Game Plan: Week 5 Application
Here are my answers to this week's application questions regarding my GAME plan.
How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?
I am slowly pecking away at my GAME plan goals. So far, in order to reach my first goal of “designing and developing digital-age learning experiences and assessments” (http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers), I have sought some help from my library/media specialist. This action has been effective because he keeps asking me questions regarding my project. His questions are forcing me to become very clear in my direction (I sometimes make things up as I go... =) ) and he has brought up some new ideas that I had not considered.
Honestly, I have not taken much action in my second goal, which is in regard to professional leadership and development. Aside from the obvious effort to better my education through attending this Master’s program, I have not pursued much else in terms of development or leadership. My school’s technology team has yet to meet this year, and, though I could probably initiate a meeting, I do not want my co-workers to snub me for putting another meeting on their already busy calendar. =) I have thought of creating an informal blog for our school where those who were interested could respond to technology-in-the-classroom related discussions. I think that something like that would give interested people a place to discuss some neat ideas while not making them commit to another group or meeting.
What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
So far I have learned that it takes a lot of time to develop good plans and to network with others. I will need to be very thoughtful of my upcoming units and activities and have everything in place well before their onset. I am also learning that my students are becoming very flexible (as compared to previous years) in their approach to technology. For instance, our computer lab was recently updated, including an installation of Microsoft Word 2010. My students took the change in stride and were easily able to navigate through the new interface using prior knowledge and trial-and-error. I will use this to our advantage when we begin projects that are even new to me. We will be learning side-by-side and teaching each other what we discover.
What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?
I still need to practice with some of the digital tools that I would like to incorporate into my lessons. So, I will need to create a voice thread, because that is something that I will be doing with my class shortly. I will need to carefully consider the logistics of my students doing this activity in our lab or on our classroom computer.
How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?
I think that I will focus primarily on my first goal. I want to be sure to give my current class of students every advantage that I can to learn our content and use technology. I will still pursue my second goal, but maybe in a new way (possibly by starting that blog I mentioned with some interested co-workers).
Kim to Erin:
ReplyDeleteOur district has an online forum where teachers can post lesson plans and/or resources for other teachers in the district to look at and use. It is password protected so that only teachers within our district can access it. Maybe this is something that you and your media tech can set up for your school or district? It would function like a blog except that it would be easier to upload/download lesson plans and ideas from colleagues. It is a great way to foster collaboration between the schools and teachers within your district. Good luck!
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI think setting up something web based for you and your fellow teachers to participate in is a good idea.
One thing I realized this week when polling students regarding what technology tools they have been using, is that though we have many district bought gadgets that teachers are using, most of the students have not been exposed to web 2.0 tools which are available for free. This got me pondering as to why that is and I realized that all of our district mandated technology training has been on how to use the gadgets they have been buying for us and not on web 2.0 technology. They did offer some web 2.0 technology training several years back while they were waiting on the funding for the gadgets, but it was not mandatory. Those trainings were also limited as far as the number of people who could attend them and only offered in a couple of locations after school in the middle of the school week. Like you mentioned, teachers are already stressed out and busy and adding another meeting to their schedule will probably be met with grumblings. I think this is one of the reasons those trainings were not very well accepted, especially since some of the teachers would have had to travel 30 miles to attend them. I know I was among those who would have liked to have had the training, but was too busy and tired to drive all over the county after teaching school all day to sit in an hour training session.
So in considering this I asked myself, "if the school board were to ask me how I felt they could improve technology use in the district, what would I say?" My mind went to this WebCT program my district uses. It is an on-line course site they use for some trainings. Right now they primarily use it for us to complete our annual trainings on safety, bullying, sexual harrassment, and such, but I also know that a couple years ago they started also using it as part of their Beginning Teacher Academy they require all first year teachers to attend. For this academy they have on-line message board discussions and assignments to complete and turn in through this program which they use to decrease the number of physical meetings they hold for the academy. They also have the internet training class they require teachers to complete before they are allowed to supervise student computer use on WebCT in which they have a list of activities and assignments we need to complete and turn in by a certain date. This format is a lot easier for teachers to fit in to their busy schedules and also allows them to complete these from the comfort of their own homes or during their lunch break.
So the suggestion I would make to my school district: provide trainings on using web 2.0 tools, but make these on-line trainings through WebCT.