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
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Carla,
ReplyDeleteYour willingness to incorporate new technology to connect with your students is admirable and well thought out. Your students are certainly fortunate to have such a motivated teacher working with them. I am particularly intrigued by your idea to use video editing in the classroom. What types of video projects do you see yourself working with in the classes? Great post - I hope all goes well with your GAME plan!
-Stephen
I like the idea of comparing technology based lessons to past lessons. I always keep a file of previous student work. I have posters, cartoons, and 3-d displays. But I haven't done such a great job of keeping a file of technology based student work. I need to add a folder to begin to paste files and projects into. Thanks for the suggestions.
ReplyDeleteStephen,
ReplyDeleteThe videos that I am insterested in making are students acting out and using Spanish vocabulary in funny ways to demonstrate its grammar usage and also work with retention of vocabulary. The students will write short skits using current vocabulary and grammar. Then we will discuss the best way to act this out to make it fun and interesting. Then afterwards we will film it and then edit in the grammar and words on the screen.
Todd,
ReplyDeleteLast year I started keeping files of technology presentations my students were doing. It has been great because I have been able to use them as examples.
Todd, I agree with Carla! Start that technology presntation folder. It wll become a great tool for modeling your expectatins of exemplar projects and even average and not so hot projects. The act of comparing the projects against the rubric used to score them will benefit students in so many ways...
ReplyDeleteCarla,
ReplyDeleteNot only can you use the folder as a portfolio of examples for other students, you can also use it as a resource area for the students if they are looking up information. There are several topics I have changed my project ideas on, and I tell the students to check out a folder on the school's public drive where I store the projects. They use it as an additional reference, which is often what they need.
Carla, make sure that the technology has high level thinking components to it. Technology is a buzz word that is often thrown around. It needs to actually help. A technology could be a low level thinking question. Do not just assume because you are using technology that you are doing anything better. Question with boldness!
ReplyDeleteI agree that there needs to be higher level thinking. One thing that the projects in my class are aimed at is improving fluency in the language. I am asking them to go beyond creating simple sentences to making them create complex or compound sentences that make sense within a sequence of sentences.
ReplyDeleteI love the way your blog reads like a story!
ReplyDeleteYou reminded me of an idea I had to make a list of all the acronyms I come across, ELLs to RSSs. That is a list good for students, parents and colleagues alike.
Well done.
Mrs.Drewes