More About My Game Plan

In an earlier post, I mentioned my game plan and what exactly I wanted to accomplish. I want to create a power point presentation to illustrate clearly how to behave properly in a restaurant. To do this I would need to gather information and images or video clips to use in the power point. Then I would need to put it into the power point, add a lot of "bells and whistles" to make it more interesting and show it to my students hoping to get positive results.

The other part of my plan is to communicate more with my students and parents using my teacher website. I already have an account with my school, I just need to customize it and update it frequently. I have also thought about creating a survey to send to my parents asking them what they would want to see on my web page. When I know what they want, I will have a better idea of what to include on it. After it is created, I will send out a paper that includes instructions on how to access the site. I know I am probably forgetting something... please help if any of you can think of it!

Implementing NETS-T Standards: My Game Plan

As a teacher it is important to implement new technologies into teaching. Fortunately, there are standards to follow in order to do this as effectively as possible. Personally, I would like to implement some more technology into my classroom. To do that, I would like to follow a couple of the standards from the International Society for Technology in Education. The two standards I would like follow are: 2A- which involves using digital tools to promote creativity and learning in relevant learning experiences; and 3B- which involves collaborating with students, parents, and community members by using digital tools for student success.

To implement standard 2A, my plan is to create a slide show about proper ways to act in a restaurant. When teaching students with special needs (which is what I do) it is important to incorporate social learning experiences as much as possible. To get their interest, I will incorporate actual photos and/or video clips of myself or of another staff member to actively demonstrate how to act in a restaurant. In order to monitor my progress, I will set a timeline and try to stick to it. To evaluate my progress, I will keep track of what I do and see if I adhere to the timeline. Then I will see how my students respond to it and evaluate my success on that.

To implement standard 3B- I will try to keep up with my teacher website, which I am not very good at. I would like to update or add things to my website at least twice a month and include interesting things that my parents might get involved in. To monitor this, I will simply set two days each month in which I will make changes to my website and I will indicate if I accomplished it or not.

Reflection of New Literacies and the Internet

As I reflect upon the most recent course I took as part of my master's program curriculum, there are several things that come to mind. I learned a lot of things about literacy and its relationship to the internet. I think the most shocking revelation I had was that so much about using the internet is related to new literacies. I never realized that simple tasks such as suing a search engine and evaluating the effectiveness of websites would help students develop their literacy skills, but after taking this class... I am totally convinced.

I think that after this course, I will rely more on using technology to teach some literacy skills rather than attempting to teach them with more "old school methods. I would like to take my students to the computer lab more and try to put these methods to practice.

One thing I would definitely like to do in the near future is try to use at least one part of the unit plan I created for this class. To accomplish this, I will need to look at the pacing guides and the needs of my students to see which section of the plan to use and when to do it. Then I will have to make sure all of the resources are organized and ready. Last I will schedule a few time slots in the computer lab and teach the lesson. My hope is that my students' literacy skills will improve if I can accomplish this.

Reflection on my theory and more...

As I looked back at the theory I produced several weeks ago involving my views on learning and teaching, I realized that I haven't really changed it. I still follow more of a behaviorist view. I still base my teaching on what is best for my students to learn. I try to teach them using methods most rewarding to them. If that means that I involve more "hands on" activities, then so be it. However, after taking this class and learning about different ways to use technology in my classroom, I have perhaps learned a few things that will enhance my teaching and support my theory. I think that if I were to make any immediate changes to my teaching it would be to simply use more of it. I think one thing that would be helpful is to do a virtual field trip, even if that means doing it together using a projector. Since my school does not currently allow field trips due to the cost, this would be the best way for them to experience things. Another tool I might use is to make slide shows on Power point and maybe allow my students to take part in making one themselves. My students are very visual learners so I think that this would be helpful for them.

If I had to make two long-term goals for incorporating technology, it would be first to learn and master the technology pieces in my building such as a smart board and a Mimeo board. I think that these tools would be useful for me as a teacher and for my students to learn, but until I learn how to use them myself, they are useless to me. To accomplish this, I will seek help from one of my building's technologically savvy teachers and set aside a small amount of time once a month to learn from them. I will also make myself "play" with these tools at least once every two weeks to become more familiar with them. Another goal is to teach at least one lesson a month that involves my students (not me) using technology whether it be making a power point, blogging, concept mapping, etc. To do this, I will choose a certain week of each semester (for example, week 6) and plan a lesson that aligns with the pacing guide for that week. At the beginning of the semester I will either develop a new lesson plan or modify an existing one. I think that the more I have my students use technology, the more proficient they will be at it, thus preparing them for our technology-filled world.

Voice Thread

Here is the link to my voice thread: voicethread.com/share/785991

Cooperative Learning.

I think that cooperative learning is a great thing. I think that by working with one another, our students learn a lot more than the curriculum. One way our students can do this is by constructing a website with one another. They can be given a topic and need to work together create an informative website that can be viewed by others in the class. I think that this is a great way to collaborate and also showcase work.

Constructionism in the classroom

This week, we learned about constructionism and what that means for the classroom. From what I understand, constructionism involves learning through creating a project of some type. I think that one way to support this is by making rubrics. I like the idea of rubrics because it clearly outlines what is expected. This way, if there is ever a question of the grades, the teacher can simply refer to the rubric and that's that. I think that if you expect your students to learn by creating something, it might be best to give them a clear list of what you expect. Has anyone used rubrics in your classroom? Has it had a positive or negative impact on your teaching?