My GAME Plan Progresses

One of the areas that I am working on in my GAME plan is using digital technology in projects to teach and assess. I am learning to edit digital videos to help the students demonstrate their knowledge of vocabulary and Spanish. One website that I have found to help me with video editing is www.windowsmoviemakers.net/Tutorials. This is helping me in several areas of editing. This week I plan to take some video during Thanksgiving vacation and then try to edit it on my computer. My sixteen year old daughter will probably be a lot of help as I work through editing the digital video. I am going to focus on adding captions to the video so that I can train the students to add captions that will focus on the vocabulary and the grammar. While I am doing this I am also working on a step by step plan to be able to work on this project with my students so that they are not overwhelmed. We will start by choosing the vocabulary and the grammar concept. Then we will write out a script using this information. After checking the validity of the script, we will then discuss how and where we want to act out the skit. Then we will spend a day or two video-taping the skits. After this we will work in the computer lab editing the videos.

The other area I am working on is adding to my website so that it is more helpful to my parents and my students. One way that I plan to do this is by interactive games on the website. I have found several websites where I can create games such as www.wikiHow.com, www.quia.com, and www.teach-nology.com. I am still working on how to use these websites. One question that has arisen is if I create the game on that website can I transfer it to my website or will I have to link to theirs? I am continuing to add study helps through multimedia presentations on the website.

Carrying out the GAME Plan

Last week I set the goals of integrating more technology into my classroom to teach and re-enforce vocabulary. This will help to provide the students with the flexibility to learn the way that is most effective for them. (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). Some of the ways I would like to introduce to the students to be able to do this would be video presentations with editing, multimedia presentations with voice thread, or vocabulary webpages for the class to access. To be able to better enable my students to create these presentations, I will look on the Internet for help to learn how to edit digital videos. I am also going to recommend to our district technology person that one of the PLU classes he offer be Enhancing classroom instruction through technology: video editing. The librarian offers a digital video camera for classroom use. I will use this with the students and work with the technology professional to learn how to use the software on the school computers to create edited videos. One way I have started working in this area is to reserve the computer lab and digital camera, and have had the students start working on scripts using the vocabulary. As a class we have discussed what we want the video to demonstrate and teach.

Another goal I set for myself was to use the Webpage to better communicate with the students and parents. I have started looking for websites that will help me improve my website. Also I have started discussing with the computer keyboard teacher how to improve my website. One way I have started using implementing actions to achieve this goal is adding a homework page so that parents can check each night to see if their students have an assignment do. Another thing I have done is to place my Power Point presentations on grammar and vocabulary on the website so that the students are able to access the information from home and review it at their own pace. I would like to find some information on how to create interactive games to add to the website so that there would be some drill and memory activities for the students who need it.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (2009) Meeting Student Needs With Technology, Part 1. Boston, MA: Laureate Press.

What's my GAME?

Having received my educational degree in the 80's when I was still typing my papers on a typewriter, I have many goals to improve my confidence and proficiency with technology. For the longest time, I was scared of technology, but my time at Walden is helping me to overcome my fears and develop an enthusiasm for technology within the classroom. Students are used to a world of technology outside of the classroom so it is time as a teacher I use this enthusiasm for technology to engage them in learning. (Prnsky, 2008) Having decided this, choosing ISTE NETS*T standards to help me set goals was a logical step. The Standards that I feel that I should work on are (2) Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments and (3) Model Digital-Age Work and Learning.

The goals I am setting for myself for standard 2 is to use technolgoy in teaching new concepts such as vocabulary so that the students can engineer their retention through technology activities. I would also set a goal for helping students create projects using diverse technological tools such as PowerPoint, digital videos and editing, and wiki pages to demonstrate their knowledge of the material. These would be given with rubrics so that they could be assessed formatively at certain checkpoints and summatively at the final project. For standard 3, I would like to use the school website where each teacher has an individual web page to model different uses of technology to the students and the parents. I would like to use the website to communicate information to the parents and give the students opportunities to find additional information about what we are studying. Some ways that I would like to do this is by bookmarking helpful sites for the student to use as well as offering tutoring games they can use to reinforce the material.

Actions that I can take to meet the goal is to create project ideas every chapter where they can learn to use their Spanish skills. We would approach these projects step by step at first as the students learn to use the various tehnologies. (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2010) The students would learn to use creative thinking skills to create projects that are unique to their group yet demonstrate what they have learned. On the website, I will study different programs that can help me develop fun and creative tutoring helps for the students to access.

Monitoring my progress would be done by keeping track of the different technologies use in projects and the success the students have. Also I will keep track of how many students use the website to help them with their work.

I will evaluate how I am reaching my goals by comparing the different projects the students create using technology compared to projects from previous years. One of the ways I will extend my learning is take advantage of different educational software seminars that are offered within the district as well as learn how to create better websites by getting training from the technology personnel at the school.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Prensky, M. (2008, March). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40-45