Reflection: Final Blog Post

I found "Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas" to be a particularly helpful course for my professional development. I say this because it allowed me to create lessons that I can specifically use in my Science classes. I also found the GAME Plan to be an outstanding way to set goals and work toward them. Not only did we set a goal, we put it into action, monitored it, and evaluated what we had done. As with anything in education, it is still an ongoing process and I plan to continue working on my GAME Plan to improve my use of the SMART Board in my classroom. I have found many useful websites and received valuable feedback from classmates that are already proficient in their use of similar technology. Often times I find myself on an island as I learn about and implement new strategies into my classroom. This process has allowed me to collaborate with other teaching professionals that helped me to see things in a different way. It provided me with a weekly check in to see if I was meeting my goal.

The new learning that I have done as a result of my GAME Plan will be valuable to my students as I implement the strategies into my classes. Simply having access to great technology does not improve student learning. It must be used properly to be effective in the classroom. The key now is to continue using my newly gained knowledge to improve my classes instead of simply sitting on what I have learned. Fortunately I will be receiving even more training with the technology this summer and will have time to play with what I have learned. I hope to modify some of the lessons that I already teach by using the technology as well as create new lessons that would not be possible without it. These changes will help my students as I begin school again next fall. It will be especially helpful considering that the things I have learned are specific to the subject that I teach. Thank you to everyone who has helped me so far on this journey and feel free to keep the suggestions coming.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) lists the following standards for students: Creativity and Innovation; Communication and Collaboration; Research and Information Fluency; Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making; Digital Citizenship; and Technology Operations and Concepts. (taken from: http://www.iste.org/content/navigationmenu/nets/for_students/nets_s.htm) Just as I have worked on improving my use of the SMART Board in my classroom using the GAME Plan method, students can improve their skills in each of these 6 standards by doing the same. It is neccesary to set small goals over the course of time so that students do not feel overwhelmed. On the other hand, a lot of the standards go hand-in-hand. A well designed lesson should incorporate critical thinking and problem solving skills while also addressing some of the other standards as well. Most of the projects that I can think of would require some type of research and just about all ideas can use some type of collaboration aided by technology. I think that the key is to determine what content area standard is trying to be reached and then use the technology standards to enhance the experience for the students. By using the technology standards, the students will not simply be learning science, math, reading, etc. skills. They will be improving their 21st Century skills as well.

GAME Plan Survey

As I continue on my journey to improve my skills using the SMART Board that I have had recently installed in my classroom I decided to tap into the knowledge and opinions of the students before they were gone for the summer. After they finished their final exams I had them complete a short survey to help me to get an idea of where they are at when it comes to the board. What I learned from the survey is that the students in general really like using the board. They admit to being reluctant at first but that when they do not have a choice, they usually end up enjoying the experience they had as they used the board. They particularly liked using it in ways that had them competing against other individuals or teams because they felt like it helped them forget that they were in school (at this time of the year they will openly admit that they would rather not be in school). It would not necessarily require the interactive technology, but the kids really liked playing games in which they drew pictures to try and get others to guess what concept or vocabulary term that they are trying to depict. Not only do they have fun with this, but it also then provides a visual image that the students can use to correlate with the term in their minds for future recollection. As the school year comes to a close and my little cherubs embark upon their summer vacations, I look forward to some down time followed by some relaxed exploration of how I can use the board better with the next group of students that I will have next year.

Revising My GAME Plan

Today is the last day of class for our Seniors and Friday is the last day for the underclassmen. Next week we have Semester Exams on Monday and Tuesday. I am at the point in the year when I am no longer trying to create new lessons, but simply carry out the plans that I have made. The work that I did integrating the SMART Board into the fetal pig dissection worked well. Only a few students chose to use the technology as a substitute for the actual dissection. Those who did gave me good feedback about the experience. This summer I have a workshop where I will be learning more details on how to better use the board. It is my hope that I will be able to more effectively integrate new lessons after receiving some training.

My NETS-T standard that I have been working toward meeting is to: "Address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources." I have learned quite a bit about the board that has helped to meet this goal. It is a never ending process, though. Each time that I develop a new lesson, it will always be in the back of my mind: "How can I use the SMART Board to get the students involved with this lesson?" At this point, my goal is to do this as I develop new lessons and by doing so continue to meet my larger goal of meeting the NETS-T standard. It is also my goal to get students involved in some of the planning. I have found that when the students help to create the learning strategies that they take more ownership and learn a great deal.