Over the past week of carrying out my GAME plan and developing ideas along with this week's learning resources, I feel that I have a good plan in place. On the other hand, I feel that in order to achieve my goals aligning with student creativity and innovation I must do a better job in assessing students in the classroom to monitor, evaluate, and provide feedback in order to reach high levels of learning. Now, in doing this, I understand that technology provides many avenues when assessing students through forced-choice, open-ended response, performance-based, or project-based methods. Dr. John Ross supports this idea but also throws out caution that when using technology assistance, alongside with assessment methods, an educator must be careful that the technology assistance doesn't perform the objective that is desired to be evaluated (Laureate 2009).
How does this relate to my GAME plan and it's progress? In order for me to succeed in my goal areas of increasing graduation rates among credit deficient special ed. students, promoting a creative/innovative thinking in the classroom, and more efficiently relating information to parents I must use a wide variety of assessments to better my knowledge of my student's capabilities, my teaching areas of weakness, and areas of needed improvement in certain subjects.
Along with choosing the correct style and method of assessment to fit the needed area to evaluate I must also improve on implementing technology along with the assessment. For example, I would like to explore more performance based assessments that I can use digital videoing to record, document, and provide feedback of positives and negatives. My thoughts with this are that in creating these video files I will be able to build a case for my second goal of promoting a life skills course into our district's curriculum. I envision role plays of real life situations documented through this style that are produced by my students so district administration can view the diverse levels of basic social skills.
Overall, I believe I am on track and performing many details of my GAME plan efficiently but I also believe that there are minor details that need to be fulfilled. Fulfilling these minor details, which are truly most important, will help build the structure of the plan stronger and faster. We all just need to keep plugging along to achieve our goals and promote higher education.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). EDUC 6713I-1 Integrating Technology Across Content Areas. [DVD]. Assessing Student Learning. Dr. John Ross.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Carrying Out My GAME Plan
Just as any coach, teacher, or mentor will tell you, "No GAME plan is successful without the proper structure, understanding, and dedication to your goals." In review of my personal GAME plan I see array of goals that are focused on my students, parents, classroom structure, and personal accomplishments. With this range of goals a focused attack will need to be put in place to see results. Dr. Cennamo refers to this development stage of the GAME plan as the "action" or "how to" part of achieving the goals (Laureate 2009).
In order to accomplish my personal GAME plan goals I will rely on many of my colleagues and the resources that surround me. I am lucky to work in a school district that's main goal is to prepare 21st Century Learners. What makes it even better is that they have the funds to do it. With that said, many professional development sessions are held on implementing technology to instill and promote creativity in the classroom. Also, these sessions are typically directed by my colleagues within the realm of the school district. This makes it possible for me to reconvene with them to discuss any further methods that will help reach my goal. Once these methods are gathered and formulated then it will up to me to implement them into my own classroom to help achieve my goal about increasing the rate of success and graduates that are developed from the online credit recovery program.
On the other hand, in order to reach my expectations I will also have to gather information and present it to our district officials about the need for a life skills class, in the realm of special education. In preparing for this push to implement life skills in our curriculum I will rely on other sources to preassess our students and share the results as a plea to the push. This will require online resources, student backgrounds, and a checklist of needs for the future.
So far my plan has developed faster than expected. The online credit recovery program has increase by a 25% success rate from last year's first semester up to this year's first semester. I have also attended a professional development seminar dealing with motivating the unmotivated student. These steps are small but are the beginning to accomplishing my goals.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). EDUC 6713I-1 Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. [DVD] Promoting Self-Directed Learning with Technology. Dr. Cennamo.
In order to accomplish my personal GAME plan goals I will rely on many of my colleagues and the resources that surround me. I am lucky to work in a school district that's main goal is to prepare 21st Century Learners. What makes it even better is that they have the funds to do it. With that said, many professional development sessions are held on implementing technology to instill and promote creativity in the classroom. Also, these sessions are typically directed by my colleagues within the realm of the school district. This makes it possible for me to reconvene with them to discuss any further methods that will help reach my goal. Once these methods are gathered and formulated then it will up to me to implement them into my own classroom to help achieve my goal about increasing the rate of success and graduates that are developed from the online credit recovery program.
On the other hand, in order to reach my expectations I will also have to gather information and present it to our district officials about the need for a life skills class, in the realm of special education. In preparing for this push to implement life skills in our curriculum I will rely on other sources to preassess our students and share the results as a plea to the push. This will require online resources, student backgrounds, and a checklist of needs for the future.
So far my plan has developed faster than expected. The online credit recovery program has increase by a 25% success rate from last year's first semester up to this year's first semester. I have also attended a professional development seminar dealing with motivating the unmotivated student. These steps are small but are the beginning to accomplishing my goals.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). EDUC 6713I-1 Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. [DVD] Promoting Self-Directed Learning with Technology. Dr. Cennamo.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Personal Game Plan
After reviewing the National Education Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T /2008) provided by the International Society for Technology in Education website I began to feel very confident that my GAME plan was directly in line with some of the standards. The GAME plan that I have created for myself coincides with my personal goals and my current teaching position. In investigating the standards I felt pretty confident that many of my short term and long term goals laid beneath the umbrella of the coverage of the standards.
The three standards that I found most of my goals to be related to were standards number 1, 3, and 4. Standard 1 describes an educators ability/intent to facilitate and inspire student learning. Standard 2 sets for objectives for educators to model digital-age work and learning. While Standard 3 focuses on the continual professional growth and development within educators, themselves. These three standards relate closely to my six goals listed below. With these goals intact I hope that I promote a digital-age classroom that prepares the 21st century learner for their future into the digital society that we all are becoming accompanied to.
GOALS:
1. I hope to promote creative and innovative thinking in my classroom by providing an atmosphere that motivates students with disabilities through the use of technology.
2. In the future I would like to teach a section of "life skills" to my students of special needs through the use of technology. (Example: Virtual Reality/Role Playing)
3. Being a special education teacher, I would like to continue to increase my parent to educator interaction by finding a way to communicate more efficiently through technology to report student progress.
4. I hope to increase the percent the rate of student success in the online credit recovery by the gaining of credits, in which, will cause an increase in our schools graduation percentage.
5. I hope to continue to explore, investigate, and communicate with my peers, colleagues, and mentors to find new strategies and methods through to use of technology to promote student success.
6. Complete the final requirements to gain a Master's in Integrating Technology into the Classroom.
Monitoring these goals should be easily done due to the fact they coincide with my personal goals and career goals already intact. Collecting data on graduation rates, successful gaining of credits for my students, observations of students and the work they accomplish, and tracking parent contact and involvement will all be items that will be included in the evaluation process.
How will I extend my learning? Well, one thing that I would like to continue to do, is sign up for as many professional development seminars, that my district offers. These seminars offered are usually free, innovative, and hands-on. Also, I hope to finish my Master's in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. Finally, I hope to continue to evaluate the data that is collected from my classroom, which is focused on technology, to adjust my teaching style to my student's learning style. Dr. Peggy Ertmer states it best that in order to enrich your content with technology you must be knowledgeable, confident, believe in yourself, and be supportive (Laureate 2009).
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). EDUC 6713I-1 Integrating Technology Across Content Areas. [DVD]. Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology Part II. Baltimore, MD. Dr. Peggy Ertmer
The three standards that I found most of my goals to be related to were standards number 1, 3, and 4. Standard 1 describes an educators ability/intent to facilitate and inspire student learning. Standard 2 sets for objectives for educators to model digital-age work and learning. While Standard 3 focuses on the continual professional growth and development within educators, themselves. These three standards relate closely to my six goals listed below. With these goals intact I hope that I promote a digital-age classroom that prepares the 21st century learner for their future into the digital society that we all are becoming accompanied to.
GOALS:
1. I hope to promote creative and innovative thinking in my classroom by providing an atmosphere that motivates students with disabilities through the use of technology.
2. In the future I would like to teach a section of "life skills" to my students of special needs through the use of technology. (Example: Virtual Reality/Role Playing)
3. Being a special education teacher, I would like to continue to increase my parent to educator interaction by finding a way to communicate more efficiently through technology to report student progress.
4. I hope to increase the percent the rate of student success in the online credit recovery by the gaining of credits, in which, will cause an increase in our schools graduation percentage.
5. I hope to continue to explore, investigate, and communicate with my peers, colleagues, and mentors to find new strategies and methods through to use of technology to promote student success.
6. Complete the final requirements to gain a Master's in Integrating Technology into the Classroom.
Monitoring these goals should be easily done due to the fact they coincide with my personal goals and career goals already intact. Collecting data on graduation rates, successful gaining of credits for my students, observations of students and the work they accomplish, and tracking parent contact and involvement will all be items that will be included in the evaluation process.
How will I extend my learning? Well, one thing that I would like to continue to do, is sign up for as many professional development seminars, that my district offers. These seminars offered are usually free, innovative, and hands-on. Also, I hope to finish my Master's in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. Finally, I hope to continue to evaluate the data that is collected from my classroom, which is focused on technology, to adjust my teaching style to my student's learning style. Dr. Peggy Ertmer states it best that in order to enrich your content with technology you must be knowledgeable, confident, believe in yourself, and be supportive (Laureate 2009).
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). EDUC 6713I-1 Integrating Technology Across Content Areas. [DVD]. Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology Part II. Baltimore, MD. Dr. Peggy Ertmer
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