Information and Resources I have Found
I have been finding some very useful information and resources. Thanks to my colleagues and fellow Walden students I have found some very useful web sites for videos. The web sites I have been using, regentsprep.org and jmap.org have continued to provide valuable videos for students. I have also checked out SchooTube and Discover Education that one of the fellow students, Caitlin has recommended. Unfortunately, Discovery Education required a subscription. Khanacademy.org has a lot of great videos on it as well. I have all of these posted to our class web page. For given topics, I do pick out videos that I believe are the best and then recommend those to my students.
Modifying My Plan
I have modified my action plan since I first started thinking about it. I have condensed my goals. I am trying to go with the mentality that less is more. I do not want to try and implement too much with my students and overwhelm them. I want to try and stick with just using the tutorial videos for now. Once I have met my goals for this plan, I will work on implementing more.
What I have Learned
What I have learned so far is that forming a GAME plan, making goals and evaluating those goals takes a lot of time. Implementing the actions and then reflecting on actions to see if your goals have been met is most beneficial. Reflection does require time and it is not something that just takes place. I have also learned that communication is an important tool as well. Communicating with colleagues helps a great deal. Colleagues are able to give different perspectives on why something went the way it do or why a particular lesson did not work.
Questions That Have Arisen
Questions that have arisen are am I given students enough time to view the videos and take adequate notes? Instead of giving the students a half a period (20 minutes), maybe the students need a full class period (40 minutes) to take adequate notes and ask questions that arise.
Jason, like you, I have learned many useful things from my classmates. “Hurray for cohorts!” In addition, like you, I believe less is more; therefore, I have reduced my two goals down to one. I think it is important for a learner to be cognizant and reflective enough of his or her own processes to detect when changes need to occur. I also appreciate the awareness you demonstrate of your students’ needs, about attempting too much and potentially overwhelming them. Smart move.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to your question about giving your students only 20 minutes to view the movie and take notes, I would like to suggest that you give them the whole period and that you initiate a or small group or paired discussion regarding what they learned. This would allow them time to process the material and learn differing perspective and opinions. This process would assist in honor various learning modalities.
I am thankful for my communications with my colleagues as I find their feedback to be honest and introspective, which assists in affording me the confidence to know I am moving in the right direction. Keep up the good work. I would want to be a student in your class. Jennifer
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback. I will definatley consider giving the class the whole period to initiate a small group discussion regarding what they have learned. I have not had time this week to do this, but will keep this in mind.
Jason,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you the part that I find most time consuming is the reflection and assessment part of the process. I can develop plans and carry out different lesson with my students with little effort, but taking the time to stop review what went on and reflecting on what to improve seems to take a little more effort. I found that recording my thought on my phone helps a little with this task while my students are transitioning from class I have a 4 minute window in which I will just state if the lesson worked or if it did not and if I still have a few seconds I will state what did not work for example I might say exit question was to hard or the students did not understand the importance of the Bill of Rights. I then know that I must improve this lesson and also revisit the lesson with a little more care. You should use all the tools at your disposal as soon as possible sometimes I find it hard to remember everything that did not go as planned if I wait till the end of the day to record it. I like recording my reflections so that I can play them back while they were still fresh in my head. A free app for my phone that I found useful was Catch it is a not taking app that can record voice, video, and text.
Jason,
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how involving others in your plans can cause you to gain so much insight. I think so many times as teachers we do everything in isolation and limit ourselves. This assignment has really helped me see the other persons in my building as an intricate part of my plans. Many times I will choose not to attempt certain task because of my own limitations orlack of knowledge. This is especially true when it comes to integrating technology. I now understand that this is a collective effort, whether I am soliciting the help of my colleagues or my classmates.
In response to your question about the time limit for the videos, I typically create some type of handout to go along with any type of media that I present in class. Not only does it help to keep the students engaged, but it helps to fill the time.
I wish you well,
Lakeva Barnes
8th language arts
Jason,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you and many other students that all of us are one of the best resources you can have. I have found much insight from my fellow students no matter how indirect it was either from reading a conversation on the discussion posts or through someones blog. Your game plan seems to be going along very well. I do agree with you that it does take a lot of time to develop and assess everything. Plus, with all the research that needs to be done, it is hard to find time to do anything else. It will all pay off in the end. I have been teaching for 3.5 years now and have found my colleagues to be the best resouce i have needed.
Figuring out what to give your students and whether it is too much or not can be a tough decision. Since i have more than one section usually of students, i try it with one class first. if it turns out to be too much, then i can condense it for the next class. That is whats nice about being the teacher, we get to make our own decisions. Since i am the only tech teacher at my school, i get to do whatever i want according to the NYS technology standards. It is good to start small, reach your goals and have them be successful then move on to bigger and better. The students can only handle so much at one time depending on the grade level. I like to introduce a new activty by talking about it for so many minutes then getting them up and moving around then bringing them back in for a follow up. Seems to get them to remember what i am talking about.
Ben
Carlos,
ReplyDeleteThe idea of using your phone to record your reflections between periods is great. This is quicker than writing them down and for me it is easier to verbalize them than to record them on paper. This allows you to record your reflections while they are still fresh in your mind.
Lakeva,
I am glad that this assignment was helpful to you as well. I would agree that students should have a handout to go alone with any type of media we use. It helps fill time but also keeps the students on task.
Ben,
I too have multiple classes so I will consider trying it with one class first to see how it goes and then I may have to change my plan accordingly. I do not have much freedom according to NYS math standards. I have a regent’s exam to prep them for in June so I have a certain curriculum I must follow. This limits what I can do.