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.

My GAME Plan Progress

This week I was able to make significant progress in planning for my Five Senses Unit because my Science kit arrived and I now have more resources available to begin teaching this unit to my kindergarten students. I have definitely been able to find the information and resources I need to teach this unit and integrate 21st century skills throughout. I am still on the search for a great virtual field trip that I can do with my students to use to introduce the unit or use as a means of completing the unit and tying it all together on their context.

At this point I do not feel as though I need to modify my action plan because I am finding what I need and I still feel as though my action plan will be effective and the students will be engaged. There is always room for improvement however and I am always looking for ways to improve a lesson or unit even if I have already started the instruction.

Throughout this process of creating a GAME Plan for my Five Senses unit I have learned that there is a world of resources out there but the challenge simply lies in locating them and making them practical and useful in the classroom especially with such young students like mine. That being said, I have definitely learned that even though I do teach young kindergarten students who are not yet independent readers and need a lot of modeling, they are really not too young to try most of the 21st century tools available. They may not be able to try them on their own but I can certainly expose them to these skills and utilize them in the whole group setting. I have learned that these young students are already used to using technology so they are incredibly engaged as soon as any technology is being used.

If anyone has any resources available for young students that would help me in improving a Five Senses unit, I would greatly appreciate and welcome your feedback and ideas!

Thanks!

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

As I continue to explore strategies for integrating technology into my content area of instruction I must look at what resources I may need in order to expose my young kindergartners to the 21st century skills they need in the years to come. In order to carry out my GAME plan I am going to be utilizing a variety of technology tools in the classroom during the instruction portion of my "Five Senses" unit plan. I chose these resources because they were most relevant to and age appropriate for my young students. I am going to utilize and expose my students to using voicehtreads, PowerPoint, and my interactive whiteboard software for my visual and auditory learners. As important as it is for my students to have access to such technology and resources I also feel as though it is equally important for me to also provide "hands on" activities where my students are physically involved and touching. This will help to accommodate my tactile learners as well.

I have been able to gather the information that I need for this unit but am simply waiting for my science kit to arrive at my school this next week. Although I will be using the online tools and computer based resources for much of my lesson, I will still need the "hands on" resources that are included in the kit.

I have created a voicehthread account and have set up the foundations and organized my groups for this activity. I will be working with small groups at a time in order to expose them to this tool. We will be creating a class voicehthread about our five senses. I have also been able to located some of the pictures and sound effects I will need from my SMARTboard software file in order to do the sight and hearing portion of the lesson.

Any ideas as to how I can strengthen my unit with the use of mote technology is always greatly appreciated!

Developing My Personal GAME Plan

As I develop my personal GAME plan I will be referencing two of the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers.

Standards:
The first standard is that I will "design or adapt learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity". The second standard is that I will "model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments".

My GAME plan will include: Goals, Action, Monitoring, and Evaluation

Goals:
I am creating a unit centered around the "Five Senses" for my kindergarten students that incorporates technology. Because my students are very young and not yet independent readers, my goal is to teach them about the five senses while modeling the use of a variety of digital tools in order to engage them and enhance their learning. Another goal of mine throughout this unit will be to facilitate student collaboration while using technology and 21st century tools. Again, I will be doing a lot of modeling and simply exposing my students to these tools and how to utilize them because of the young age and developmental levels of my kindergarten students.

Action:
This unit plan will take action on my part and part of that will include careful selection of the tools in which I choose. I still have some thought to put into this unit and how I want to use the technology resources available but I am considering using voicethreads, virtual field trips and powerpoints to aid in student learning.

Monitoring:
Again, because if the young age and developmental level of my students I will not be able to assess and monitor their progress in a way that you could older students. My monitoring will have to be very informal and it may be simply having discussions in small groups and possibly even creating games on the interactive whiteboard that I can use to assess student learning.

Evaluation:
I am not completely certain at this time how I will evaluate my students on this unit but I am thinking about having a final product that we complete as a class or even in small groups since my students will not be able to do this on their own. Each student will be completing a "Science Notebook" on paper as a product but as for the technology portion, we will most likely be developing something together as a class in order to simply expose my students to the resources they will utilize in the future.

Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom - Reflection

The most striking revelation I have had about teaching the new literacy skills to students is that most students, although highly proficient in many ways when it comes to the digital world, are in fact lacking the skills necessary to navigate the web and locate, evaluate, and synthesize information . It is my obligation as a teacher and educator of young people today to continue to educate myself and model appropriate and effective skills when it come to online inquiry. In my particular case, because I teach kindergarten, I simply need to model these skills and at least expose my students to many of the tools they will soon be using independently. This will be necessary to ensure my students have a solid foundation and they move along and learn further skills in navigating the resources available to then in the years to follow.

The professional goal that I would like to further pursue will be to basically continue to educate myself and practice more inquiry based exercises myself in order to further expose my students. I hope to find more ways in which I can expose even my youngest students to these tools. This is the best thing for these young students because they are not yet at a stage where they have the capacity to understand these inquiry based projects and work on them independently. I did really enjoy creating a screen cast project earlier in this course and hope to use that more often in my work. This is a very helpful tool for the older students but I can also use it to help my young students learn to navigate particular websites as well!
This course has been quite beneficial and I am excited to further my understanding of online inquiry in the classroom.