EDUC-6713I-4 Reflection

Before I started this course I did not know what a GAME plan was. I mean I planned my lessons and assessments but a GAME plan is much more. A GAME plan stands for Goals, Actions, Monitor, Evaluate, and helps one determine how they learn best (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). Creating lesson plans is only part of the goals. Teaching the lesson is part of the actions taking place, monitoring student learning is part of the monitoring piece and evaluating student progress and teaching effectiveness is obviously part of the evaluation (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010). Part of a good GAME plan is incorporating self-directed learning, creative thinking, technology integration, and content learning. Dr. Katherine Cennamo identifies the process for creating critical thinkers as identifying goals, thinking about what you know, brainstorming ideas, identifying alternative ideas, seeking additional perspectives, and engaging in reflective judgment (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010).

My GAME plan consisted of my confidence and proficiency in technology. My actions consisted of establishing computer tutorials that my students can follow and reviewing the software’s will help monitor my progress. Lastly I planned to evaluate and extend my learning through discussing my goals and strategies with my colleagues. What I have learned about planning a GAME plan is that the planning is probably one of the most important factors. Many of us as educators already do most of the things that a GAME plan consists of but we never think of it in this way. We all plan our lessons, teach our lessons, monitor our student’s success as well as our own and evaluate it as well. One thing that we may not do as much is collaborate with our colleagues. This is one thing that I have tried to do more of and it definitely pays off. My new learning’s will greatly affect my teaching practices because my colleagues will help me with new ideas and teaching strategies. One way to revise my GAME plan is to input a way to accommodate for time. Reflecting on lessons and communicating with colleagues takes time in order for them to be successful so I must accommodate for the time needed. This directly affects how I might use my GAME plan with my students because if I need to change anything based on my meeting with my colleagues, I will need to implement this with my students so everything must be sequential.

I have learned about so many great ideas involving technology. There are many great applications available for project based learning. The national Council for Teachers of Mathematics Illumination’s website, along with Geometer’s Sketchpad has a lot of great uses for a math classroom. Due to what I have learned about networking and online collaboration, I am becoming more of an advocate for using blog’s and Wiki’s in the classroom. I like the idea of students being able to communicate outside of the classroom so by the next day, we could have a class discussion on a topic; it saves time and allows the students to learn while using technology. Not only could that but my students communicate to students from another class, another state, or even another country. This would not be possible without the use of technology. Digital storytelling is a great way for students to use digital media, research a topic and put together a video. Students are learning the content while having fun and learning multiple skills that will carry them through high school, college and hopefully their career as well. 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). “Promoting Self-Directed Learning With Technology”. Baltimore, MD: Author

Monitoring My GAME Plan

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.  

Reviewing my GAME Plan

One of my fellow students suggested focusing on one goal (activity) at a time. I think this is a good idea to ultimately reach my goal and not do too much. Sometimes, less is more. I am going to focus on using computer tutorials and videos inside and outside of the classroom.

To carry out my GAME plan, the resources I will need will consist of my colleagues, and computers via the computer room, the classroom, and/or at home. My colleagues are going to be a big asset to reach my goals. They will help give me an outsider’s opinion about what I am doing in the classroom and whether using the tutorials are ultimately benefiting my students. Through my own research and resources my colleagues have used, I will make a list of the best possible videos for tutorials. This is aid in reinforcement of lesson for students who are struggling or absent. I can also use tutorials to introduce a lesson or reinforce a topic before a new lesson.

Additional information may consist of what my students know and already know. I need to ask myself, are my students progressing and benefiting from the video tutorials or do I need to do just as much instruction and reinforcement with or without the tutorials. I also need to consider how I incorporate them into my lessons. I am tight on time now and I need to implement them without losing a lot of time in the classroom.

So far I have been able to talk to my colleague about some of the resources they use and if they know where I could find videos. I have searched through Jefferson Math Project (jamp.org) to see what type of videos each topic has. I think this website would be valuable because I already have a link to the website on Edmodo, where I have class websites set up. I can post links to the videos every day when I post the homework to reinforce what we did in class. This will be great for all students that are absent.

Any additional ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Developing My Personal GAME Plan

Setting goals for strengthening my confidence and proficiency is my first priority. I plan to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity and designing digital-age learning experiences and assessments. One of my goals is to learn more about computer tutorials and how I could use them to increase critical thinking skills. Another goal is to learn more about web-conferencing tools and explore ways to incorporate them in the classroom. Questions that I should be thinking about accomplish my goals for both personal and student plans are what do I want to know or be able to do? What do I already know? How will I know if I have been successful? What do my students need to know? What do my students already know that can help them? How will I know if my students have been successful? (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009)

The actions that I will take will be to establish computer tutorials that my students can follow. For algebra, there are videos explaining every topic on jmap.com. Khanacademy is a website that also has over 3,000 videos spanning from arithmetic to physics. An action for learning about web-conferencing is to find what is available for conducting meetings. I could use Edmodo for class discussion. Discussion can be one-to-one or whole group. I could incorporate web blogs and Skype to host meetings and discussion as well. Questions that will help me take action to meet my goals will be what information do I need to meet my goals? What learning strategies will I use? What resources are needed? What content information do my students need? What instructional strategies will I use? What resources do my students need? (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009)

Reviewing the software’s will help monitor my progress. Creating a check list, possibly of the questions that I have mentioned above will ensure that I am progressing and meeting my goals. From deciding what I already know and need as well as what my students already know and need will help guide me toward strengthening my confidence and proficiency in facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity. This will also help my design digital-age learning experiences and assessments. Other questions to consider are am I finding the information I need? What patterns are emerging from the information? Do I need to modify my action plan? Are my students understanding the information and mastering skills? What patterns are emerging from student’s performance? Should I modify my lesson and unit plan? (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009)

I will evaluate and extend my learning through discussing my goals and strategies with my colleagues. We will discuss ways to increase student learning and creativity. Once I have decided on the best approach and implemented them in the classroom, discussing my results with my colleagues is also a great way to evaluate and extend my learning toward my goals. My colleagues will help give me an outsider’s perspective on how to strengthen my activities or other options as to how to implement them to get the best results. Questions to discuss with my colleagues could be have I met my learning goals? Should I modify my learning goals or strategies? What will I do differently in the future? Did my lesson work? Should I modify the goals, assessment, or my instructional strategies? What should I differently in the future? (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009)

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.

EDUC-6711I-4 Reflection

My “Personal Theory of Learning” that I developed in week one has not changed all the much, if at all. If anything I feel more strongly about it. I expressed that as a teacher, we cannot be bias in our approach to learning. We must understand that all students have their own unique way to learn. In Michael Orey’s video, he states that in a “learning theory,” learning must be active in the process. Our instructional theory is what we do to facilitate learning. (Laureate Education, Inc 2010). I expressed how I believe students learn best through a constructivist approach by physically “doing.” Through learning about all the different technology tools and instructional strategies, I feel even stronger about my theory. This course has deepened my knowledge and understanding of learning theory and the use of educational technologies because I have never created a Voice Thread before. I was very skeptical before doing so, but after creating it I realized how easy it was and I enjoyed doing so. I learned how to create concept maps using bubbl.us. Dr. Michael Orey said it best when he said concept mapping is a graphical way to organize information (Laureate Education, 2010).

My immediate adjustments regarding my instructional practice with technology integration will be the use of spreadsheets and concept maps. My instructional practice will not be so lecture based and I am going to try to incorporate more technology. The use of a spreadsheet and a concept map will help students stay organized. Spreadsheets will be helpful when I am graphing different functions. To input a lot of data can be time consuming so a spreadsheet will help in saving time. Spreadsheets are valuable to students generating and testing hypotheses. This helps students become engaged in processing information, applying content knowledge, and enhancing their overall understanding of the content (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). Dr. Michael Orey said it best when he said concept mapping is a graphical way to organize information (Laureate Education, 2010). Using a concept map will enhance students learning by helping them process the information.

Two long term goals I would like to make to my instructional practice regarding technology would be to use more Virtual Field trips or Voice Threads in my teaching. I would also like to incorporate a Class web page or Blog. This would allow for more learning to take place beyond the classroom. I can post Voice Thread on the web page or blog for students to view for help with they homework or just weekly reminders. My strategy for achieving them will be to complete my graduate classes by the end of this school year and I will start planning this summer. By next school year I will have a web page or blog created.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). [Webcast]. Instructional Theory : Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). [Webcast]. Cognitive Learning vs. Learning Theory. Theory. Baltimore: Author.

Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Denver, Colorado: Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL).

Voice Thread Link

Solving Multiple Step Equations

http://voicethread.com/share/2289412/

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Social learning theories are based on the idea that students learn by communicating. Dr. Orey states that social constructivism is based on collaborative learning in which students interact with other people while constructing something (Laureate Education, 2010). The idea of social learning theory is highly correlated with this week’s reading in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, “Cooperative Learning.” Cooperative learning can be facilitated in many ways but this week’s reading focused on three resources: multimedia, web resources, and communication software. Technology and the internet has greatly enhanced our ability to communicate with others. Out of the three resourced discussed I like the idea of create multimedia and web resources. I like the example in the book where Ms. Ortiz has student work in groups to create videos about famous mathematicians. Activities such as this one are great when planned for and done correctly. When these types of activities go smoothly, it is often due to the lack of preparation (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). Students must know what is expected of them. This is where a rubric comes into play. In terms of web based resources, there are so many resources available. The resource I like the best is under course management. I am most familiar with Moodle and Blackboard. To better help my students inside and outside the classroom, I would like to incorporate Moodle. This way if a student is absent or loses something, they can go onto our Moodle page and see what they missed or print off a new copy of whatever they missed. I have a few colleagues at the moment that use Moodle and I really like the idea.

Refrences

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). [Webcast]. Social Learning Theories: Author.

Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Denver, Colorado: Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL).