Final Reflection

Well...I simply cannot believe we are at the end of this program already! It has been quite a journey for me both professionally and personally and am so glad that I decided to take this huge leap in the right direction! When I started this program I was a bit apprehensive about jumping into an area that, to be honest, I did not know too much about and was not particularly excited or passionate about. That has all changed throughout the course of this program. I am so passionate now about integrating technology into my classroom and helping my students develop those vital 21st century skills they need to become successful in the future.

In this last course we learned all about digital gaming and how it can be utilized in the classroom to complement and reinforce instruction. Students today have been playing video games since they could talk and have developed the necessary skills to master these games. It seems only natural to incorporate these skills into their learning and use gaming in the educational environment. Not only will students be able to utilize these games much easier than students maybe 10 years ago, they are also having fun and it relates to their daily to lives. I had no idea the variety of resources for learning there are in the form of digital games until taking this course.

As a means of continuing my education in technology, I am going to be joining a yahoo and Ning group that is made up of teachers that teach the same grade I do and are interested in implementing useful technologies into the classroom as well. We can all share ideas and create, create, create! I am looking forward to continuing my education in this way. I am teaching new grade this year and am really looking forward to getting new ideas from teachers who have been working with older kids for a longer time. I would never have been interested in doing this prior to this program but now have found a new passion and excitement for using new technologies!

Thanks to all of my fellow classmates and colleagues who have been incredible resources to me along the way. I have valued your thoughts and ideas and hope that I have been able to share a bit with you too! Best of luck to each of you and you begin this new journey!

Application 4 - CMS

Here is the link to my Week 4 Voicethread about Online Learning and Course Management Systems: voicethread.com/share/1255582

Week 8 Reflection For EDUC - 6714I

One size does not fit all! This is a statement that could not be more true when it comes to education and instruction in the classroom.This course has allowed me to further discover ways in which I can modify my instruction for diverse learners by using technology and an array of resources. Technology is a vital tool when UDL and Differentiated Instruction methods. By using technology in the classroom students are more engaged because these tools help get them motivated and relate learning material to something they are interested in...technology! Technology also provides a different way for students to view and process information. This is key to providing differentiated instruction.

I have taken the opportunity to review the resources posted by my classmates on our Ning social networking website and have found many of them to be very helpful in planning for next year. I have taught kindergarten for the last four years but will be moving up to teach third or fourth graders next year so having these resources available to me is so incredibly helpful especially as I plan for this new group of students. I really like the idea of using DOTS for differentiated instruction. In addition, I would like to try jigsawing as well. I am grateful to my classmates who posted such great resources and I really like having this social networking page to refer to for ideas! I will definitely need the help next year!

I am really fortunate to have a Smartboard, document camera and a few additional technology resources at my school and in the classroom I will be moving to. I had these tools in my kindergarten classroom as well so I was able to at least expose my young students to such technology. I am really looking forward to trying these new resources with students who can create things on their own and really take off with their learning. I am excited to introduce my new students to these resources and then just facilitate an environment where they can lead the way!

Reflection: Week 8

Upon reflection of this course I can confidently say that I feel better equipped as a teacher to implement technology into my daily classroom. Each step of this program has been like building blocks and now with the knowledge of how to create and build an effective GAME Plan I feel as though I am growing stronger as an educator with 21st century skills. I feel more confident in my ability to create effective and meaningful lessons for even my very young students.
I used to use technology on a monthly and occasionally weekly basis but now I am confident that I will be implementing such skills and tools into my everyday classroom. I now have the confidence to collaborate with my colleagues and help them begin their journey of bringing more technology into the classroom. I feel as though kindergarten students are very young, they are at a critical age for developing an early love for technology and all it has to offer. Obviously I have learned that my students cannot do most of these things on their own but it is critical that I model continuously and keep them engaged and part of these lessons. I am exposing them to skills that will soon use on their own.
Overall, I feel better equipped as a teacher to utilize technology much more in my classroom and I am going to use the strategy of creating a GAME Plan in my planning and instruction process much more!

Jenny

Using My GAME Plan with Students

Constructing a GAME Plan has been a very valuable experience for me as a teacher and I now feel better equipped to implement technology into my classroom and curriculum because of my experience creating a GAME Plan. I have spent some time reflecting on the NETS-S standards and definitely think they are all very valuable. It can be challenging for me as a kindergarten teacher to incorporate these standards into my everyday classroom but I just have to spend time being creative and coming up with ways to still utilize them. My students cannot develop their own GAME plan of course because they are not developmentally capable but I can always use this strategy to expose them and have them take part in the process as I am guiding them along. Most of the process would be to engage my students and having them come up with learning goals. This is a very important step because I think it is so important for students to know what they are learning and why. The action portion of the lesson would be during instruction and having the students collaborate in small groups. Finally, at the end we would simply have a large class discussion on what we learned and if we met the goals we had established in the beginning. Even though this is a much more basic GAME plan, it still can work for my young students. It is not as involved but it is still important to expose them to such tools of organization. I know that I feel much more organized and thorough as a teacher so this can be incredibly effective on students.

Revising My GAME Plan

So far I have learned many things in regards to my instructional practices. I have learned that most importantly these new skills and practices need to be done over and over again in order to be completely effective in the classroom. Not only do I need to continue to educate myself on how to implement these skills into the classroom but once they are integrated my students need the time to practice them over and over again. This is really the only way they will become truly effective and comfortable for students.

Another thing I have learned about using technology is that often times the more technology you integrate on a daily basis, the more often you can have issues with it that prevent its use. I have learned to always have another plan for if and when the technology I am using is not cooperating. It is so sad to be completely engaged in a lesson using technology and then comes a hiccup and have to stop completely because I am so reliant on the technology. If I always make sure I have a backup plan I can keep going with the lesson and not skip a beat. This is most effective in regards of keeping student interest.

I am not comfortable yet with adding new goals to my learning experience because I feel as though I am a long way from having it nailed down. I will continue to strengthen my skills thus far and continuously look for ways to collaborate.

Evaluating My GAME Plan Progress

Over the last few weeks I have been working on my GAME Plan that incorporates a Five Senses Unit for my kindergarten students that incorporates technology and collaborative online tools. I must say that not much has changed since my last blog post in regards to progress made. I don't necessarily believe this is a negative thing. I simply have been taking this last week to expose my students to some of the online tools we can use for this unit and am having great success keeping my students engaged.

My actions have been quite effective in meeting my goals because I am exposing my students to these new 21st century skills that they will soon be using on possibly a daily basis. Since my students are so young (kindergarten) I am only able to expose them to these such skills. I can also model and complete these activities as a whole group. My actions have been effective because I am just jumping right in and using every opportunity to try something new with this unit. I have taught this unit many times and I am finding that the students are really engaged when I am using the voicethread tool.

I am definitely able to let my students guide their own learning when it comes to cooperative learning groups and hands on activities in the classroom but it is a challenge for me to let my students try things on their in regards to using technology because they simply are not at an appropriate reading level and developmental level to have that capability.