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
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
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
Thursday, March 11, 2010
My GAME plan for National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers
The following goals come from the NETS-T and are areas in which I feel I need to improve upon.
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
The actions I need to take to meet my first goal are to research what real-world problems my students could research and begin to solve, based on our state standards and curriculum. If there are problems that would relate to these areas, it would be very easy to justify why my students were completing this task. As for resources and digital tools, I would like to talk with a media specialist in my district that has great ideas and a lot of knowledge about different technologies and new tools available to teachers. Once I have researched possibilities and ideas to meet this goal I will try several different things. I will monitor my progress towards this goal by continually reflecting on my progress and recording my actions. If I am directed toward using a certain type of technological tool, I will try to incorporate the use of it into my instruction and classroom. After a certain amount of time, I will evaluate the effectiveness of the technology that my students are using and determine if it is helping students to learn the content at a better level than if we were not using it.
The actions I need to take to meet my second goal are to research different methods, structures, and routines other educators have used to give students independence when setting goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. I would like to know if there are certain computer programs that others may have used that helped them to incorporate this student directed assessment in their classroom. I have used the STAR program in the past, which allowed students to move at their own pace to meet math and reading goals. I no longer have access to this program, but am not quite sure that this sort of program would meet the NETS-T indicators. After I have found a tool that would help students gain this independence, the next step would be to incorporate it into my classroom. I would need to track my own and student’s progress to determine the effectiveness of the technology used in the classroom; this would ensure monitoring and evaluating use of this instructional device. For example, if I said that I was going to use podcasting once a week for students to record their learning and goal setting, I would need to prove that this tool and use of time was helping my students and my instruction in some way. If I could show evidence that there are positive outcomes, this would show that this method was worthwhile.
My biggest challenge in following this GAME plan is the action step. I need time to research which technologies would best suit my goals. If anyone has ideas of things they have tried in the past related to exploring real-world problems and/or student self monitoring and assessment using technology, I greatly appreciate your ideas and comments.
Thanks,
Tiffany Hall
References:
National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.
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
The actions I need to take to meet my first goal are to research what real-world problems my students could research and begin to solve, based on our state standards and curriculum. If there are problems that would relate to these areas, it would be very easy to justify why my students were completing this task. As for resources and digital tools, I would like to talk with a media specialist in my district that has great ideas and a lot of knowledge about different technologies and new tools available to teachers. Once I have researched possibilities and ideas to meet this goal I will try several different things. I will monitor my progress towards this goal by continually reflecting on my progress and recording my actions. If I am directed toward using a certain type of technological tool, I will try to incorporate the use of it into my instruction and classroom. After a certain amount of time, I will evaluate the effectiveness of the technology that my students are using and determine if it is helping students to learn the content at a better level than if we were not using it.
The actions I need to take to meet my second goal are to research different methods, structures, and routines other educators have used to give students independence when setting goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. I would like to know if there are certain computer programs that others may have used that helped them to incorporate this student directed assessment in their classroom. I have used the STAR program in the past, which allowed students to move at their own pace to meet math and reading goals. I no longer have access to this program, but am not quite sure that this sort of program would meet the NETS-T indicators. After I have found a tool that would help students gain this independence, the next step would be to incorporate it into my classroom. I would need to track my own and student’s progress to determine the effectiveness of the technology used in the classroom; this would ensure monitoring and evaluating use of this instructional device. For example, if I said that I was going to use podcasting once a week for students to record their learning and goal setting, I would need to prove that this tool and use of time was helping my students and my instruction in some way. If I could show evidence that there are positive outcomes, this would show that this method was worthwhile.
My biggest challenge in following this GAME plan is the action step. I need time to research which technologies would best suit my goals. If anyone has ideas of things they have tried in the past related to exploring real-world problems and/or student self monitoring and assessment using technology, I greatly appreciate your ideas and comments.
Thanks,
Tiffany Hall
References:
National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.
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