As a refresher the two goals I set for myself are as follows; I need to promote student reflection by using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes. I also need to provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
To start off, I feel as if my actions helped a lot with meeting my goals. I took time to sit and really think of different and new ideas I could use in my classroom with my students to help myself meet these goals. With my students setting up their own personal blogs to use for reflection and the explanation part on open-ended questions for my math class, they are not grumbling anymore when they have to complete them. They love to get on the computer to type up their responses as well as placing pictures and gadgets on their blogs. Also, it takes a little bit of time to make, but I have made more assessments to align with my set of “clickers.” Students are more engaged and eager to participate.
So far with my GAME plan, I have learned there are many different ways to implement reflection, explanations, and assessments without using the old fashion paper and pencil. Students seem to be more intrinsically involved when I do something different than plain paper and pencil.
I am still learning and getting comfortable with all the different technology tools than can be used. In my next GAME plan, I would love to incorporate wikis with my classes. But again, I need to get to know more about them myself before I will feel comfortable using them with my students. No new questions have come up; I am focused right now on using our blogs for reflection and my clickers for assessments.
I am not in need of anything right now so I do not foresee any adjustments will be made to my GAME plan. I am feeling very confident and proud of what I have accomplished so far with my students.
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I like the idea of having your students starting their own personal blogs. Does your district allow you to access the blogs from school? I know that in our district there are a lot of limitations that are in place that limit how much we are able to access from our school. I think that it is a great idea that you are doing. I also think that the clickers are a great tool to use in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on everything going well with your GAME Plan. Like Desiree said, I also like the idea of your students starting personal blogs. In my district, much like everyone else, I have many limitations put on me as to what I can have access to.
ReplyDeleteDesiree and Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteMy students have full access to their blogs at school. In fact, we used blogger to set them up. I had to set very strict guidelines when students were working on them. I have everyone's passwords and username so that if I see something inappropriate - I can change it immediately. They also know that if I do catch anything like that, everyone looses the privilage of blogging. I have had more students come in and ask, "Are we going to blog today?" They absolutely love it. However, it is more time for me to grade them than I had anticipated. But I figure if they like doing, I don't mind spending the time to read them.
By taking the time to familiarize yourself with the technology before using it in your lessons, you will be able to get the most benefit out of the tool. If we are not comfortable with a particular tool, our students will definitely see through it right away. Any hesitation on our part gives them a green light for going off task!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Susannna. When we dont know what we are doing the students seem to take that as an invitation to off task behavior. Now we have another issue to deal with. In addition, when we are having technology issues ourselves it makes it harder to realize that the students are not doing what they are supposed to be doing.
ReplyDeleteEmily, your students are lucky to have you as a teacher. The way that you incorporate technology with math by using blogs and the "clickers" sounds very exciting for the students. Can I be in your class? No, really, it is motivational to see how you are using blogs as you know this is an area I am looking to pursue as well. You really seem to be accomplishing the goals you have set for yourself. Super work.
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you are doing so well with your plan. You said that your students are more eager to participate when you do an activity that is not paper and pencil based. This is great, but do you think that the appeal of technology will ever wear off? My students loved the tech applications that I did at the very beginning of the year, but I see their level of excitement coming down. Have you seen this too?
Tyler