Reflections and New Prospects

I have gained a lot from my latest course at Walden. In this course, we learned about the GAME plan and were asked to use it as a tool to help us strengthen our confidence in at least two indicators in the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T). I chose the two that involved collaboration with students, peers, and community members and modeling cultural understanding and global awareness. I liked the way the GAME plan forced me to organize my plan of attack on my new learning. Instead of just haphazardly trying out new skills and activities, I first worked out how I planned to implement them and the means I would use to judge their and my effectiveness. I am not naturally so systematic in my approach to new things, and honestly, I expected it to be quite a chore, yet it was surprisingly refreshing. However, because we all teach in an imperfect world, I did run into some snafus in this process. I learned that this process has the potential to really help me focus my energies in obtaining the goals I set for myself, but that I must be flexible as well. To that end, I am still waiting to finish some of the plans I laid for myself.

I did pick up some wonderful new technologies that I plan on using with my students. For example, someone in our class mentioned Kerpoof.com, and I think this is going to be a wonderful way to introduce my students to social networking in a completely safe way while we work on our writing skills. Communication and collaboration is one NETS-S that I find difficult to cover due to the fact that so many wonderful sites are blocked by my district. The district administration, while being very pro-technology, has a very negative view of social networking, and I am excited to have a way around this problem.

As I think about the changes that all of this will bring to my teaching, I must remind you that my situation is different from most of my peers in my Walden course. I am a computer lab teacher, so each of my lessons revolves around technology. I am always looking for new technology lessons, but instead of looking for ways to incorporate technology into my content lessons, I am looking for ways to incorporate content into my technology lessons. The difference may be subtle, but it is different. This course has given me lots of ideas for incorporating content, such as through digital storytelling and problem based learning. I am excited to use these new skills with my students!

This course has also opened my eyes to another set of "students" in my school. I want to share my new knowledge with the teachers I work with. Over the last week, I have helped my principal get his first blog and podcast up and running, and he has decided that this would be good for me to share with our faculty. In our school, each grade level has a day each month where they spend time after school in professional development. I am going to be using some of this time to teach our teachers about podcasting first, and then I hope to share blogging and more with them. I was very excited that my principal saw the educational prospects these technologies hold for our students. It is my hope that as I become comfortable with other technologies that I will be able to share them as well. It is also my hope that many others in my school will share my enthusiasm with technology. I can't wait to get started!

Fun and GAMEs!

In this last blog assignment for this Walden course, we are asked to describe how we will use the GAME plan process with our students to develop proficiency in NETS-S. (http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007.htm) Looking at these standards, I see several (well actually, quite a lot) that my students need to work on. The first one that I want to tackle in my elementary computer lab is

	2. Communication and Collaboration
	Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

Though I think we do a very good job of collaborating within the walls of my classroom or even within the walls of my school, I feel that we do not nearly do enough of this with learners and experts in other locations. I also do not feel that we do enough collaboration online. This is my fault. I do not have any trouble creating a lesson that uses online collaboration, for instance, but I am intimidated by the implementation of such a lesson. There are just so many variables to manage. I think I need to accept that the first try at one of these projects might not be perfect, but the next try will be better, and the next even better.

One way to get the ball rolling on my focus on communication and collaboration would be to get the students to establish their own GAME plans as guides for increasing their proficiency in this area. I understand that by having the students write their own GAME plans, they will gain ownership of their own learning. They will not just have to passively accept what the teacher has handed down in her role as classroom dictator. They will be motivated to take responsibility.

However, I do have a concern about this process. Because the GAME plan strategy is so learner-directed, it seems that without considerable (obsessive?) teacher monitoring (Get out the roller skates!), there is a lot of room for students to get distracted, off task, or even actively engaged, but towards the wrong goal. I would think that it would take some training for students to fully understand their role in this process. To this end, I think I would introduce this strategy by discussing the NETS-S with my students and having them come to a consensus on a group goal. Then we would develop the GAME plan together. This way I could provide guidance as the teachers become familiar and adept at this process.

After one cycle of GAME, I would have my students work on another plan in groups. That would give them a little more autonomy, but allow me to monitor their progress in a manageable manner. Then I would have them work on individual GAME plans, but we would all do the same goal so that we could collaborate where needed. Only then would I send them "out on their own."

As the computer lab teacher, I would have a better chance at introducing the GAME plan with my students this way. I see all of the students in my school each week, so I could start my students with the first steps I mentioned in the early grades and move toward the later steps in the older grades. A regular classroom teacher might have trouble fitting all of this in within the window of one school year.

Anyway, I would appreciate any comments anyone has for my GAME plan implementation. Thanks for reading!

Not Letting Go...

This week in our Walden course we are asked to llook once again at our progress towards meeting the goals of our GAME plan. I am feeling like a bit of a broken record here (remember those?), but I am still stuck. I am no where near ready to let go of the goals and plans I have made even though my schedule may have shifted somewhat. I still want to accomplish what I set out to do, and I will. As a matter of fact, I find the goals I established to be ones that require an ongoing effort. They are not the types of goals that can be ticked off my list. These are areas that I will continue to try to improve.

That said, there are some things that I have learned and can apply to my instructional strategy. As an action to accompany one of my goals, I have planned on creating class wikis with my students. I have tried this once before, and the biggest frustration was getting all of the students to join the wiki. They needed email addresses, and if they used mine, all of the options were not available to them. One of my peers in our online learning community had run into the same problem and provided a simple solution. Now I am no longer dreading this part of our wiki activity when we get to work on it.

Another thing I have learned is that it might be a little rough to get the ball rolling, so to speak, when beginning a new technology project, but the results are well worth it. For example, getting teacher buy-in for the teacher wiki projects ahs not been easy, but I think it is begining to come together. I can envision it as being the go-to source when teachersare looking for resources for a particular lesson they want to teach. It may take us a while to get it there, but I know it is going to happen!

I am really not ready to set new learning goals for myself at this time, because I do not feel like I have made the progress I would like on the ones I have already chosen. Once again...I will get there. I would like to expand my use of podcasts to other classes in our school and help other teachers start podcasts on their web pages, too. I think it would be a wonderful way for them to showcase what is going on in their classes. We have monthly professional development meetings by grade level in our school. Perhaps I could find out if a grade or grades would be interested in having me teach them how to do this during that time. I mean, if we have to stay after school, we might as well learn something useful, right?

One thing that I want to keep in mind as I set new goals for myself is to try to do a better job of timing the start of my actions to accomplish these goals. It seems like my lab time with my students is constantly being interrupted, but some months are better than others. Next time, I want to start my GAME plan in one of those "good" windows.

A Holding Pattern...

Well, I seem to be in pretty much the same place this week that I was in last week with my GAME plan. I am still focusing on getting A+, the tutorial program I mentioned in my previous posts, up and running, and I think I am just about there. The kids seem to really like the motivational program I have initiated with it, and they should be comfortable enough to work on it in their classrooms. This will hopefully free me up so that I can work on my standards. Won't that be wonderful!

The teachers I have spoken to about the wiki are still willing to add their input to the teacher wikis, but the art teacher has asked if we can wait just a little bit to work on the school gallery. I have worked with her on things in the past, and I know that this will get done. She wants to see our school establish a gallery as much as I do, so as soon as she can handle working on it with me, we will tackle that project.

The student Skype and wiki projects that I had hoped to initiate are still on hold for the moment. As I mentioned in prior posts, the students started their research for the wikis earlier, and I think that we will return to that project in a week or so. I actually had a student ask me when we were going to get back to that last week. I was glad to know that the interest was still there even after such a large interruption. That is promising!!!

Through all of these struggles, I have learned one thing about my GAME plan. Flexibility is a vital component that is not given proper credit in this acronym. A teacher can have the best plans in the world, but the school and classroom situation may change and render the plans unobtainable, at least for the moment. The teacher needs to be able to either adjust her plan or be willing to put them on hold until the situation changes.

Until my situation changes, I will continue to do what I can to accomplish my GAME plan now and be patient until I can accomplish the rest.