Week 7 Final Reflection

My final post for Integrating Technology into the Classroom will give a final update on my GAME plan and will comment on how this class will affect my future teaching. 

My GAME plan did not go as planned, however I made progress and am poised to finish my plan at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.  I was not able to generate logins for each of my students, nor was I able to give any assessments or use Edmodo.com to communicate with parents.  I am excited to include directions to access Edmodo in my beginning-of-the-year packet, and know the momentum I began this month will carry to next school year.  As of now, my plan will not be modified, as I still believe Edmodo is the right tool to satisfy my chosen ISTE standards. 

One way I might use the GAME plan process with my students is for student to make four or five goals for the year in September.  Several of my students struggle with completing homework and getting help when needed.  If I give these two areas as individual goals, and the other goals created by each individual student for themselves, my students may be off to a focused start for next year.  The action part of the game plan will be completed by both the students and myself, as they most likely will need assistance in what actions they need to show to meet their goals.  Monitoring and evaluating will need to be done on a weekly basis for some, monthly for others, based on the student.  This hopefully will be a successful attempt at improving student performance for my 8^th graders next year.

I am excited to use technology in my teaching next year, as I not only will have a SMART board to help with daily assignments and communication to my students, I have also picked up three important instructional tools from this class: PBL, social networking, and digital storytelling. 

Next year I will be teaching only math to 7^th and 8^th graders.  The problem-based learning lesson I created for the Pythagorean theorem worked well with my current 7^th graders, and I will use this again next year for my new 7^th graders.  Students learned the concept of the Pythagorean theorem faster than typical, as they were able to derive the formula instead of simply being taught the formula.  Social networking will already be the norm in my classroom through Edmodo.com.  Once I roll Edmodo out to my students in September, I will monitor whether it makes sense to also create a blog for my classroom or if Edmodo truly satisfies the communication and learning needs my class requires.  Finally, digital storytelling is an exciting way to present information.  We currently have only a few video cameras available to us at my school, and relied heavily on cell phones and laptop cameras to create video.  My students and I all need a crash course in using movie-making software, but that will be a goal of my own and my class technology coordinator next year.  My goal is to get at least three digital storytelling projects under my belt during the next school year.  

Week 4 GAME plan update

My GAME plan is going well.  I am focusing on using technology to give formative and summative assessments and using technology to increase communication with parents.  I chose Edmodo.com as a source to satisfy both of these ISTE standards.  Students are able to take assessments on-line and parents are able to log in to check for homework assignments and for class announcements.

My plan does not have to be modifed, as I have been in contact with a representative from the website and have already set up my page and am working on my partner teacher linking to my page, so things seem to be going as planned.  My partner teacher and I are in the process of choosing a student from each of our classes to manage the website, in terms of posting homework and announcements for parents.  I, of course, will create any assessments and require students to log in and complete assessments as needed.

My one concern is being so close to the end of the year, that if I have all of our students create logins and passwords, they will forget them by next year.  I will have to determine whether I can generate a list of logins and passwords.  That way, our students could still create a login this year and become a bit familiar with the website and I can reprint the login and password list next year.  I am able to do this because I currently teach 7th grade and will have the same students again next year for 8th grade.  I am excited to potentially use this tool as a communication tool for parents as their students start school next year.  

Week 3 Discussion Post - Update on my GAME plan

The ISTE standards I chose dealt with creating a technology-based forum where students could complete formative and summative assessments, and using technology to better communicate with parents.  After conducting my research, I believe Edmodo.com is a resource that can satisfy both technology standards.  Edmodo has features which allow students to answer a question or questions that can be used for a formative assessment, or the ability to handle more structured summative assessments (Edmodo, 2012).  Parents can also access Edmodo, which is set up very much like Facebook, to not only stay abreast of thier child's daily or weekly assignments, but also receive general school and classroom updates, and be able to ask specific questions in a Facebook-resposne-type format to a specific school event or assignment question.

The media segments I need are only internet access and the students and parents' ability to access and sign on to the website.  There is no other information I need, as I have evaluated several different ways to accomodate these standards and have not found another avenue that supports both of my standard choices.  The steps I have taken so far are to create an account through Edmodo, contact an account representative, and start to get myself familiar with the website functionality.  I am excited to roll this out to my classroom, and since I have the same students next year for eighth grade, this is something I can roll out even at the end of the school year and get student accounts set up to hit the ground running next year.

References:

Edmodo help page.  (2012).  Edmodo.  Retrieved from www.edmodo.com on 05/10/2012.

Developing a Personal GAME Plan

For this week’s application, we are to choose two indicators in the NETS-T and create a personal GAME plan (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2010) for each. 

The first indicator I chose was 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 (ITSE, 2008).  This indicator is under the Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments standard.

My GOAL is to include technology in formative and summative assessments, making some use of technology an integral part of my students’ grades. 

The ACTIONS I will take to reach this goal is to find and use an online forum where students can respond to math reflections and engage in discussions similar to our Walden discussions, as well as take online quizzes and tests.

I will MONITOR my progress as I check for usability and ensure I am selecting the web service most beneficial to my students.

I will EVALUATE and EXTEND my learning as I assess how student learning has changed based on my use of technology and share my successes with my colleagues.

The second indicator I chose was to communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats (ITSE, 2008).  This is under the Model Digital-Age Work and Learning Standard.

My GOAL is to find or create an online network where I can quickly communicate with students and parents.

The ACTIONS I will take are to evaluate websites, and to reach out to my Walden cohort and colleagues at work to survey websites that work. 

I will MONITOR my progress as I check for usability and ensure I am selecting the web service most beneficial to my students.

I will EVALUATE and EXTEND my learning as I assess how student learning has changed based on my use of technology and share my successes with my colleagues.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx