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