GAME Plan Progress

Last week I took some time to review the iste.nets standards for teachers.  After a reviewing each standard and the indicators that accompanied, it became obvious that I was comfortable with the job I was doing with a majority of the standards.  However, there were two that I decided that I needed to pay more attention to and work on.  Recognition is great, but now its time to figure out what I need to do personally to ensure that I improve on these areas.

The first standard that I felt needed attention was Standard 1 Indicator D.  Indicator D calls for teachers to model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.  I do believe that I collaborate well, but I don’t collaborate in virtual environments very well.  I checked and there is not a single Professional Learning Community in my district.  So what I did was send out a mass email looking for individuals who would be interested in becoming a part of the community and so far I have had about four express interest.  I also spoke with the IT coordinator and he is willing to work with us to create a virtual forum.  He admitted this was new for him but he is willing to try.  He did make one suggestion that I liked.  He reminded me that within our district there is an online chat option between the teachers.  He said in the early stages of the PLC’s development that could be an option.  I would like to have between seven and ten members in the PLC to start.  At this point I am going to need the district online chat option that works with our email and take it from there.  I would also like to in time create a Skype format where teachers can collaborate via the Internet with text, images, and sound.  I am looking forward to improving these methods, but this is an area that is so foreign to me that I just want to take it slow for now and get my feet wet.  I just feel that it is important for teachers who use technology to have some knowledge of their technology and a PLC can go a long way to creating a supportive culture for teachers who use technology (Laureate, 2009).

The second standard that I felt needed attention the second indicator that I would like to address falls under standard 3 entitled Model Digital Age Work and Learning which states that teachers model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate and use information resources to support research and learning.

            In order to improve in this area, I am going to have to use various methods of modeling along with the SMARTBoard and website evaluation forms.  I will also need the Computer Lab. This week it was pointed out that it is important to realize that students might come to the desired conclusions in a variety of ways (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).   I will have a variety of forms that students can fill out to correctly evaluate a website.  I will present these forms in both paper form and digital form and allow the students to use the method that they prefer most.  For the purpose of learning to evaluate websites, I will allow the students to choose the topic they want to look into, it does not have to be government based. Instead, students will be free to choose whatever topic works for them as long as they are doing the required work.  Initially, I will demonstrate how to fill out a couple of the website evaluation forms in front of the whole class.  Then, after that those who are comfortable can try on their own, those who are still uncomfortable will be allowed to walk through the process one more time with me.  Finally, students will be turned loose on the computers to evaluate websites in the format and on the topic that they choose.  Please note that my classroom aid and myself will be constantly moving around the room answering questions and evaluating progress.  The next class these skills will be applied to the government project they are doing.  I feel that by taking this approach I will have inserted some flexibility in terms of options for the kids that will allow for learning of students of every ethnicity and ability level (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).  I am very excited to put my plan to action as I feel the preparation is complete.

Resources:

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. (2011). Nets for teachers. Retrieved

from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers.aspx

Laureate Education Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Ertmer, P., Program 3: Enriching

content area experiences with technology part one. Integrating Technology Across

the Content Areas [Educational Video]. Los Angeles: Solution.