The “Waldening” Differentiation Station network that I used over the past eight weeks was a great learning experience as a student and an educator. I am amazed by the possibilities that social networking provides. I was able to get to know my colleagues at Walden University a bit more, when we live so far apart from one another. We were able to share resources, tools, and ideas that would help us with a Differentiated Classroom (DI) and with using Universal Design for Learning (UDL). I believe that this type of social networking tool would work great among colleagues in a school that may not have a lot of time for more meetings.
Dr. Tomlinson suggests that, “Many teachers successfully start differentiating instruction with small, well-organized changes” (Tomlinson, 1999, p.2). The immediate small, organized steps that I will make to my instructional practice are differentiating my instruction with the use of technology. In the past, I naively believed that differentiation meant a different curriculum or program for each student and I could not envision how I could pull it off. Now, I realize that UDL, DI, and technology together are the keys to successful implementation. I know that learning about my student’s interest, readiness, and learning profiles are key to starting the process. I have created an online survey that I plan to have my students take at the beginning of the year to learn about their interests and learning styles. I am armed with new technological tools to engage and excite my students in the learning process. I will also teach my students how to do an “anchor activity” so that they may do purposeful work individually to allow the differentiation process to occur (Tomlinson, 1999, p.2).
My new job this year encompasses the role of some literacy and technology coaching within the school. I am excited about the tools I can share with other teachers, mainly technology tools that can aide in differentiation and literacy learning. I already have a partnership with a few teachers this year who want to share ideas and plan units together around DI and UDL. My first plan is to introduce them to www.cast.org resources. I will also share a Screencast with my staff that I created about UDL and DI.
“It’s better to do a few things well. Set goals for yourself, and stick with them, but make sure they are reasonable goals” (Tomlinson, 1999, p.3). I have picked a few things that I will do immediately and I will see where my plan goes from there. I am excited about the changes that will occur within my classroom this year and cannot wait to see the changes to my student’s achievement.
References:
Tomlinson, C. (1999). Differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. Retrieved from the Walden Library ebrary.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Reflection of GAME Plan
The GAME plan process has been a successful and rewarding experience for me. I have learned a lot about myself as an instructor as well as the NETS-T standards. I believe that this process is relevant for many uses, that of a teacher and of a student. I will use this structure personally, professionally, and instructionally in the future.
The structure and the components of the GAME plan are the keys to successfully implementing and working toward goals. Setting goals and figuring out the resources and information you will need to meet these goals provided a firm foundation. Monitoring, evaluating, and revising are steps that I often skip, when trying to meet goals. I do not think that I skipped these steps intentionally, but did not have a good framework in mind when setting goals.
The main impact my instruction will have, is my realization through my GAME plan that students need to set goals. They need to monitor and evaluate their progress towards these goals in many different content areas, especially their new learning with technology. Teaching and planning units around real world problems will motivate and engage my students, as well as provide the need to use new technology to strengthen learning. I will definitely be using the GAME plan with my students toward their learning and behavior goals.
The immediate adjustments that I have made are to focus on the purpose of technology integration. The structure and modeling that follows is extremely important to the success of the activities. Available resources and seeking out assistance is the role I am taking currently to ensure availability for next year. I am sharing ideas and looking for ideas with colleagues constantly. I am using technology more than ever in my classroom, with the use of blogs, websites, and wikis. Digital storytelling is my next venture over the last few months of school and I am excited to see the outcome of this endeavor.
I look forward to sharing and using my new knowledge from this course and witnessing the changes in my students learning because of my new ideas and practices. I have extremely enjoyed this course!
Tiffany Hall
The structure and the components of the GAME plan are the keys to successfully implementing and working toward goals. Setting goals and figuring out the resources and information you will need to meet these goals provided a firm foundation. Monitoring, evaluating, and revising are steps that I often skip, when trying to meet goals. I do not think that I skipped these steps intentionally, but did not have a good framework in mind when setting goals.
The main impact my instruction will have, is my realization through my GAME plan that students need to set goals. They need to monitor and evaluate their progress towards these goals in many different content areas, especially their new learning with technology. Teaching and planning units around real world problems will motivate and engage my students, as well as provide the need to use new technology to strengthen learning. I will definitely be using the GAME plan with my students toward their learning and behavior goals.
The immediate adjustments that I have made are to focus on the purpose of technology integration. The structure and modeling that follows is extremely important to the success of the activities. Available resources and seeking out assistance is the role I am taking currently to ensure availability for next year. I am sharing ideas and looking for ideas with colleagues constantly. I am using technology more than ever in my classroom, with the use of blogs, websites, and wikis. Digital storytelling is my next venture over the last few months of school and I am excited to see the outcome of this endeavor.
I look forward to sharing and using my new knowledge from this course and witnessing the changes in my students learning because of my new ideas and practices. I have extremely enjoyed this course!
Tiffany Hall
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Using the GAME Plan Process with Students
Thinking about how I have used the GAME Plan process to meet goals related to the NETS-T standards, I could easily see the connection in using it with students to meet the NETS-S standards. Students will need a lot more guidance and support then we did as teachers, but the process is definitely worthwhile. Setting GOALS, determining ACTIONS, MONITORING your growth, and EVALUATING your progress is a good structure for all goal setting.
NETS-Standards
· Creativity and Innovation
· Communication and Collaboration
· Research and Information Fluency
· Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
· Digital Citizenship
· Technology Operations and Concepts
Having students choose to standards that they would like to work on and using the GAME plan to set their goals would be a great exercise. I also would have students blog their GAME plans and progress along the way. It was very beneficial for me to share my thinking and get immediate feedback from several different people each week. As a teacher, it would be hard to read every students GAME plan each week. Having student blog and help one another along the way would ensure that students had support on a weekly basis to meet their goals. Just as we supported one another with ideas, suggestions, and challenges we had; students could do all of these things with each other as well.
Tiffany Hall
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Revising My GAME Plan
· What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
I have learned so much about goal setting, for myself throughout this class. I realize the importance or constant reflection and modification. I would like to apply this structure to my students learning over the last few months of school. My second graders have been slacking off quite a bit in Reading. I am going to pose a reading challenge to them, but ask them to set their own goals. Each week we will graph our progress and reflect. I believe that for second graders this will be a great experience for them in goal setting. It will also be a great assessment piece for me as an educator to watch their progress.
· What goals are you still working toward?
I am still working toward the goal of using Excel with my students, so they are keeping track of and assessing their growth and learning. I have checked out the book “Excel for Dummies” and plan to read the book over the next week. Then I will share Excel with students and help them get acquainted with the program and play around with it for a few weeks. After that time, I will prepare a simple set of directions for students and see if they can use this application.
· Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?
My new learning goal is to “Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership”. Over the past month I have attended 50 clock hours worth of free trainings through my school district. It has been challenging, especially since I am still a graduate student and work in two school districts, but I believed that the opportunities were too good to pass up. I have learned so many great things that I can use in the classroom, so I know it was worth it. I would like to prepare a quick summary of all the learning I received from these trainings and share it with my colleagues, in this way I have grown professionally through training as well as taking on some leadership.
· What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?
Some learning approaches I will try this time to improve my learning is to try to focus on suggestions from others one at a time. I tried to research too many things at a time and got overwhelmed throughout this process. I want to take baby steps, research one thing, if it will work for me try it, if not then move onto the next suggestion. I tried to research everything at once this time and it did not work as well as I would have liked.
The GAME plan structure and weekly reflection has been very beneficial to me and something that I will use with my students immediately!
Thanks for your ideas!
Tiffany Hall
I have learned so much about goal setting, for myself throughout this class. I realize the importance or constant reflection and modification. I would like to apply this structure to my students learning over the last few months of school. My second graders have been slacking off quite a bit in Reading. I am going to pose a reading challenge to them, but ask them to set their own goals. Each week we will graph our progress and reflect. I believe that for second graders this will be a great experience for them in goal setting. It will also be a great assessment piece for me as an educator to watch their progress.
· What goals are you still working toward?
I am still working toward the goal of using Excel with my students, so they are keeping track of and assessing their growth and learning. I have checked out the book “Excel for Dummies” and plan to read the book over the next week. Then I will share Excel with students and help them get acquainted with the program and play around with it for a few weeks. After that time, I will prepare a simple set of directions for students and see if they can use this application.
· Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?
My new learning goal is to “Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership”. Over the past month I have attended 50 clock hours worth of free trainings through my school district. It has been challenging, especially since I am still a graduate student and work in two school districts, but I believed that the opportunities were too good to pass up. I have learned so many great things that I can use in the classroom, so I know it was worth it. I would like to prepare a quick summary of all the learning I received from these trainings and share it with my colleagues, in this way I have grown professionally through training as well as taking on some leadership.
· What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?
Some learning approaches I will try this time to improve my learning is to try to focus on suggestions from others one at a time. I tried to research too many things at a time and got overwhelmed throughout this process. I want to take baby steps, research one thing, if it will work for me try it, if not then move onto the next suggestion. I tried to research everything at once this time and it did not work as well as I would have liked.
The GAME plan structure and weekly reflection has been very beneficial to me and something that I will use with my students immediately!
Thanks for your ideas!
Tiffany Hall
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Evaluating My GAME Plan Progress
I believe my actions thus far; have been effective in meeting my goals. I have researched all of the ideas my colleagues have given me and applied several to help meet my goals. I have not reached my goals completely, but I am much further then I would have been in the past. I now realize the importance of constant collaboration, reflection, research, and modification in reaching goals. I believe that these things can be carried into any classroom environment to help students become successful with their learning and different projects they complete.
I still have a lot to learn about different technology that can be used in the classroom in all content areas. I still struggle with ideas for math incorporation. I have new suggestions and tools to research that my colleagues recommended last week. Garage band and fiverr.com are two resources that we recommended that I have never seen or used before. Excel was mentioned by many colleagues and though I have used excel I kind of have a love/hate relationship with this program. I either have great results or get frustrated by the complexity of the program. I think I will check out the “Excel for Dummies” book from my local library and try to familiarize myself with this software a bit more before I use it with my students. Brainpop was another recommendation and I have used a few times, but did not realize the many tools that it offered; I had only used some of the videos so far.
My needs at this point are that I need to choose some of my options and try them out. I often get to a point where there are so many options, they all sound great, but what I can use and what works best for my students is my biggest question right now. I need to make some decisions and experiment with my class. Right now, my experimentation will be problem-based projects with my students involving environmental problems. This will relate to Earth Day and my stewardship curriculum. Therefore, students will be learning content through “Problem Based Learning”.
I look forward to your comments and suggestions!
Thanks,
Tiffany
I still have a lot to learn about different technology that can be used in the classroom in all content areas. I still struggle with ideas for math incorporation. I have new suggestions and tools to research that my colleagues recommended last week. Garage band and fiverr.com are two resources that we recommended that I have never seen or used before. Excel was mentioned by many colleagues and though I have used excel I kind of have a love/hate relationship with this program. I either have great results or get frustrated by the complexity of the program. I think I will check out the “Excel for Dummies” book from my local library and try to familiarize myself with this software a bit more before I use it with my students. Brainpop was another recommendation and I have used a few times, but did not realize the many tools that it offered; I had only used some of the videos so far.
My needs at this point are that I need to choose some of my options and try them out. I often get to a point where there are so many options, they all sound great, but what I can use and what works best for my students is my biggest question right now. I need to make some decisions and experiment with my class. Right now, my experimentation will be problem-based projects with my students involving environmental problems. This will relate to Earth Day and my stewardship curriculum. Therefore, students will be learning content through “Problem Based Learning”.
I look forward to your comments and suggestions!
Thanks,
Tiffany
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress
Wow, I have learned about so many different resources in the past few weeks I am so excited about the possibilities that lie ahead! My only problem, as many people face, is funding, time to pursue these resources, and regulations.
I was reminded of the great tool surveymonkey which I have used as a staff member, but I never thought about using with my students. I am going to try this out right away for my goal of using real world problems with my students. I am going to survey my class and ask them to choose between some real world issues that relate to our standards, but will engage them with choice.
I was introduced to "Study Island" and "Donorschoose" as resources I could use to meet some of my goals. Each would support the other, donorschoose would give me the funding I need to incorporate study island. The only problem, I can not access donorschoose because I am not a full time employee in one district; I teach in two separate school district. BUT I am looking on the bright side and think that next year I could use both of these resources if/when I become a full time employee again! (fingers crossed)
So to modify this plan I am thinking of some other ways I could currently meet my goals. I think I have some great ideas to use to meet the "real world problems" goal. I am going to ask students to choose a real world problem that they know a bit about and would like to research, focused around our environment for Earth Day. They will present their knowledge about this problem to the class and create what they believe could be a solution to the problem. I am so curious and excited to see what my students create! I plan on modeling this process with the students and giving them concrete examples to follow.
My new questions or lingering questions relate to students setting goals and assessing themselves. I would like to incorporate this into my reader's workshop with my second grade students. One thing I am going to do is give them options of different strategies they can use when reading and writing. They are going to conference with me and other students in the class and record their progress. I also want them to set weekly goals for their reading progress; this could be as simple as I will read 5 picture books this week and write two sentences about each book. The key is finding a way to track this progress. I would like to make it as simple as possible for my little guys. Some type of software program would be great. Any ideas???
I continue to be energized by the new ideas I receive each week from my blog. I thank everyone for your time, energy, and input to my questions.
Have a great week!
Tiffany Hall
I was reminded of the great tool surveymonkey which I have used as a staff member, but I never thought about using with my students. I am going to try this out right away for my goal of using real world problems with my students. I am going to survey my class and ask them to choose between some real world issues that relate to our standards, but will engage them with choice.
I was introduced to "Study Island" and "Donorschoose" as resources I could use to meet some of my goals. Each would support the other, donorschoose would give me the funding I need to incorporate study island. The only problem, I can not access donorschoose because I am not a full time employee in one district; I teach in two separate school district. BUT I am looking on the bright side and think that next year I could use both of these resources if/when I become a full time employee again! (fingers crossed)
So to modify this plan I am thinking of some other ways I could currently meet my goals. I think I have some great ideas to use to meet the "real world problems" goal. I am going to ask students to choose a real world problem that they know a bit about and would like to research, focused around our environment for Earth Day. They will present their knowledge about this problem to the class and create what they believe could be a solution to the problem. I am so curious and excited to see what my students create! I plan on modeling this process with the students and giving them concrete examples to follow.
My new questions or lingering questions relate to students setting goals and assessing themselves. I would like to incorporate this into my reader's workshop with my second grade students. One thing I am going to do is give them options of different strategies they can use when reading and writing. They are going to conference with me and other students in the class and record their progress. I also want them to set weekly goals for their reading progress; this could be as simple as I will read 5 picture books this week and write two sentences about each book. The key is finding a way to track this progress. I would like to make it as simple as possible for my little guys. Some type of software program would be great. Any ideas???
I continue to be energized by the new ideas I receive each week from my blog. I thank everyone for your time, energy, and input to my questions.
Have a great week!
Tiffany Hall
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Resources & Information Needed to Carry out my GAME Plan
Last week I chose the following two areas to focus on for my GAME Plan:
1) Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources
2) Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress
Reflecting on these goals I now realize I have a lot of the resources and information I need, but have many other things that I need to spend more time researching.
Some resources that I currently have available to my students are computer access, different software, flip video cameras, digital cameras, district subscriptions to different media, and much more. My challenge is to decide which of these technologies best meet the needs of the students I currently teach. And not all students may use the same tools. I would like to create a technology survey for my students to learn about their strengths and weaknesses and work from there.
There are also some resources and information that I have heard about, but do not currently have available. I heard about "Study Island" in a discussion post last week. I have read a little about this program and am intrigued by the possibilities. The only problem is funding. I would like to spend some more time researching to see if this is the tool that I need for my students and if it will indeed help them manage their own learning. Once I have more information I can begin asking for funding from my administrators or seek funding through other means, such as a grant.
My eyes and ears are constantly open for new ideas and different tools to help my students succeed. Please share...
Thanks for your ideas!
Tiffany Hall
1) Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources
2) Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress
Reflecting on these goals I now realize I have a lot of the resources and information I need, but have many other things that I need to spend more time researching.
Some resources that I currently have available to my students are computer access, different software, flip video cameras, digital cameras, district subscriptions to different media, and much more. My challenge is to decide which of these technologies best meet the needs of the students I currently teach. And not all students may use the same tools. I would like to create a technology survey for my students to learn about their strengths and weaknesses and work from there.
There are also some resources and information that I have heard about, but do not currently have available. I heard about "Study Island" in a discussion post last week. I have read a little about this program and am intrigued by the possibilities. The only problem is funding. I would like to spend some more time researching to see if this is the tool that I need for my students and if it will indeed help them manage their own learning. Once I have more information I can begin asking for funding from my administrators or seek funding through other means, such as a grant.
My eyes and ears are constantly open for new ideas and different tools to help my students succeed. Please share...
Thanks for your ideas!
Tiffany Hall
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
