Reflection

As I reflect on my GAME plan, my first goal was ISTE NETS •T 3c "Model Digital Age Work and Learning - Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital media formats" (International Society for Technology in Education., 2008). I debated about what method to use to establish communication with the parents and received great feedback to classmates as well as colleagues, finally settling on blogging. I felt a very definite urgency from some parents to have this information available and considered this group to be representative of the parent population. After my initial posting about fifth grade activities and projects in technology, I could tell there were many viewing of the information and material on the blog. As I followed up with another blogging, the viewership quickly dropped off, especially for that fifth grade. I created blogs for the other grade levels as well and received one comment and one email, both from first grade parents expressing appreciation for the blog and the information it contained, nothing from other grades. I’m not too surprised by this, as I believe the parents are busy. Hopefully they will check in from time to time, and as students get more involved in the viewing of the blogs, so will parents. This goal will be ongoing, having its ups and downs.

My second goal of "Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility - Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools" (International Society for Technology in Education., 2008), has not taken off so quickly. As a few colleagues and I are attempting to establish a sister school in Africa, the collaboration and connection between the two school has been put on hold. I believe it may begin to take off after the beginning of the new year, but for now I continue to build the YouTube channel by which the students can communicate thorough videos. In addition to the video exchange I will be establishing a blog over break by which students can communicate through. While I wait to see the collaboration between a sister school and our school take place, I will also explore other options to establish digital age communications as there are a number of opportunities out there.

As this is my first year at this new school, I feel these first few months have allowed me to get my feet wet, get to know the students, the culture and the pace at which this school works. I hope to feel my feet get traction for the second part of the year, discovering authentic ways to integrate technology and problem based learning with the classroom curriculum, while keeping up with the frenetic pace. As I try to accomplish this, I have asked to meet with various grade levels to discuss classroom curriculum for the next part of the year, hoping to integrate technology so that we are doing different things rather than doing the same thing differently. One common thread, as I map out GAME plans, curriculum, collaboration and planning is, time; it take time to read, research and implement authentic lessons. This is one area that will always be an opportunity in which to improve, creating focused time in which to plan.

References:

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

GAME Plan - Blogs and Connections

Executing my first goal of communicating relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital media formats has proven to be positive challenge. After establishing a fifth grade level blog, I have found that I have had eighteen views of my positing. Included in my blog wash an explanation of what skills students have been working on as well as some examples of student work, with names removed. I will be launching my first and second grade blogs tomorrow, both containing student work as well. I hope to have my third and fourth grade blogs done by the end of the week, just in time for the Thanksgiving break. Thank you to my classmates who offered great knowledge and thoughts as to using a blog, Twitter and/or text to establish the contact with parents. Their responses provided me with information I had not yet considered, such as the lack of privacy using Twitter and the ability to set up group texts without the use of my own phone number.

My second goal is proving to be a bit of a challenge though I hope for a positive outcome. As I write this our school is considering establishing a sister school in Africa and I am again looking for input from classmates. This school is beyond poor with buildings made from corrugated metal attached to two by fours, no windows, just open areas where the metal does not reach the roof and fresh water is provided through a sister which gathers rain water from the roof. Students range in age form first to fourth and boys and girls keep their hair buzzed short to keep free of lice. This is the little I know about the school, but I will know more this week as I ma meeting with colleagues, one of which who has been there and assisted in setting up the water gathering system.

One of the main teachers there has internet at his home, but there is no connectivity at the school. We are considering sending an iPad to them so students could exchange vides of each other; w are twelve hours apart, so any live interaction is out of the picture. I am looking for enriching experiences to share either through emails, videos or blog posting that the head teacher would have to upload once he is home. One idea I remember hearing from a classmate was reading the same book with epals in another country and through blogging students shared their views of the story and characters in the book. I am considering something like this, but am certainly looking for more ideas to deeply engage students on both sides. "People need a deeper understanding of the thinking, motivations and actions of different cultures, countries and religions. Global awareness promotes understanding, tolerance, and acceptance of ethnic, cultural, religious and personal inferences as they plat our in communities and workplaces, It also helps people through the complexities of different points of view that spring from different parts of the world" (p21.org, p. 13)
Any ideas are certainly more than welcome.

References

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

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved
from http://www.p21.org/

GAME Plan - Step One

As I consider my first goal of communicating relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital media formats, I ponder the best method of communication  (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008). As I ask my colleagues about their form of communication, I am told email is the way to go, though I hesitate to add my name to the list of numerous emails going out. Another option would be to tweet on Twitter, but with the constraints of one hundred forty characters, I would struggle with the limitations. In addition to a communication tool, I am looking for ways to display student work. This has led me to consider using a blog through edublogs.org. I am slowly learning the template options as well as what I am able to customize, but I believe this may be my answer.

Regarding my second goal of developing and modeling cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools, I have just begun to explore options. Researching organizations and sites online, I have found a few that look to be promising, such as ePals, iLearn, Global SchoolNet and Edmodo. Developing a cross-cultural project will give students on both sides a glimpse in to another’s life an world. “Cooperative groups require students to develop skills that support collaboration such as listening, speaking, expressing one’s own thoughts and ideas as well as respecting and understanding others’ perspectives, and reaching consensus” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2010, p. 181) I am looking forward to exploring this goal in depth before I propose it to a colleague.

Resources:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

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

GAME Plan

As I read over the ISTE NETS • T, I find a few areas in which I would like to feel more confident in, but the first would be 3c, under "Model Digital Age Work and Learning - Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital media formats" The second is 4d in the category of "Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility - Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools" (International Society for Technology in Education., 2008).

Starting at this new school, I feel I have so much to do and learn, but what I really need to do is to focus on one or two areas and get them under my belt, before I tackle more. Selecting 3c expresses my Goal for better communication. After conferencing with parents this week, I find they are not hearing about what goes on in the computer lab, so I need to finds ways to convey technology activities. I also want to find better ways to keep my students informed of classwork and expectations. My second Goal is to engage my students with others from other parts of the US and the world. I remember one of our classmates from our last class, had her students share their thoughts on a book with others from another country that were reading the same book. I would love to start with a project like that!

To take Action, I will create a blog to communicate the events of the week with parents. Within this blog I hope to be able to create a gallery of student work. I hope keeping the blog suffices for communication and that updating once a cycle does not an enormous amount of time. The second Action I will take is to reach out to others to find collaboration opportunities; whether it is through e-Pals or another connection, I plan on getting one of my classes online this year.

To Monitor my progress with the blog I will monitor the page views and subscribers. I know I will hear from parents if there have any difficulty with the blog, but I hope through continual updates, parents will feel well informed. If necessary, I may need to re-send the link to the log periodically. For my second goal, when I get my students up and running with another group, I will Monitor their engagement through postings and or time spent on the site, blog, or what ever the communication device may be. I will also check in with students to inquire as to the engagement of the students with which they are expected to communicate and collaborate.

To Evaluate both, I will continually monitor the activity, enthusiasm, and engagement of all participants. I may not be able to gauge the enthusiasm of the parents, but though monitoring, I hope to get a feel for the blog's success. As I Evaluate the success of both, I will ponder whether I need to modify my goals or learning strategies and if I need to alter my plans for the future (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009)?



References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. D., & Ertmer, P. A. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: a standards-based approach. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.

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