Monitoring My GAME Plan

Creating my classroom website is slow moving. I was able to complete a homepage with a menu down the side listing the different pages available. Realistically, my webpage will not be completed until the middle of the school year. I will still send home a flyer to parents about the availability of the website but I will modify my plan to wait until my next full school year to survey the parents. I have received a school schedule to place on the website. The lunch menu changes each month and I now realize I need to find the place on our school’s public drive that keeps the menus so I do not need to count on someone to email it to me each month. Overall, I learned that time is a major factor influencing the progress on my website. Once my website is set up, I think it will be a great tool to use for parent communication. Also, as I learn more about my parents and my students this school year, I have come to the conclusion that the website will be a great tool for disorganized students who do not bring any information home to their parents (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).

The activotes have not been hooked up for use on my Promethean Board, so my second goal is at a standstill. The learning resources from this week discuss the use of wireless response systems when assessing students in the classroom. “This type of live polling of responses is ideal for monitoring learning through formative assessment and can help you and your students quickly determine content areas that require further instruction or where there are obvious gaps in understanding” (Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer, 2009, p. 145). Once I am able to use the activotes, I will be able to take a quick assessment of what the students understand from a lesson and use that to guide my follow-up.

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.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

I need a variety of resources to carry out my game plan. The first goal I chose was to create a website that would be helpful to my students and parents. The resources I will need to build the website are a computer with Internet access and communication with the office secretaries in my building to get school schedules, lunch menus, and other documents to put on my personal website. According to Dr. Ross, a website can be used as an organizational tool for many students and parents (Laureate Education Inc., 2008). The additional information I need will come in later when I give the parents and students a survey about how often they use the website and any suggestions for additional information they would like displayed there. My intended learning strategy is to model how to use the website and the different options available to the students and parents. So far I have begun creating the website. I will not be able to introduce the website at meet the teacher night this year because that has passed. However, I will send home a flyer with details about the website when it is completed.

The second goal I chose to work towards is to use different assessment strategies with my students. The resources I need for this goal include laptops for my students to use Power Point, recording devices, etc. I will also need ActiVotes to use with my Promethean Board. I will have the head of my technology department explain how the ActiVotes work once I receive them. ActiVotes can serve as a formative assessment so I can adjust my instruction based on the students’ responses. “Formative assessments also provide feedback to your students – who can use the data to monitor their own learning progress and determine where they may need extra help or enrichment” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 111). The feedback from the ActiVotes is immediate for both the teacher and the students to use. My students will learn to use all of these tools by the use of scaffolding. I will show the students how to use them first and allow for the practice of using each tool. So far, I have introduced my students to using laptops. The rest of the technology tools should be incorporated in my classroom within the next two months.

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.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Program 6. Meeting Students’ Needs with Technology, Part 1 [Motion picture]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

Developing My Personal GAME Plan

Dr. Ertmer claims that there are four variables present when effectively using technology: knowledge, confidence, beliefs, and supportive culture (Laureate Education Inc., 2009b). As I reflected on the NET Standards there were two areas that I felt far less confident about applying than the rest.

Set Goals:

The goals I chose fall under the “Model Digital-Age Work and Learning” and “Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences” NET Standards (2008). My first goal is to create a website to communicate information to my students and their parents. The second goal is to use a variety of technology tools to assess my students’ knowledge of the content.

Take Action:

I will create a website with a variety of different pages for the students and parents to use. Some of the sections will include: schedules, homework, upcoming events, extra practice, and useful websites. I will inform the parents of my website on meet the teacher night and encourage them to use the website on a daily basis to stay informed. To meet my second goal I will explore the options available to me to assess my students. I will try a few of the assessment options, such as SMART Board response systems, PowerPoint presentations, and Digital Storytelling (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009)

Monitor:

I will send a short survey home to poll the parents about how often they use the website and if they found the website helpful. I will include a section in the survey where the parents can offer suggestions for the website and comment on the ease of use. I will do the same activity with my students. After trying some of the assessment strategies I researched, I will decide the advantages and disadvantages of assessing the students in these ways. I will also look at the validity of the results and make sure the type of assessment shows the students knowledge of the content.

Evaluate and Extend:

Once I get the results of the parent and student surveys, I will update the website. I will then add interactive components where the parents can contact me and where the students can interact with each other on the website as well. I will also display student work, without giving out student information (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I will continue to use the forms of assessment I found successful and continue to research new ideas for testing students’ knowledge. Nichole Allmann discusses using technology to target multiple intelligences (Laureate Education Inc., 2009a). During assessment, this is necessary as well because some students may need the test read aloud or students may need the use of visuals or manipulatives. Finally, I will collaborate with my colleagues to see which assessments work best in their classroom.

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.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers. Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009a). Program four. Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology, Part 2 [Motion picture]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009b). Program three. Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology, Part 1 [Motion picture]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.