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
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Eva to Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI, too, like the surveymonkey idea, and have not yet used it with my students. I appreciate the reminder and like that you are applying it in order to access problem-based learning ideas that students are interested in.
With respect to you goal of helping students "become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress," the conferencing and one-to-one goal-setting practice sounds fantastic. In response to your questions about how students might track and monitor their progress, bar or line graphs are the first things that come to mind. Both could be generated with a line or bar for reading goals, and one of another color for writing goals. The only way I have generated charts with students using software is within Excel-creating first a spreadsheet, then converting it to chart form. It IS a great tool, but I've only used it with more data and with sixth-graders. I wonder if there are chart features in Paint or Inspiration. Perhaps a search of chart-making software would result in some ideas.
If not, formatting a basic spreadsheet and converting data to multiple chart forms is a fun and meaningful exercise using Microsoft's Excel. It is also easy to create a template of your own and link it to your class webpage for students to save and use as their own if you'd rather not teach them the formatting. I keep one for students who struggle or arrive later within the project, etc....
As a side note, I taught myself the software with a copy of "Excel for Dummies" that I checked out at our local town library!
Best of luck.
Eva
Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI think your growth and progress toward your GAME plan is showing and commendable. Searching out your resources and being proactive about the limitations that are inevitably going to be involved with every new idea shows maturity and your commitment to this process.
I did have a suggestion when it comes to software that I have used before in connection with reading and displaying growth in that area. Have you ever used the software program Garage Band? It allows for students to record their voices and play it back. This way the students can actually save their voice recordings and HEAR their progress from when they first started to their current reading abilities. I have seen so many kids respond positively to this process because the improvement is immediately noticed and obvious to THEM. That is the power behind charting progresses, when the kids are able to hear, see, feel the changes they have made.
Another program I use is Excel. With your students charting their progress toward their goals on a weekly, biweekly, monthly basis they can see that they are making gains regardless of how little or grand they may be. I understand that this a simple tool, but I have experienced when I am consistent with charting both individual and classroom growth, the students glean huge amounts of understanding from it.
On a more personal note, I appreciate you posting about your concerns surrounding a real world problem. I, too, struggle at times with helping my students investing, creating, and solving problems that THEY view as being worthy. I would love to gain some ideas in this area, so if you would not mind sharing real world problems that you and your class conceive I would appreciate it!
You are on a solid path toward solidifying your GAME plan and it is obvious that you are enjoying where it is taking you. Best of luck with this process.
Lacey Wilson
Hey there, It's great that everyone seems to be doing well on their Game Plans. I also have been recently told about Survey Monkey and it is a neat resource to use to get data collected and organized. Google also has a lot of similar applications to make surveys and quizzes with and then it can sort the results for you. Another thing you mentioned that teachers I work with like a lot is the donors choose website. We have put up things like a color printer and been able to have it donated so that we can print projects in our classes rather than sending it to the one color printer that is shared by the school. This has made things really convenient.
ReplyDeleteTiffany...
ReplyDeleteIt is great to hear you are progressing with Survey Monkey and Donorschoose as I suggested. This may help to fund your projects; there is a website www.fiverr.com people offer to do things for you for a flat rate of five dollars. You can find a grant writter who will possibly write a small grant for both your classrooms.
Another website you may use is brainpop the kids love Tim and Moby, the site is colorful and easy to understand for all ages. This site has videos, quizze and fill in the blank test for all subjects, check it out. I think it will help further your goals in yyour GAME plan.
Rakeebah