Week 4: Monitoring your GAME plan process

This week I am monitoring my GAME plan progress.  To begin I will refresh everyone on my goals.  My first goal is to personalize learning activities to address the diverse needs of my heritage speakers using digital tools and resources.  My second goal is to model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness through integrating new technology tools in my lessons.  For my GAME plan I am finding some of the resources I need but I am still struggling with some of my ideas. 

For my goal about heritage speakers I am reviewing their last writing prompt and STAMP assessment scores to see their areas of need when it comes to a Voice Stream project.  I have decided to move forward with this idea due to the positive response from my Walden colleagues.  On the STAMP assessment I noticed that none of my heritage speakers scored in the “advanced” category and that, as we review the data together, they do not agree that they are less than “advanced” in the speaking category.  A Voice Stream project will support their writing and will also allow them to showcase their true speaking ability.  I feel that this project will support their linguistic needs but in looking at our curriculum guide their Voice Stream project will most likely need to deal with camping, nature, or myths/legends if I want to have them complete this project during the period of this Walden class.  To me I do not feel that these topics do not lend themselves to a Voice Stream.  Of course students could record a legend but they have to write one as an assessment already and legends do not necessarily require comments.  Do any of my Walden colleagues have ideas for related topics or how I could work a Voice Stream into our current topics?  I am having a serious creative block. 

            For my second goal about modeling innovative thinking thorough modeling new technology tools I have been able to explore Voki as suggested by a Walden colleage, Zambombazo as suggested by a work colleage and the blog created by Larry Ferlazzo as suggested by a Walden colleague.  As I tried Voki it was engaging to pick a character but somehow my microphone was not working to allow me to save and upload my Voki so I will have to try again.  When I get it working I hope to upload it to my blog as practice.  I can see how this application would allow students to feel more comfortable. I also like how you can share Vokis so easily.  I plan on working with Voki more and once I have the kinks out I will definitely be modeling this and deciding if I want to pay for the yearly subscription out of my budget! 

The Zambombazo site at http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/ that was suggested to me by someone at work has a lot of great resources but they are not necessarily involving technology.  That site offers authentic songs, worksheets, comics, humor, pictures, photos, current events and more.  It is a website full of current materials and could be a good resource to use with other technology based resources.  One section I do like is called “internet” where they scan the internet for interesting or important events of the week in the Spanish speaking world.  This particular section could be a way for me to incorporate recent and inventive topics in my class or could serve as a basis for inquiry projects. 

I also looked at the blog suggested by a Walden colleague at larryferlazzo@edublogs.org.  That site is focused on teaching ELL and ESL rather than Spanish but I did find that it has good education and educational technology related posts.  My next action step is to look for more educational technology blogs that I can subscribe to so I can model additional technologies.  I would like to look for 2-3 more other applications to model for my students.  I want to be sure that I am using multiple strategies because they will benefit my students regarding the language and topic.

I have not needed to modify my action plan but I am finding it difficult to incorporate the activities at this time due to where I am in the unit as I said previously.  I am very open to input or suggestions if anyone has any!  My new questions for suggestions are “Which educational blogs are the best for new technology tools?” And “how can I incorporate Voice Stream in my current topic focus?”

There are two key realizations I have made so far in this process.  First I have learned that this GAME plan process is extremely creative in nature.  In my creative thinking process I have identified my goal, used background knowledge and brainstormed so now I am at the point of looking at alternative options and perspectives to make my final reflective judgment (Laureate Education Inc., 2010).  This makes me feel that I have made progress and I have a clear action plan for continuing to monitor and implement my plan.

I have also learned that that I need to be clearer about my strategies and choose more specific applications.  For me this is a misstep in the “action” part of my plan to meet my goals.  According to Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009) it is essential to look for required resources and select strategies in the action phase of the plan and that is what I am setting out to do.  I feel I am on track to do this through my research and new thought process.  My GAME plan is shaping up nicely as I learn new technologies!

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.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). [Webcast]. Promoting creative thinking with technology. Baltimore: Laureate Media.

Week 3: GAME plan progress

For my GAME plan I created two goals to better technology integration in my classroom.  According to Dr. Ross in our learning resources technology is a great way to meet the needs of all learners regardless of their learning styles or special learning needs (Laureate Education Inc., 2010a).  This idea is crucial to the goals I made because one of them deals with differentiation and the other is focused on promoting unique, creative thinking in the classroom.  The first goal I created is to personalize learning activities to address the diverse needs of my heritage speakers using digital tools and resources.  The second goal I created is to model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness through integrating new technology tools in my lessons.

The resources that I will need to carry out my GAME plan are the internet to look for tools and tips to use with my students, the help of work colleagues and Walden colleagues for suggestions, the technology tools contained within my classroom and computers to allow students to learn with technology.  I will also need to use the data I have collected so far from my action research to inform my use of technology with my heritage speakers.

 Some of the additional information that I needed was address in the learning resources this week.  Because our resources were focused on differentiating instruction with technology, the information greatly helped me with my first goal.  The information that most struck me was the video that talked about differentiating for culturally diverse students and gifted and talented students.   My heritage speakers are both culturally diverse and ahead of the standards in my Spanish class.  What changed my thinking the most was where Dr. Ross discussed the idea that culturally diverse students should be seen as an asset and share what they know with others to move beyond the proficient level (Laureate Education Inc., 2010b).  Of course I realize that these students have an amazing skill set that can be beneficial to the class and to me but I had not thought about how I could use a tool for differentiation for then where the other students in my class could gain from what they learned in their differentiation.   It made me think that my heritage speakers could create something like a voice thread based on a writing sample they do and other students could comment or ask questions about their project.  In this way students could interact with the heritage speakers, support their learning and learn with them.  This sort of project could also support my action research project as I work to finish it up before that Major Assessment deadline.  Do my Walden colleagues have any additional suggestions or feedback on this idea?

The steps that I have been able to take so far are talking with my work colleagues to discuss technology tools that they use in their own classrooms that I could use to promote creativity and differentiation.  So far their suggestions have included a flash card app that students can download to their phone, blabberize.com, and the Zambombazo website where a man named Zachary Jones uses new and authentic ways to teach Spanish.  One of my Walden colleagues also suggested Voki in my blog post last week.  I think these ideas are a good start and my next step needs to be to investigate these resources and others a little further so I can incorporate new technology ideas starting next week.  I also hope that I can share my ideas with colleagues to get feedback on whether or not they have tried the technology tools I find and I also hope to incorporate any suggestions of my Walden colleagues.  I anticipate putting my game plan into full action!

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). [Webcast]. Meeting student needs with technology part one. Baltimore: Laureate Media.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). [Webcast]. Meeting student needs with technology part two. Baltimore: Laureate Media.

Creating my GAME Plan

In looking at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) standards it is amazing to see how far I have come and yet how far I still have to go.  Through a GAME plan I hope to improve on areas that I feel I need to work on before my Walden studies come to a close.

At this point in my journey of working toward greater technology integration in my classroom I feel relatively confident with my “professional development and leadership” in technology integration (ISTE, 2008).  Through the nature of our program I also feel that through my work as well as my studies outside of school I “model digital age work and learning” (ISTE, 2008).  In my most recent Walden course I also worked on “digital citizenship and responsibility” to credit sources with students (ISTE, 2008).

The two areas that I feel I am currently still developing are “facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity” and “developing digital-age learning experiences and assessments” (ISTE, 2008).  I chose these two standards because I feel that these two standards are constantly changing due to advances in technology and I am working to integrate technology seamlessly in my lessons.   It is critical that teachers model this type of work and facilitate this type of thinking because it is this type of thinking that will be needed for the future success of students.

Because I feel these areas would be good areas for my development I have chosen two goals.  One goal is focused on putting technology in the hands of students and one is something I can do to better my use of technology.  My first goal is to personalize learning activities to address the diverse needs of my heritage speakers using digital tools and resources.  My second goal is to model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness through integrating new technology tools in my lessons.

There are many actions that can be taken to achieve these goals.  Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009) suggest searching the internet and using online tutorials to learn more along with traditional classes.  The internet is an important tool for learning, collaboration and sparking new ideas.  I plan to search the internet for differentiation strategies and new technology tools.  Also because my current class is focused on technology integration and is full of resources to help use technology in instruction I may be able to draw on some of the skills and ideas I learn.  I will likely use some of the tools that my instructor suggested in the past class I took with her and also in my current class where she is my instructor as well.  I would appreciate any feedback on differentiation strategies using technology or new technology tools I could try to model creativity.

To monitor both of my goals I will reflect I will do so on-action and in-action as suggested by Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer.  As I conduct a lesson using differentiation I will reflect on how the strategies are working for the students as they are learning and modify the technology or the focus of student thinking as the lesson goes on.  Then I will reflect back on the lesson and think about what happened and if the students met the desired outcome for the lesson. 

As I conduct a lesson modeling creativity using technology I will reflect on the reactions and engagement of the class.  I will keep notes as the lesson goes on so I can remember certain reactions, comments or breakthroughs. After the lesson I will use these notes to think back on how my creativity affected the creativity and learning outcomes of the students.

I will evaluate my learning in the first goal by looking at data of individual student gains in their communication skills.  I will extend my learning by modifying these activities for my students that are on target and below target so they can also reap the benefits of differentiation with technology.  I can also extend my learning of this goal by next learning to use technology to differentiate learning for varying learning styles.

 I will evaluate my learning of the second goal by putting creativity in the hands of my students after I model creativity.  Based on their creative thinking I will be able to see if what I am doing with technology may also help them to create with technology and the language.  I can also use the notes I take during my lesson as a basis to evaluate the effects of my efforts.  I will extend my learning of my second goal by sharing what I learned with colleagues, suggest strategies that are successful and ask them for feedback on how I could modify, improve or expand creativity through modeling.

I am very open to feedback on my goals or ideas to support them!

 

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.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008).  National education standards for teachers.  Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Week 1 Blog Set-up

Hello!  This will be my blog site for Integrating Technology Across Content Areas for EDUC 6713 at Walden University.  I hope this message finds you well and I look forward to blogging with all of you!

Jenny