GAME PLAN
Not only do we need to teach, model, direct and guide our students to
becoming more confident and proficient with 21st Century Learning
Skills and the Technology incorporated into their learning, but it is essential
that we learn, maintain and expand on our own technology skills. If we are not “up to par” with our own
proficiencies and strategies in integrating technology into the students’
learning process, how can we expect to teach our students what is necessary for
these soon-to-be adults to thrive and become independent, productive citizens
within our society?
As I have reviewed and reflected
upon NETS-T, I must admit that I need to
become more confident, proficient and have a stronger grasp on all of these
standards myself. However, for sake of
what I feel will best aid my teaching, guidance, modeling, proficiencies and my
own confidence with incorporating technology into learning opportunities for my
students, I have set my goals to be focused on Standard Three B - To
collaborate with students, peers, parents and community members using digital
tools and resources to support student success and innovation and Standard two
– Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments.
For Standard two, I wish to improve and enhance my own competencies with
being able to engineer and utilize more real-world, engaging lessons and
activities that incorporate technology.
By the implementation of more authentic and engaging lessons and activities,
it is my goal for the
students to make more of a meaningful connection with their own learning and
how math does in fact relate and tie in to real-world situations, jobs, and
daily living within society. My
co-teacher and I currently use Computer-based tutorials once every three weeks;
however, I would like to begin developing a real-world, authentic lesson that
engages the students in real-world (math) problems incorporating various
technology and software devices. I would
like to start incorporating more of these activities on a six week basis and
end up doing one every month.
My action is to
investigate and research different ideas using the internet. I will be looking for 8th grade
math real-world, engaging activities and lessons that will allow for the student’s
usage of various technology devices- those that are meaningful and will enrich
the students’ learning. I will do this
research at least twice a week for a period of 45 minutes to an hour. Secondly,
I wish to set aside a once a week period to discuss with fellow math teachers,
to share the ideas I have found that pertain to standards and content and how
we could use some of these activities that incorporate technology. I am
looking for and asking my fellow colleagues for their thoughts, ideas and
suggestions during this "meeting time" as well.
I will monitor
my own learning each time I am online researching for meaningful, real-world
lessons and possible technology components that can enhance the lesson and the
students' learning by writing in a journal my thoughts on ideas I found,
possible technology that I could use in my lessons and also reflect on how
these activities the incorporation of technology would work with the students I
teach. I will journal each week as meet with my fellow math teachers
regarding my ideas, their thoughts, feelings and any additional ideas they
might throw my way. Lastly, as I incorporate each lesson that is a real
world scenario with usage of technology, I will journal how things went: what
was good, what did not go over so well, what might I do differently next time,
and/or was the activity a success or a total bomb.
The second
standard I wish to focus on is Standard 3-B: Collaborate with students, peers,
parents and community members using digital tools and resources to support
student success and innovations. My goal is to establish open
lines of communication by my developing a teacher website for myself.
This has never been mandatory in any of the school systems I have taught at, so
I have always shied away from attempting to create a website of my own. The big
payoff for me is that I am hoping for parents to become more involved via
website communication regarding their child and to keep them informed as to
what is currently taking place, what is approaching, and for them to have their
child's assignment work, study guides and practice websites at the tip of their
fingers.
My
action within this website is to keep the website updated daily in
order to communicate with parents, students and fellow teachers what we are
currently covering in the math class each day, what is upcoming in the
classroom, have homework problems, study guides uploaded into my website for
parents and students to retrieve if the student was or is going to be absent,
some website addresses the students can use to practice on various math content
and update the parents on upcoming real-world activities and an overview of the
activity, the content that is being covered, and the technology that the
students will be using during this lesson or activity.
To monitor
myself and the usage of my website, I will journal weekly to keep myself
focused on updating the website daily, am I receiving any feedback from
parents, students, teachers or community members and if so, what does the
feedback pertain to. I will also send out a monthly four to five question
survey to parents that utilize my website to get feedback. Within the
survey, I would want to know if I have kept the website updated and current and
have they used the website to retrieve study guides, homework or to use some of
the practice websites.
My evaluation
will be my overall reflection through my weekly journaling, the feedback I get
from parents, students and/or fellow teachers regarding the effectiveness of my
website and one final survey/questionnaire to the parents that did and/or did
not use the website.
References:
International
Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for
teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers
Thank you for useful post. i was searching this kind of information. I have a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such information here.
ReplyDeleteThanks;
Incorporate business
As a teacher, I agree, that it is important to, “practice what you preach”. If you don’t you ruin your reputation with students and it may be hard for students to respect your lessons. If students don’t see the important and how it can benefit their lives, they are less likely to become motivated and self-directed. By modeling and demonstrating ourselves, we can set an example for students and help them see the real-world application to the GAME plan.
ReplyDeleteYour goal to utilize and create engaging lessons with technology is a great place to focus. By implementing and becoming familiar with more technology, student’s leaning styles will be further catered to and learning will hopefully become more enjoyable. A site that I always check out for new and creative ideas is edutopia.edu or Pinterest. If you search within the Website, Pinterest, it opens up a page that will lead you to other pages. A simple search such as, “technology in the classroom” has the possibility to lead you to hundreds of teacher’s blogs and ideas you would may not of think of. Sometimes collaboration, even with people you don’t know personally through the internet, has to power to creating bigger and better things.
Thank you very much for your insights. I could not agree more.. Practice what we preach or the students do not hold you in a high regard of respect. I can remember being told not just by a few teachers but by an aunt of mine- They would say, "Do as I say, not as I do!" What did they think they would gain from this comment?? That led me to confusion and I as I grew older I questioned why would anyone say such a thing if it is the right thing to do, then why are they doing it themselves? Great point!
ReplyDeleteToo, I never would have thought to look on Pinterest. All I had ever seen on that sight were recipes, ideas for decorating around the house, fashion and trends. I just ASSUMED that was all there was to Pinterest. Thank you for sharing that information. I will definitely look into that. You are right, often times within our own circle we get limited feedback and suggestions. However, going outside of our communication zone and looking into what other educators do is a way to add to our collection of ideas, thoughts, and allowing us to see a different side- possibly one we have not thought of prior.
Thank you for this helpful information, Stacy!