Carrying out my GAME plan
While reviewing my GAME plan, I am aware that I will need to obtain some resources that will help me be successful. I would like to begin forming a Personal Learning Network within my school community. My plan is to create a site in which teachers may post their technology ideas. I think it would be beneficial to organize this site by grade level, subject, objective, and technology tool so that others can access it easily. By doing this, it will allow me to collaborate with other teachers and learn various uses of technology tools that could be implemented in my classroom. In addition to this, I plan on joining technology blogs and researching various technology tools in depth in order to obtain more ideas from others throughout the world.
Additional information that I would like to know is what technology tools are permissible within my school/county. I plan on contacting my technology liaison and the technology supervisor to obtain these answers. This will help me identify what technology applications I may want to pursue and research throughout the school year. I don’t want to waste my time planning lessons around using a Wiki if students are not allowed to engage in this activity.
Currently, I have identified a multiple intelligence test that I can give to my students to determine how they learn best and what their learning style is. This survey should be quick and should provide me with information that will allow me to incorporate the Universal Design of Learning. My “instruction can then be designed and implemented for students with diverse learning styles, preferences, abilities, and motivation” (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009, p. 127). I also have identified a rubric maker that will help me and my students evaluate and reflect upon the effectiveness of the lesson as well as the technology tool.
http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html
http://www.rubrician.com/general.htm
Reference:
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.
Posts
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI like your idea to organize the site based on grade and level. I was thinking about doing the same thing (only not for a specific school as I am a substitute in many different schools), but since I am certified for grades 1-12, I was trying to figure out what area to target. I also think that it is a good idea to look into what technology is allowed before you go ahead with a plan that you would not be able to use. Being a new teacher, that is not something that I would have thought of.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteWhat intelligence test do you use with your students? Does it reflect their temperament type and learning style? Have you heard of True-Colors?
I made a website that you are welcome to use that allows teachers to determine what type of learning style is best for their students at:
www.personality-test.wikispaces.com Keep up the great work, I know your colleagues will be impressed and appreciative
In your search for new technology, you may want to check with your district to see if they have any professional development programs regarding technology. This may give you a leg up on your technology website. Also if you could send me a copy of that intelligence test, that would be great. I would love a chance to identify my students learning styles.
ReplyDeleteMeghan,
ReplyDeleteI love what I do now, teaching technology. I was in the classroom for six years. But after reading your post, I am reminded how I have 800 students once a week and how hard it is to get to know them. I don't think any of the classroom teachers in my school buy into Garnder's Multiple Intelligence Theory. I, however, use his theory often to set up my project choices. I am glad you are going to take the time and have your students take the MI test. At my former school, my co-worker used to give her kids a personality test to take. Then on open house night, she would have the parents fill out the personality test for their child. She would bring out both test at the first parent teacher conference and show the parents how well they knew their child. She said it made parents respect her more for taking the time to get to know their child. I miss having my 22-24 students each year. I never did the personality test, but I did get to know each and every one of them. Now with 800 students for 40 minutes a week, I just don't get that opportunity anymore.
I really like the use of a multiple intelligence test to help determine learning styles of students. What grade level are you planing to use the test for? I also feel the same about needing information about what is available to me as far as technology use goes at school and what I am able to do with students. You have some really good ideas.
ReplyDeleteMeghan,
ReplyDeleteI regards to your professional learning community you said you would like to get set up, I recently did something with my department that has helped us all share our ideas for websites and web-based programs. Perhaps you would be able to do something like this too. We use the delicious bookmarking site and we all have access to the same account. Any time that we find something great, we add it to the site and add a caption explaining what the site is and why it is good. I check it often and I have gotten some great ideas from my colleagues. Perhaps this will help you!!
I also like the rubric creating site you have given us. Thansk for that site!!
Marie Gauthier
I think your idea of creating a dite organized by subject and objective is great! I have been trying to convince our tech deptartment to do this. They claim we have sunscriptions to many educational sites but the teachers do not know what they are or what the user ID and passwords are. Even a spreadsheet would be helpful. My district has a program called Ontrac. This is suppose to be a site where they have the gradwe level goals and objectives and where teachers can add sites on-line or activities that correlate. Unfortunately they forgot to grant the teachers access! Maybe your school has something like this, or you can present it to the district and obtain it.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Laura
Laura,
ReplyDeleteActually, we do have a site like Ontrac. We have something called Sharepoint. The whole county has access to it and we can post lesson plans, whiteboard activities, resources, etc. The downfall is that no one really uses it to its full capacity. As many of us have mentioned it before, time seems to be a factor, even though realistically it wouldn't take long to post it.
Meghan
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI have not heard of True Colors. I would love to use your website. Thank you so much for sharing. I might have to provide various intelligence tests to meet the needs of my students.
Meghan
Erus,
ReplyDeleteI actually have looked into professional development sessions for technology. Sadly, once it is provided as a choice, it gets declined because not many people sign up for it. That shows you that our society has not transitioned to technology integration, or I am one of the few that is not knowledgeable in this subject:) We have recently received whiteboards in several of our classrooms, therefore, maybe teachers will be more inquisitive in how to use them effectively during instruction.
The link to the intelligence test is in my post. It looks like one that might work. However, I am going to keep searching to find the best one that will suit my students.
Meghan
Sonia and Marie,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your ideas.
Sonia,
I think having both parents and students completing the intelligence test is a great idea. I usually have parents complete a "Introduce your Child" form in the beginning of the year, which provides a lot of good information. However, this would be great to see how they view their child in regards to learning.
Marie,
I like your bookmarking site idea. It makes a lot of sense. Perhaps I could begin this with my 4th grade colleagues and see if it works.
Meghan
Meghan,
ReplyDeleteBy the end of this course, I am sure that everyone will be tired of reading/hearing about the different uses of Twitter and Diigo. The fact that these two learning/teaching tools are part of my GAME Plan has me trying to figure out ways to help teachers integrate both of these social-networking tools into their curriculum and instruction. What type of “venue” are you thinking about having teachers take part in when participating in the Personal Learning Network that you referenced. Were you thinking that teachers would take part in conversations and the sharing of resources through blogging, a wiki, or another collaborative environment?
You also mentioned wanting to join in blogging groups that concentrate on tools of technology. Twitter has some wonderful resources that are compiled by teachers around the world. There are discussion groups, educator lists, and education organizations constantly posting resources and ideas on a minute by minute basis. Another great thing about educators who are users of Twitter is, teachers in specific communities create lists of other educators in the area. For example, teachers in school districts surrounding Marshalltown have created lists of their peers that I now follow. Although I don’t know these teachers, it is through direct messaging and watching Tweets that I have become a member of their learning community. The same type of social-networking among educators occurs on Diigo as well.
Regarding your idea about researching the types of technology allowed to within your district, you may also want to check into the parental/guardian permission guidelines within your district. In the MCSD, parents/guardians must sign a release for using students pictures, student permission to access the Internet, permission for publishing on the Internet, and permission for publication in the community media. This is a nightmare for any teacher that wants to integrate technology into the curriculum through blogs, wikis, etc. One way that I protected my students’ posts was creating a invite only blog on Blogger that students had to be invited to and then I set it to “Private.” Do you think you will run into similar issues within your district?
Courtney Clausen