Reflection

My instructional practice has changed drastically as a result of my GAME Plan during this course.  I have completely changed the way that I assess my students, moving away from traditional paper based tests towards more technology integrated formats of assessment.  As a result of my GAME Plan I have familiarized myself with a new assessment tool, Activotes, and am so comfortable with this tool and confident in their use that I am gearing most of my formative assessments towards using this tool.  The immediate feedback that I receive using these tools has proven to be a vital tool in my instructional planning and has provided me with valuable knowledge about my teaching practice, what works, what needs work, and what to focus on for future lessons by showing me where “there are obvious gaps in understanding” (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 145).  I am confident that I am on the way towards meeting the performance indicator of providing “students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).  This summer, I will continue to develop this new tool so that I am utilizing it throughout my entire curriculum. 

As a result of my GAME Plan, I have also reached a new realization that all GAME Plans may not go exactly according to plan.  My second performance indicator focus was to “demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).  I planned to demonstrate this ability by using my SMART board software instead of the software that I was more familiar with, Promethean software.  As I set out on this venture I was met with quite a few challenges, and finally came to the conclusion that perhaps the Promethean software I was familiar with was really the better choice for my instructional practice.  This demonstrates my ability to be flexible as a creative learner (Laureate Education Inc., 2009).  Indeed, digital technologies are more flexible modes of teaching; however, some technologies at the end of the day will prove to be more flexible than others, as the Promethean software has proven to be (Laureate Education Inc., 2009). 

            The GAME Plan process has been a successful, systematic approach to my own professional development.  I plan to continue to use this model in the future.  This model will fit nicely into my new endeavor, which is incorporation online collaboration and digital story telling into my curriculum more frequently.  I will also teach this process to my students so that they may apply it to their own learning situations.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). 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

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009).  Promoting creative thinking with technology. [DVD]. 

Baltimore, MD (Author).

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009).  Meeting students needs with technology Part 1.

[DVD].  Baltimore, MD (Author).

Promethean Interactive Whiteboards.  (2011).  Promethean Interactive Whiteboards and Classroom Technology.  Retrieved from http://www.prometheanworld.com/. 

Smart Technologies. (2011).  Smart Board Interactive White Board.  Retrieved from

http://www.smarttech.com/.

 

Progress

This week I am very grateful to have such a supportive culture of my professional development on my campus.  Having this supportive culture is one of the vital components of effectively integrating technology into the classroom (Laureate Education Inc., 2009).  This has sort of been my mantra for my GAME Plan.  As I reflect on last week’s entry it has occurred to me that I truly am part of a professional learning community on my campus, even if it is not defined as such.  My colleagues have once again proved to be an invaluable resource to me.  One of my co workers provided me the Smart Board Interactive Whiteboard learner Workbook (Smart Technologies, 2006).    I have learned that every board is accompanied with one of these, but the one in the classroom that I have recently acquired is missing, so I have been flying blind for quite some time.  Now that I have it, my GAME Plan is being modified to center around the workbook and the many resources that it provides.  This workbook is a 95 page document that describes everything I need to know about my Smart Board.  In addition, it provides a ton of additional resources ranging from power point presentations to video tutorials about how to use the Smart Board.  By using different types of resources, I will be providing myself with a much better rounded learning experience, which is an approach that is also suggested for use with students (Laureate Education Inc., 2009).  If it is proven to work for students, then it is a path I am very interested in taking!

My modified goal is to use the resources that I now have available to me to meet the NETS-T standard of demonstrating “fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).    In addition to keeping a reflective journal on my progress, I will also be creating a reflection of the workbook. 

The only difficulty that I can see in the immediate future is that some of the language in the workbook is unfamiliar to me, so I will have to employ some research skills to determine some of the content, but that is very manageable.

References:

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

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009).  Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology Part 1. [DVD].  Baltimore, MD (Author).

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009).  Promoting self-directed learning. [DVD].  Baltimore, MD (Author).

GAME Plan continued....

GAME Plan, continued…

The First Quarter

I have already been taking steps towards meeting my goals, albeit small steps, but steps just the same.  As I take Action toward executing my GAME plan, I have asked myself the necessary questions: what information I need to meet my goals, and what resources I will use (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).  I am finding that in the early stages of my GAME plan my most valuable resources are my peers.  This comes as no surprise, as Dr. Katharine Cennamo (2009) has stated that peers are a valuable asset for self-directed learners as they help to funnel information (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009).  I have seen this concept play out numerous times this week.  Through the help of my colleagues I have made some steps that lay the foundation for me to meet my goals of using Activotes as an assessment tool.  So far this week, I have installed the driver and software to my computer that are necessary for using Activotes.  I have also taken a quick introductory course, that was about 30 minutes in length during my conference day this past Monday that introduced me to the bare bones of the ActivInspire software.  I am just in the beginning stages of this process, but I have been making gains all the same.

 I owe it to you!

I have my blog and followers from Walden to thank for helping me to meet the second goal of my GAME plan.  Thanks to my peers I have some very useful online tutorials to use to help me become familiar with my SmartBoard and it’s capabilities.  I feel as though this has given me the ability to network globally by learning from other educators that have already familiarized themselves with the same tools I have (Laureate Education Inc., 2009).  I feel as though I have come full circle then, one of the many advantages to using technology is the ability to network globally, and I am using that advantage to help me learn to use technology! 

 What's to come

I will continue to seek the help of my colleagues and IT Department, and have signed up for another training to use the ActivInspire software for next Monday’s conference day.  In the meantime, I will continue to monitor my progress.  Good luck to everyone this week with your GAME Plans!

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences. [DVD]. Baltimore, MD (Author).    

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Promoting Self Directed Learning with Technolgy. [DVD]. Baltimore, MD (Author).    

GAME Plan

According to Dr. Peggy Ertmer, integrating technology effectively into the classroom requires confidence in your ability to use technology (Laureate Education Inc., 2010).  In order to increase my confidence, I will use the GAME plan to set Goals, take Action, Monitor my learning and Evaluate my progress towards meeting the ISTE NETS Performance Indicators for Teachers (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009; International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).  

The first performance indicator I am going to focus on is 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” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).  In order to increase my confidence in this indicator, I am going to employ the use of a technology that is new to my campus, Activotes from Promethean.  My goal is to effectively incorporate the use of Activotes, which are hand held voting devices that can be used for both summative and formal assessments, into my daily instruction.  In order to do this, I am going to have to take quite a bit of action.  First, I have to familiarize myself with the Promethean software tools linked to the Activotes.  I will be taking a series of classes offered by my IT department to learn how these tools work and how to create assessments that utilize them to their fullest potential.  I will be able to monitor my learning through the actual use of these tools in my classroom.  Activotes are a very useful assessment tool because they provide and immediate report of the students performance on the assessment in an Excel spreadsheet.  I will be able to evaluate my students learning in real time and will be able to use those results to inform my next instructional step in a more immediate time frame, rather than taking the time to grade paper based assessments and then apply what the results show to my instruction.  These will help me to answer the questions that all educators have when evaluating instructional effectiveness: “Did my lesson or unit plan work?; In not, should I modify the goals, the assessment or my instructional strategies?; What should I do differently in the future?”  (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, P. 86.)

The second performance indicator that I would like to increase my confidence in is to “demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).  I have been shying away from this performance indicator for this entire school year.  Last year, I had a Promethean Board in my room, an interactive whiteboard.  This year I moved my classroom to a different location and my room now has a SmartBoard, a different brand of interactive whiteboard.  I have been somewhat negligent in regards to using my SmartBoard.  Because my Promethean software is somewhat compatible with the SmartBoard, I have been using only Promethean software with the board, and I have not been using the SmartTools that the board is equipped with.  Therefore, I am not using the board to its fullest potential, as I am most often battling compatibility issues between the board and the software that I use with it.  My goal to meet this indicator is to apply my knowledge of Promethean software to the use of SmartBoard software, this would illustrate my self directed learning by transferring skills between technologies (Laureate Education Inc., 2010).  I plan to do this by utilizing my amazingly supportive culture of tech savvy teachers in my district, doing so is essential to integrating technology effectively (Laureate Education Inc., 2010).  Plenty of my colleagues are familiar with SmartBoards and would be willing to help me learn the technology.  I will monitor my progress by keeping a digital daily reflective journal of what I have learned and what I have become more comfortable with.  This journal will also help me to evaluate my progress in meeting this goal.

In order to meet this goal, I am open to any suggestions from my colleagues at Walden as well.  If anyone has experience with SmartBoards I would love to hear from you! I am a novice with mine, and in desperate need of developing some knowledge of how to use this technology. 

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). 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

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009).  Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology Part 1. [DVD].  Baltimore, MD (Author).

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009).  Promoting self-directed learning. [DVD].  Baltimore, MD (Author).

Promethean Interactive Whiteboards.  (2011).  Promethean Interactive Whiteboards and Classroom Technology.  Retrieved from http://www.prometheanworld.com/. 

Smart Technologies. (2011).  Smart Board Interactive White Board.  Retrieved from http://www.smarttech.com/.

 

My favorite bumper sticker of all time

Hi everyone and welcome to my first ever blog!  I decided to get started with my favorite bumper sticker, which is also one of my favorite Crosby, Stills, and Nash songs, and has turned into my main mantra..."Teach your children well"  This phrase is so powerful and yet so simple.  I've attached a link just in case you too want to order your own best bumper sticker of all time...
http://www.homegrownmusic.net/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=stTeach&Category_Code=StickersD