Students Getting in the GAME
Throughout the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to manipulate a personal GAME plan that addresses various national education standards for teachers. With this GAME plan, I have made goals, created an action plan to meet those goals, monitored my progress towards achieving my goals and evaluating my actions and made changes to my GAME plan as necessary. I can use this same process with my students in order for them to be proficient in the technology standards and indicators outlined in the NETS-S.
I would implement this GAME plan with my students after a month or two of school. The reason for this is so that students can become familiar with their classroom environment, peers, and teachers. This will give them some time to see what teaching style I possess and what learning style they prefer. It will give me an opportunity to introduce different technology tools that might help them achieve these standards. It also gives them time to observe possible resources within their school community as well as outside of school. Then I feel that the students can begin to set goals for themselves that they can achieve related to NETS-S.
In order to begin this process, I would model each step with my students. Perhaps I could use the original GAME plan that I used for this class. I would post my GAME plan in the classroom for students to see and refer to throughout the process. Furthermore, I will probably model a student standard as well, so that I am speaking more on their level and selecting resources and strategies that might help me achieve my goal. Then, since this is the first time that the students are experiencing this activity, I would present the student standards to the students in a kid friendly language so that they understand the goals that they are actually attempting to set. After this, I would have students identify their top goal and gather in groups according to their goal preference. Through this manner, students will brainstorm ideas for the action, monitoring, and evaluating aspects of this plan. After brainstorming, students will individually select the ideas that work best for them in order to meet their particular goal. Students will monitor their progress weekly during our morning meetings and adjust their plans as needed. After about a month, they will evaluate their plans and decide whether or not they have achieved their goal and are ready to set a new one, or if more time is needed. This process will continue throughout the year as a gradual increase of independence occurs.
References:
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.
National Education Standards for Students retrieved at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007_Standards.pdf
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Have you ever practiced student led conferences in your class? Students set goals and create plans to help them reach their goals. Then once a nine weeks students hold their own conference with their parents and discuss their goals that they met how they met them or how the will continue to work to meet the goals. If you don;t already do that it sounds as if you are half way there. The kids love to be in charge and I have had more parents show up.
ReplyDeleteAmber,
ReplyDeleteThat sounds great! When do students conference with their parents? Is it during school or after school? How long does this usually take? Do they conference every 9 weeks? Sorry for so many questions, but I am intrigued by this idea!!! Any other information would be helpful.
Meghan
Meghan,
ReplyDeleteI dont think I would wait 2 months before teaching the skills necessary to accomplish "The Game plan". I understand breaking it down and working slowly but if students do not have a clear idea of what is expected than you might not be as successful when you do decide to implement the game plan.
Couldnt you start out with a few activities that encourage brainstorming and goal setting. Could you also give them a checklist for any assignment so students could begin self monitoring. In other words, couldnt you use the ideology of the game plan method,in small steps to teach the skills necessary for success in your classroom from the beginning of the year so expectations remain constant.
I like your idea of waiting a bit so the students can get comfortable with you and the environment that they are learning in. I think your plan sounds solid, but I would suggest (if you hadn't already had this in mind) that you explain to the kids that there isn't a right or wrong answer. I have seen some young kids put down what they think the teacher wants to hear instead of what they feel is right for them. I just suggest it, so the kids know that this is for them not the teacher.
ReplyDeleteMark,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your suggestion. I suppose I could introduce the ideology of the GAME plan right away, however, the adjustment to a new grade, peers, teachers, and surroundings for younger children is much more demanding and overwhelming than for older students. This is why I allowed some time for the students to get acclimated. I think introduced the GAME plan process early is ideal, I just might do it in a less formal fashion to begin. Thank you for your thoughts.
Meghan
Erus,
ReplyDeleteYou made a great point. I see this happening as well. They try so hard to please, but you really want their ideas to be original and something that they can begin doing on their own. They need to determine ways that work for them in order to accomplish their goals. I will definitely be sure to mention this to my students. Thanks for your suggestion.
Meghan
Meghan,
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that you are going to model the GAME plan process. It is so essential for students at any age to see a model of what they will be doing and what is expected of them.
Amber,
I also absolutely love your idea of having the students be in charge of their goals and conferencing with their parents. This is a great idea that gets the students to take charge and allows the parents to be involved which closes the home-school circuit. Thanks for sharing!
Amber Barrett