The final step in a GAME plan is evaluating the progress you made towards your goals. This step looks at the actions you have done to accomplish your goals, your success to date and looks for areas to improve and expand your work (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). Overall, I think I have established a solid GAME plan and have been working successfully towards its implementation.
Through the last four weeks I have examined many different sources and tried a few of the more solid activities in my classroom. I have found resources in the form of my peers and also from the Internet that have brought the material more fully into my classroom using multimedia, newspapers and even blog sites to offer different material via technology. As I identified in my GAME plan I wanted to use the technology that I have available in my classroom and have been using my Smartboard regularly to augment my lessons with photos and videos found online and also to bring current events directly into the classroom. I have also brought the students into the computer lab to research topics of interest and find information on a teacher established topic rather than teaching the students from their textbook in the classroom. This has brought the students directly into the material and provided a sense of realism and personal connection to the classroom providing a much needed link for global studies.
These new strategies have been implemented fairly successfully in my classroom and through the majority have shown to be useful in bringing students more fully into the content. Although it has only been a few weeks, students seem to be more eager to come to the classroom and to learn the content, all while gaining necessary skills for life outside of the school system. I have also collected data from quizzes and informal interviews showing where my greatest gains are when bringing technology into the classroom as well as showing some areas of need. I believe that continued collection of data and comparison between assignments and methods will yield data showing exactly where the strategies can be of use and which students find them the most useful (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
I have learned that using a GAME plan is much more precise than I initially thought and the activities take a great deal of consideration before actually reaching the classroom. Each activity and assessment must look at the students themselves, the material being taught and the time allotted for the topic. The teacher must ensure that the technology matches the content or it becomes just another distraction in the classroom rather than a tool for student success (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). Technology though readily available must make sense when it is used or it is not any different than the strategies already being used in the classroom. This has become more and more evident as I continue to add more technology to my classroom.
I have found that some strategies are more effective than others with certain students and are more conducive to my teaching style than others. Some of my students like researching and presenting information while others simply like answering online questions or posting to a blog. Personally, I like bringing video and audio clips into my lessons to explain a concept or strengthen an idea, keeping the concepts as simple as possible when teaching my students. I have also found that many of my lessons can simply be modified to include some form of technology in a useful and reasonable fashion although a few others need to be completely revised to use a form of technology. These are the lessons that I usually examine more closely to identify if technology is really a benefit for the students or a distraction from the content.
However, I think there is still some room for growth in my GAME plan and in my classroom itself. My progress so far has been a good start towards a classroom where technology is common place and has shown me that students often respond better when technology is used. In the future, I want to provide students with each a specific topic in history to research, the students will be able to research the topic and then teach the information to the rest of the class. I think this lesson will fully engage the students and allow for some creativity in the classroom. Also, I plan to continue to build and refine my “treasure hunt” idea for use in the classroom. Although my original plan called for use of a GPS system, I may use either cell phones or digital cameras instead to help the students learn a topic of either the teacher’s or the student’s choice.
Overall, I think my GAME plan is for the most part usable in its current form and provides a solid basis for my future work. At this point I need to continue to work technology in its many forms into my classroom starting with my current technology and expanding to include Blogs, Wikis and multimedia projects. This continued growth also means I will need more resources and more time to implement my GAME plan as changes are not immediate but rather take place over time. The more I grow in my knowledge the more eager I am to bring technology into my lessons to help my students grow as well. Changing my methodologies and strategies in the classroom has provided me with a new look into my content and also the best way to teach my students. Through careful consideration of my content and technology I can continue to grow as a learner and as a professional while my students reap the benefits of my knowledge.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful
classroom use: A standards-based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
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Randy,
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if you have established some great ideas and a well thought out plan for integrating technology into your classroom. Utilizing the Smartboard on a regular basis, as well as a variety of photos and videos, can really enhance the learning experience for the students, and it can also play an integral part with regards to student engagement.
Also, I love the idea you have of interviewing students in order to gain useful data. This will definitely assist you in developing your teaching strategies. I try to use data as much as I can to help guide my instruction, but my data usually consists of standardized tests numbers and pre-assessment tests. Your collection of informal data is impressive to me because I personally never think of interviewing my students to learn what they are thinking and what ideas they may have regarding their own learning. I need to try and build better relationships with my students the way you seem to be accomplishing within your classroom walls.
Finally, I always find it intriguing when teachers encourage students to teach their peers. I try to implement this as well because it requires such higher level thinking and allows me to see how my students like to learn. I say this because hopefully your students will teach others in the class the way they themselves would like to be taught instead of simply choosing the easy way out and providing a lecture with notes. You should encourage your students to use as much technology as possible while teaching their peers because it will give you more insight into using technology as a full-time tool in your classroom.
Keep up the great teaching you seem to be providing on a regular basis for all of your students. I would be glad to have you on my academic team any day.
Dustin
Randy,
ReplyDeleteYou have some excellent ideas, and I know that you are passionate about implementing these ideas into your classroom based on your writing.
I keep forgetting who told me this, but on one of my blog posts, a colleague told me that implementing this type of change in the classroom will take time. With any new idea, their must be trial and error, reflection, and improvement on everything we do in the classroom. We have a common goal, which is to educate our students the best we can. Implementing technology is one way to achieve this goal.
I like how you use video and audio clips in your classroom. It definitely caters to a wider variety of learners and also makes the lesson more interesting. I myself try and do this as much as possible, and it does have a way to keep students engaged in the content. I am jealous that you have a SmartBoard. This technology does have its advantages and perhaps using this on a daily basis with your students could provide meaningful content along with improving technology skills.
As always, good luck with your goals.
Mike Palo