As an elementary computer lab teacher, I work with students ranging from kindergarten through fifth grade for about an hour each per week when my class is not interrupted for testing, a mandated tutorial program, or an assembly. That is a very limited time window in which to accomplish my technology goals. Therefore, I strive to collaborate as much as possible with classroom teachers in my school. This way, I can reinforce the content standards while my students learn about technology and my students can tackle more complex projects than they could possibly do in my lab alone. I think this creates a wining situation for my students.
In my current course at Walden, I have been asked to develop a GAME plan (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 4) for strengthening my confidence in at least two indicators in the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T). With my situation in mind, here is my plan.
Goals
3b. Teachers collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
4d. Teachers develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.
Actions
3b. Develop a wiki for teachers to share ideas and resources. Teachers will be able to share Smartboard activities, arts-integrations lessons (we are an arts-integration school), helpful websites, and more traditional types of activities. Publicize the wiki.
Have students develop wikis about content they are studying. These would be collaborative lessons with classroom teachers. The product of these wikis would also be shared with the faculty of my school in an effort to encourage more teachers to use this tool.
Publish a school art gallery on VoiceThread to allow parents and community members to view and comment on student work.
Publish podcasts of student writing.
Classes will use Skype to meet with expert community members about content they are studying. For instance, they might meet with a banker when studying interest or a wildlife expert when studying about animal adaptations.
4d. Search for websites that connect teachers who are interested in collaborating on projects and contact those teachers.
Have our classes to use Skype to collaborate with students in other countries.
Post work on VoiceThread for our newfound network of learners to collaborate or comment.
Develop a wiki with the other class about the topic we are sharing.
Monitor
Ask the following questions:
3b. Are the teachers participating in the teacher wiki? Do they know about it? In the students’ wiki, are the students learning the content? Can they discuss what they are learning? Do the gallery and podcasts have visitors? How can we encourage more visitors? Do the parents know about them? Who are the classes Skyping? What other experts can we contact? How do we locate these people?
4d. Are there any teachers in my network that have already tried this activity? How did they find partners? Are there other sites for ideas about such projects that I can learn from? After talking with my partner teacher, are their changes to the project that he or she would suggest? Are the students excited about the project? If not, how can we increase their excitement? If so, how do we maintain it?
Evaluate and Extend
Ask the following questions:
3b. Did the collaborating teachers value this project? In what ways would they change it? Did the students master the content according to the classroom teacher’s assessment? Would the classroom teachers recommend the project idea to their peers? Did the parents and community respond to the gallery and podcasts? In what other ways can I collaborate with these stakeholders?
4d. In addition to the cultural understanding and global awareness, did the students master the content portion of the project? In what ways could I improve this project? Does the cooperating teacher have any suggestions? What changes would the students suggest? What other tools could we use to collaborate with students from other cultures? How can I get other teachers in our school involved in such projects?
I hope that my focus on these areas will increase my proficiency, make me a better teacher, and make my class more engaging for my students. I would appreciate any ideas anyone wishes to share regarding my plan.
Thanks for reading!
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
NETS for Teachers. (2008). International Society for Technology in Education. Retreived January 13, 2010, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/Nets_for_Teachers.htm
Saturday, January 16, 2010
My GAME Plan
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Hi Nancy
ReplyDeleteYour GAME plan sounds really good. I think it is important to have a central hub where the teachers and students are able to find resources and get the ideas they need to integrate the technologies that they have at their disposal. I know that there are times when I would love to find something that would help me integrate a new technology into an area of math that I am teaching, so your plan is a good idea to me.
Our school also communicates with the teachers and the parents via email, so that we all can be kept informed on students activities and parents can interact with the teachers about their child's progress. This is a great tool but you have taken it a step further to allow the parents to see the students work via voice thread and leave their comments. That is a great idea.
Your plan sounds very well thought out. You have many wonderful ideas for implementing, monitoring and evaluating your technology integration efforts. I like the idea of using voice threads to share student works with parents. It will give them a wider lens to view the bigger picture of what is happening school wide and not just in their child's class. With the right amont of publicity I'm sure you will see the number of hits on your sites increasing steadily.
ReplyDeleteUsing Skype is an excellent idea as well. I wish we could use it at our building. Our district blocks just about everything. It is a long and arduous task to get a blocked site cleared for use. Most teachers find it so frustrating and disheartening that they give up or don't even try! Hopefully this will change with more awareness of 21st Century skills.
I love your goal of collaboration. Students really get into these projects and learn a tremendous amount. Collaboration is an extreemly powerful tool. It very difficult to follow through with and as a result, gets pushed aside. It takes a lot of organization and effort for everyone envolved. It sounds like you have a wonderful action plan and have thought this goal through. Great post!
ReplyDeleteLorna,
ReplyDeleteOne of the middle school librarians in my district has been using VoiceThread and podcasts with great success for quite some time. She has me ready to try it as well. I am lucky to have her in my district because she is the type of teacher you can call on for help. Our district web master is also extremely willing to help when asked, so I really am excited!
Molly,
Our district blocks a lot of sites, too, but fortunatey Skype isn't one of them. Perhaps this is because our Superintendent has video conferences with his building administrators regularly. They were all given web cams to put on their computers, and they are expected to use them. I don't know if they are using Skype or not, but it is the same idea anyway. It helps when the top administrators value the technology like this, doesn't it?
One of our third grade classes either has started or is about to start a Skype project with a high school class. I don't know what it is about, but I am looking forward to seeing how that works out.
Tara,
My school is working to achieve status as a Blue Ribbon Lighthouse School. Right now we are a Blue Ribbon Point of Light (a lower ranking, but still an honor). One of the goals we have to focus on to achieve the Lighthouse status is collaboration. This helps motivate my peers in this area. However, I don't think they need much prodding. I work with a wonderful staff, and many of them are eager to collaborate. Of course, there are those who want to work alone, but they are the minority. And I figure that when they see what we can accomplish through collaboration, they will want to join in too!
Wow the idea of displaying students' work online is a great idea! I never would have thought of that. So simple, yet genius. This could work for any kind of work in any subject. It is a reward to have the students' work displayed honoring their success. I am stealing your idea!!
ReplyDelete