Week 6 Blog

Revising Your GAME Plan

Thus far, I have learned that whiteboards are extremely beneficial for all students, especially those that need to be actively involved in learning, such as manipulating information. A classmate has kindly offered to share his “Road Rally” game (Thanks Erus!) with me so that I can incorporate this during my unit review games. In addition, I have learned that there are actually templates premade from other teachers that all I would need to do is download it and adapt it to my needs. This will save me much time during the school year. A goal that I am still working toward is determining what technology tools are permissible in my county. I have emailed 4 different people about this topic and no one has gotten back to me. I suppose it is summer vacation for everyone! To revise my plan, I will be calling the technology department in order to speak to someone directly about this inquiry. I hope to have more luck taking this avenue, which in turn will allow me to begin developing technology infused lessons or activities for the upcoming year.

At this time, I am not ready to necessarily set new learning goals for myself since I have so much to learn about whiteboards already. I haven’t even had the opportunity to manipulate one and see what it does. In order to use this technology tool to the fullest potential, I would rather spend the majority of my time understanding it and creating lessons that will enhance my students learning. I feel that if I set too many goals at once, then I will not be able to genuinely, effectively, and efficiently meet that goal. This is not a goal that can be met in several weeks, especially since I haven’t seen it or used it yet. Furthermore, once I receive feedback from the technology department about what technology applications are permissible in my county, I will have plenty of goals to achieve! My resource Wiki page is up and running, but right now, I have nothing on it due to lack of experience and information on allowable tools.

To extend what I have learned so far, I will begin creating flipcharts using the websites that I have found and that have been suggested by my classmates and colleagues. Some of the interactive whiteboards have school year opener activities which would be highly motivating especially for those students that are shy and scared the first week. Our first science unit is on Drugs and Alcohol. Many times, we are reading our information from the county provided Health book, which tends to be boring. Therefore, I am going to begin planning lessons that discuss the harmful effects of alcohol, smoking tobacco, chewing tobacco, and marijuana to make it more interactive and engaging for students.

I will not say that next time, I will try something else. What I will say is what I will continue to try in order to improve my learning. Next week, I am meeting with a colleague of mine that has had a whiteboard since last year and has been creating lessons during the summer. This will allow me some time before school begins to become familiar with how lessons are made. Once the school year begins, things get more hectic and I always feel like I have less time on my hands. Another avenue that I would like to pursue is to sign up for a whiteboard class through a community college that is nearby. This will allow me to learn hands on from someone who is very familiar with the tool.

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.