlayMusic site. I realized I had checked the links under my teacher-level access; when I checked using student-level access, I discovered that several of the links could not be reached. I found alternate sites for those resources. While I was checking links, I also discovered a few sites that were better than the ones hyperlinked in the original quest, so I changed those as well. I spent some time playing around with the features (changing the look of the site, adjusting font sizes, and so on) to build my comfort level.
I modified the rubric as well, as I mentioned in last week’s update. My students will not be presenting their work to the class, so I eliminated that category. I created a category for reflection. Once students complete their memorial, they will take some time to write a reflection that explains why their memorial is appropriate and the choices they made as they progressed through the project. Reflection will help students evaluate the decisions they made—and their effectiveness (Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer, 2009).
I’ve decided to keep the quest on QuestGarden for now, at least. It’s easy to use and offers tools to help me evaluate my own work.
I’m at a standstill for the moment on the issue of digital citizenship; my students have had to take a break from their commercials due to scheduling issues. (State science testing takes over the computer lab this week, then a county-based extended writing assessment occurs next week.) We will return to the commercials the following week; at that point I will be able to evaluate how well my students are managing the issue of citing sources and creating a correctly-formatted bibliography.
Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself? If you are not ready to set new learning goals, how will you extend what you have learned so far?
While I am still working on my first set of goals, I’ve given some thought to new goals, particularly the standard of engaging in professional growth and leadership (International Society for Technology in Education, 2011). Since I’ve started my graduate work, I haven’t taken advantage of many professional development opportunities in my district; there simply isn’t enough time in the day. While I value my learning at Walden—especially in its immediate applicability to my job—I also look forward to being able to take part in local workshops and training that support our available resources. In addition, I hope to extend my work with both our local and state reading councils; I have offered to take over the maintenance of the state council’s Web site next fall.
One of the original extensions I set during week two was to share appropriate online resources with the school community. I have offered to share the Anne Frank Web quest with another eighth grade reading teacher; as soon as I complete and publish the quest, it will be available online. (I’ll post that link here when it’s ready.) I recently learned that a district-wide space was recently created for file sharing among the members of the ELA department, so I plan to share some useful links and documents on there as well.
What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?
The learning approach I’ve taken—searching the Web and talking with experts—has worked well for my two initial goals. Monitoring my progress has been helpful as well, as was setting a timeline for implementation. I anticipate that this approach will work for my newer goals as well.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2011). NETS for teachers 2008. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx
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