GAME Plan Reflection

Throughout this process of developing a GAME plan and carrying out, I've learned a lot about goal setting, planning, and about myself.  I was successful with carrying out my goals and meeting my goals of being more technological in my classroom and within my lessons.  I've learned new ways to incorporate technology into my daily lessons and content areas.  I've become more active with sharing ideas with my teammates and becoming more of a role model/facilitator with technology amongst my team.  I can tell that my students are more engaged while using the SMART Board and laptops more often.  I also feel less stressed with integrating content areas into the technology components.  I feel that I am using my time more wisely and efficiently in ym classroom.  This process makes me excited to begin next school year with the knowledge and understanding that I have about technology.

Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress

It's important to remember to monitor your progress when beginning a journey or plan like this.  So far, I am very proud of my growth and learning experience.  This past Wednesday at school, my 1st grade team had our usual collaborative planning afternoon.  During this time, I made a point to have a discussion about integrating technology into our content areas.  We shared ideas that we have found to use with the SMART Board and various assessments that we had created to use with our iRespond remotes.  I was excited too because not only did I gain new SMART Board ideas/lessons, but I learned about some great resources to use that will get my students up to the SMART Board more rather than me just using it for a teaching tool.  On Thursday and Friday, I taught my students about different things that I learned.  An "Aha!" moment for my 1st graders was when I used the words "I learned something and I want to share it with you...".  My students were so amazed that "I" am still learning about things and I explained to them that even adults still like to learn about new things.  We are all life-long learners.  I think this "mini" lesson turned out to be a "huge" learning lesson for my 1st graders.  :)

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

Through this journey, I will work through the process of developing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating my personal GAME plan.  In order to carry out this plan, I will need recources.  Something that I am currently doing in my GAME plan, is discussing and sharing ideas with colleagues.  I am fortunate to work with some incredible 1st grade teachers with whom I am constantly sharing different SMART Board activities/lessons with.  We do a great job of communicating ideas with one another to better our students.  I have also been to two trainings since beginning this GAME plan.  The trainings were about using the technology in my classroom and sharing SMART Board activities/lessons that will get the kids up more and not just me standing there talking and using it.  I plan to continue my online research of finding more ways to use technology with my students on a daily basis.  Since the beginning of this school year, I can already tell a difference in how I teach and how much more my students are learning.  This makes me excited to continue this journey and see where it takes me.

Developing Your Personal GAME Plan

Teachers are often self-directed learners…

We create lessons plans (Goals)

We teach lesson plans (Actions)

We monitor student learning (Monitor)

We evaluate student progress and teacher effectiveness (Evaluate)

After examining http://www.iste.org/ and the NETS-T, I chose to focus on number two…

2. Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS·S.

My goals are to design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity and also to provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.

The action that I plan to take is to search for research-based lessons using technology tools to help give me some ideas of how I can better use the technology tools that I have in my classroom with my students.  I also would like to become more fluent on our iRespond to use with my students for assessment and data collection. 

I will monitor my progress by making sure that at least once a week I designing, developing, and evaluating authentic learning experiences and trying something new and different each week with my students, whether it’s a lesson or a type of assessment.  (This I feel is the hardest part of the GAME plan.  I’m not sure how I should monitor myself and would love feedback or ideas for this.)

I can evaluate my progress by making sure that my students are still learning the content and by looking closely as student data from assessments.  I could also ask for a peer or administrator to observe me using technology tools in a lesson to evaluate my effectiveness and offer me feedback for growing more as an educator.

http://www.iste.org/

Reflection: Enhancing Instruction with Technology

Throughout this course, I have learned how to use technology in my instruction taking in the ideas of the various leaning theories.  Dr. Wolfe helped me to understand the brain and how the brain can affect teaching methods.  I also developed a personal learning theory.  Throughout this course, I have reflected on my personal learning theory and believe that my personal learning theory portrays everything that I've learned.  We also learned about the behaviorist learning theory.  Behaviorist learning theory strongly influenced instructional practice in the 20th century and continues to influence practice today, particularly in the area of classroom management.  Cognitive learning theory marks a shift in focus from the role of behavior in learning to the various mental processes associated with learning and memory.  We also learned about various technology tools that exhibit these learning theories that could easily be integrated into instructional practice.  Concept mapping tools and virtual field trips are examples of great technology tools that teachers could use in the classroom.  Constructivist theory incorporates the cognitivist ideals about the brain’s function in learning, and further asserts that through these cognitive processes, each individual constructs unique and distinct understandings.  While learning about the constructivist theory, we were able to explore voice threads.  This is another example of a technology tool that teachers could so easily integrate into the classroom.  While constructivist learning theory states that we build our own unique understandings of the world around us, social learning theory adds that we construct meaning primarily through our interactions with others and with our environment.  This is a learning theory that is going to constantly grow and become more evident in schools because of all of the new social networking tools available.  Dr. Pickering and Dr. Marzano teach us about the nine instructional startegies.  These startegies make teaching successful and enhance student learning.

My 1st Voice Thread!

http://voicethread.com/share/2302866/

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

With social learning theories, students are actively engaged in constructing artifacts and conversing with others.  Collaborative and cooperative learning are key components in the social learning theory of connectivism.  Cooperative learning refers to the numerous methods of grouping students.  Cooperative learning takes a closer look at the potential benefits for learners.  Effective cooperative learning occurs when students work together to accomplish shared goals and when positive factors are in place to support them.  Students help each other learn and encourage individual team members’ success.  Interpersonal and small-group skills are in place, including communication, decision making, conflict resolution, and time management.  Grouping students to work collaboratively and cooperatively offers benefits for learners.  Teachers who are successful at facilitating cooperative learning employ research-based strategies.