Course Reflection for EDUC 6715:

Over the past eight weeks, I have gathered and experienced more applicable knowledge than in any other course I have taken (and that is saying a lot). I am always searching for new technology to integrate into my methodologies, but my search has constantly been alone or unsupported. I am one of the few teachers in my building that sees technology as an asset to student learning as opposed to a headache to the teacher. Even though many times incorporating the new technologies has been a difficult, bumpy road, I have always reaped the benefits of student motivation and engagement in the end. I realize that I have a big responsibility to my colleagues and the rest of the student body in my school to break down the negative stigma surrounding technology and its application in the classroom, but I feel well-prepared to take the nay-sayers head-on and make believers out of them. The tools I have to share this upcoming school year are nothing short of amazing and exciting. I am confident I can at least change a couple of minds, or sway some people to try some new things.

One new idea I feel very comfortable sharing with my colleagues is the use of digital gaming in the classroom. I understand the application completely, and I know the reception will be positive. Even if technology causes apprehension, my colleagues understand what motivates junior high students, and incorporating a learning tool that is disguised as a recreational activity is genius. Maybe my favorite quote concerning the implementation of digital gaming is

“…[C]hallenge and learning are a large part of what makes good video games motivating and entertaining.” (p. 34).

The plan I created during week six and seven will help me to share my excitement with my peers and show that this technique is easy to implement and accomplishes what we are all setting out to do: engage students in innovative, exciting learning opportunities. It is easy to argue the value of a tool that has such high teaching/learning potential. While students are playing, they are learning key concepts, and while they are learning, they are practicing necessary 21^st century skills. I found value in all the new, emerging technologies we learned about during this course, but I am not as sure of my own application of tools like MUVEs. Though I find MUVEs intriguing and appealing, I have little personal experience with them. I plan on becoming much more familiar with them, and I am sure I will be able to find multiple ways of incorporating them into my classroom and share them with my colleagues. Overall, I am thrilled at the outcomes of this course; I have a lot of great new ideas and teaching tools that I did not have prior. I have not been this excited for the start of a new school year in a while!

Reference:

Gee, J.P. (2005). Good video games and good learning. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 85(2), 33-37.

Online Learning in K-12 Schools Presentation:

Click the following link to view my presentation:

Online Learning in K-12 Schools

Week 8: Course Reflection EDUC-6714

What a whirlwind the past eight weeks have been! Time has really flown!

I have learned so much throughout this course—I am excited to jump back into teaching next fall and share some of these ideas with my colleagues and see how my students respond. I have a new found confidence and comfort with my skills in the area of differentiation. I always worried that I did not have the “know how” to follow through with differentiated lessons, but I realize now, that it is a strong skill that I naturally have applied to my lessons to begin with and my apprehension was unwarranted.

Through open discussion with my Walden peers and my colleagues, I have built quite a repertoire of lessons and resources to assist me in my endeavors next year and for years to come. I cannot thank my peers enough for all of their input during this course; they have inspired me to continue evolving as an educator. It is with these tools and resources in tote that I can implement lessons rich with technology and activities that will engage even the most hesitant of students. The goal has always been to teach to each individual student’s strengths and encourage growth in ALL students; reaching that goal has simply become more realistic and less overwhelming. Technology can make a classroom a haven that inspires and develops student minds and makes life “easier” for the teacher.

My classroom atmosphere in general will change next year—not only will computers and laptops be a regular appearance, but I will be taking more of a facilitator role in my room. I have always loved playing that role, but I still relied heavily on the teacher-centered role as well. I am more comfortable with giving up control and becoming the “guide on the side” as opposed to the “sage on the stage” attitude (Laureate Education Inc., 2009).

Resource:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Putting it all together. Reaching and engaging all learners through technology. Baltimore: Author.

Course Reflection:

Over the course of the past eight weeks, I have learned more about myself than during any other class I have taken through Walden. I have developed my teaching and leadership “voice” and began setting and accomplishing small but valuable educational goals. I have always had an “I’ll get to that later” kind of attitude—which at some point becomes quite unmanageable after a while. After replacing that attitude with more of a “no better time than now” outlook, I am finding that I feel accomplished and motivated to continue setting goals, monitoring progress and eventually evaluating my success of my attempts. The GAME plan has given me a whole new outlook and helped me grow as an educator—which has helped improve my students’ learning experiences and attitudes.

I have also become more open with my colleagues about my ideas and experiences with technology. I am helping them become more comfortable with the resources available to them at our school and they, in turn, feel more open to ask me questions when they are struggling or have their own new ideas. Our team is stronger now, and our students are reaping the benefits from our new team rapport.

Lastly, I have begun to develop ways to incorporate what I have learned in this class into the tasks my students are expected to complete. Setting manageable goals is such a valuable tool for students to master—and I am beginning to implement activities and class discussions that center around that vital skill. I am utilizing KWHL charts more regularly, and I am planning on starting the year off next year with a quarterly goal setting activity catered to the learning that planned for each individual quarter. Technology goals will be set simultaneously with content goals—I want the two to go hand in hand in my classroom. I feel like I am a better teacher for finally starting to focus on my own development as an individual educator—and my students are benefiting from my new found strengths and comfort level with technology, goal-setting, and leadership.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students:

The GAME plan process would be a beneficial tool for use in the classroom and a skill to teach students to utilize independently. I have found a lot of personal success and have been surprised with how easily my plan fell into place, and I feel comfortable and motivated to pass the skill onto my students. It would be a great tool to use at the beginning of the year—for students to set goals for themselves in relation to the science curriculum and technology areas they feel they can or should work to improve on over the course of the school year. It is something we can complete within the first week and monitor/edit as the year progresses. I can imagine some students will need to edit more than others as they find success and wish to move further past their development goals.

In relation to the science curriculum, I already use a pseudo-GAME plan process in my class at the beginning of each unit. I have my students create a K-W-H-L chart which becomes a flexible document that the students edit and use as a tool to help them focus in on their goals. How else can I encourage students to set goals and maintain focus on monitoring their acquisition of their goals? I am sure it is a skill that not all of them practice daily, and some of them will struggle with the concept.

Revising MY GAME Plan:

I am making great strides towards both of my goals—but after further review, I do not think that one of my goals can ever be “achieved.” I need to continue to make efforts to become more of a leader on my team at school and as a staff member. I do not think that goal will ever go away; it is something that I need to perpetually monitor and practice. It may become easier and less conscious, but I will always need to focus on getting my voice and ideas heard at my school because they are valuable and beneficial to the student population. I am also still working towards building a unit that incorporates a global learning community. I plan on completing this goal next year, once I have researched fully and found an applicable, relevant connection to my classroom. I have found a few options, but will continue to search and learn more about the options available to me and my students.

Based on the NETS-T, I would like to “demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations,” more specifically I would like to become more knowledgeable concerning the Smart Technology available at my school. I recently attended a school-wide seminar about the Smart technology and student response systems, and it was intriguing and exciting. I had no idea how many neat options were available at my finger tips. I plan on working at least one Smart lesson into my curriculum before the interim of fourth quarter. I cannot wait to see how my students respond to these new methods.

I am going to continue to experiment with my technology options and keep an open mind. I will also be continuing to develop my leadership skills and voice at future meetings and in general. I am excited to see how these new skills work their way into my teaching practices—my students stand to reap the benefits from my new approach to my own learning.

Resource:

National Education Standards for Teachers (2008) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.

Evaluating MY GAME Plan Progress:

Overall, I am feeling inspired to set more goals for myself in relation to my teaching career. I feel silly for putting some of my ideas and desires on the back burner because I felt like my goals were not as important as the other responsibilities I am juggling right now. I have experienced the complete opposite over the course of the past couple of weeks—I feel more accomplished than ever before, and I am more excited to try even more new “adventures” as a result. My positive experiences have also crossed over into my instructional practices—mostly because my students are directly benefiting from the accomplishment my goals (the goals are student related). Since one of my goals was to take more of a leadership role on my team, I have also affected the teaching practices and student experiences of within my colleagues classes.

I have decided to adjust my plan and add to my goals as I am accomplishing my others. I want to further my technological skills—especially in the area of Smart technology, so I am attending a course offered at my school this Thursday (during an in-service). I am excited to see what else I can offer my students—our school recently acquired a classroom response system (clickers) that I would love to incorporate into my classroom practices. I am learning though to balance my goals with my other responsibilities. How many is too many goals? Is there a limit? I do not want to reach a point of frustration, but I want to continue setting and achieving my goals.

Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress:

Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress:

My goal of taking on more of a leadership role on my team is progressing slowly, but it is still progressing. I am scheduled to teach my team how to use our Edline (classroom webpages) next week. Our team schedule is hardly flexible with parent conferences almost every Thursday and RTI (response to intervention) meetings every Monday and Tuesday. The only day that we ever have any flexibility is Friday. I am excited to share what I know about the technology available through Edline—and I know my colleagues are anxious to start using what I show them. I recently showed them how to use Excel to make review Bingo cards, and one of my teammates used the program today to review with his class for the quarter assessment. I am getting more comfortable with speaking up and sharing the multitude of technological talents. These courses have helped me develop my voice and confidence to share.

My other goal of learning more about and possible implementing lessons around online learning communities has hit a roadblock. I am finding information, but many of the learning opportunities that connect to what I am currently studying are not available right now. I am finding that this takes more pre-planning and forethought than I expected. I am starting to bookmark ideas for projects next year—that should allow for plenty of planning time—to match the project with the unit of study.

I am continuing to work on both goals—even though one if going more smoothly than the other. I never expected the process to go perfectly, but things are actually moving along faster than I could have ever expected. I am enjoying the GAME plan experience because I am accomplishing things that I have put off for a while.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

For my first goal: to broaden my knowledge and comfort level with both local and global learning communities available for educators, I will need to spend some time online research the available resources. I could also look in to professional development opportunities in the area of online communities. One of my colleagues hosts a technology tutorial in the mornings, and he takes suggestions about the direction of his lessons. I could suggest he teach a class about both local and global learning communities and their applications in the classroom. I believe he has experience with the application in his classroom as well. I need to use the resources that are readily available in my school. I tend to get stuck in my classroom, in my own little bubble. I need to make time to leave my “bubble” and see what other teachers are doing in their classrooms. I am sure some of my colleagues are doing some very technologically progressive lessons. I have already begun discussions with my team about what they are doing with technology in their classrooms, and they have some great ideas.

To my colleagues in this course: Have any of you utilized online learning communities in your classroom? If so, what are some of the resources that you found helpful?

For my second goal: to become a more active member of my teaching team at school in the area of technology—more of a leader in the applications of technology in the classroom. I have already taken some initiative in my team—I scheduled a time to teach my team how to use their own homepages (with blogging, message boards, posting documents, homework turn-in, and posting grades securely). They seem excited and were happy I offered the lesson. The website is most definitely one of our untapped, valuable resources. I also joined a new committee at school because my team leader felt she was spread too thin—I took her place on the committee.

Developing MY Personal GAME Plan:

The area I feel is the weakest for me personally is the “Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership” standard; more specifically the following two indicators represent areas where I need to focus energy and time:

1. “Participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning

2. Exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others (ISTE, 2008).”

My personal GAME plan consists of the following:

Goals:

Setting appropriate goals is important—making sure to set an attainable goal is vital so that I do not enter a state of frustration. I tend to set lofty goals and end up quitting before I reach them because they are simply unrealistic.

1. My goal is to broaden my knowledge and comfort level with both local and global learning communities available for educators. I have a sense of fear about them because they represent an unexplored area of technology.

2. My second goal is to become a more active member of my teaching team at school in the area of technology—more of a leader in the applications of technology in the classroom. I teach on a team with two language arts teachers, a math teacher, and a world studies teacher, and none of them are comfortable with using all of the technology available to us. I want to become more of a resource to them, and possible inspire them to complete some of their own explorations. It would be amazing to be able to share ideas with my colleagues.

Actions:

1. In order to achieve goals, I definitely need to take more initiative to explore and conquer some of the fear of the unknown that I am harboring. I need to just jump in and complete a test run—maybe with one class period to begin with at first. The learning communities and the opportunities available online seem like amazing learning experiences for students (and me)—I do not think I can get over the fear unless I make a commitment sooner rather than later.

2. I also plan on speaking to my team leader and asking if I can run a couple of meetings to both answer technology questions and share the ideas and methods I am currently implementing in my classroom. I know they have the desire to utilize the technology that is available—they simply do not feel comfortable using it because they do not understand it.

Monitor:

1. I will monitor my progress in a couple of ways. First, during my exploration of local and global learning communities, I will create an annotated list of resources (linked to my delicious account). The list will be used as a resource to ease my fears and increase my comfort level—So when I begin my experimental, test run I will have my list to return to in case I run into problems. The list provides me with a way to gage my own understanding of the material and application of this technology.

2. I will monitor my progress with my team through discussion and through my colleagues’ experiences with technology that I introduce to them.

Evaluate/Extend: I will evaluate my learning in much of the same way as a I plan on monitoring my learning—through discussion and the level of success my students and my colleagues’ students experience as a result of the implementation of the new technologies. The students definitely will act as the best gage of learning—if I can teach my students what I have learned, I know I understand what I was exploring.

Resource:

National Education Standards for Teachers (2008) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.

Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom (EDUC - 6712I - 1):

Course REFLECTION:

The nature and meaning of the word literacy has changed completely in my mind and teaching practices now as compared to before this coursework. I never knew all the aspects that literacy encompasses. At the beginning of the course I was overwhelmed with all of the “new” literacies I would be responsible for on top of an already loaded, highly challenging science curriculum. “Today’s challenge is that, with the aid of a textbook‐based curriculum with microscopically proscribed content dictated by state agencies, many educators feel compelled to present students with the material they are expected to “know” in a well-intentioned effort to prepare them for a series of examinations geared to the content being taught” (Thornburg, 2004, p. 2). The “teach to the test” mentality is alive and well in my school and only getting stronger with the newly district-mandated, district-wide quarter assessments for every content and grade level. “…[A] challenge of the United States curriculum is that it is a mile wide and an inch deep. Students are expected to know a little bit about a lot of things, but are (so the critics claim) deprived of the chance to pursue any one topic in depth” (Thornburg, 2004, p.5). I do not want to fall into the trap of teaching to a test, but the trap is baited so well—my scores are being compared to my peers. This class has made me realize that I do not have to teach to the test—I can provide my students with balanced, engaging, challenging assignments that will incorporate the literacy skills as well—through inquiry based projects.

I was stressed out about how and when I would be able to work in the necessary lessons to teach my students the 21^st century literacy skills they would need to be successful outside of my classroom. The biggest revelation I have had about teaching as a result of this class is that teaching these new literacy skills should blend seamlessly with the lessons and concepts I am currently teaching my students—these skills do not have to be taught separately from your core content materials; they should be integrated into those lessons through methods like the inquiry-based project we worked on over the course of the past seven weeks. I have learned that even though the amount of material and benchmarks seems daunting—it all fits together cohesively, and I can improve my teaching if I experiment with combining different literacy skills and science concepts in new ways.

One professional development goal I would like to pursue that would build upon my learning from this course is double sided—one, I would like to improve my skills in the areas of “[c]alculat[ing] and measur[ing] information for application” (Jukes, 2007) through working with the math teacher on my team at my school. At the beginning of this course when we discovered out strengths and weaknesses, I went to the math teacher and she was willing to help me brush up on my mathematics skills. I also purchased some item analysis sheets for the scantron machine we use at school to make to recording easier (since we are required to give partial scantron tests). I will work on actually using the findings from these tests to improve my teaching—through re-teaching of concepts utilizing different methods. I would also like to pursue a goal of working one technology rich lesson in to each large concept I teach—whether it comes in the form of a large project or simply a small discussion board assignment, I need to use more real-world technology in my classes. My students will gain the skills and experiences they need to be successful outside of the four walls within which I teach them.

I am continuously improving and expanding my knowledge-base and am excited to put it to use. I am not only learning about how to improve my lessons and ultimately my teaching, but I am also learning how to improve my own learning. The field of education is changing almost as fast as the technology we are learning about, and it is important that I stay up to date for the sake of my students’ futures.

Resources:

Jukes, Ian. 21st century fluency's quotient insta-audit. Retrieved January 5th from http://www.committedsardine.com/handouts/tfcfia.pdf

Thornburg, D. (2004). Inquiry: The art of helping students ask good questions. (Executive Briefing No. 402). Retrieved from http://www.tcpdpodcast.org/briefings/inquiry.pdf