Reflection - GAME Plan

As my Integrating Technology Across Content Area course comes to a close, I find myself pleasantly surprised at how much I learned in the course. I must admit when I first started the class I didn’t really believe I would learn much more than I already had regarding the integration of technology; however, while much of the technology applications I had already been familiar with or used before, I found myself viewing this technology in a whole new way. I looked at the utilization of different applications in a whole new light and found myself once again excited about its use in my classroom. The feeling was similar to that feeling I got my first year of teaching. It was quite refreshing. I think my students felt it as well, and they responded accordingly.

While I had used a blog earlier in the year, after this course, I started to utilize it more as a means of communication and a way for students to connect their thoughts through other means that paper and pen. This was refreshing for my students. I also begin to connect with parents and other teachers more often through the use of my school website, Twitter, and email. The parents were grateful for the additional connection to their child because as they and I have found, middle schoolers tend to begin to try and make their statement of independence at this point, especially in the 8th grade, and most parents are left feeling as if they have no idea what is going on in their child’s education.
One of the issues I will have to address more carefully in the future is the amount of knowledge my students come into the assignment with. To be more specific – how much of the technology do my students understand and are able to use? A few of the technology projects I added seemed to be simple – or should have been – but I quickly realized I overestimated what my students understood about certain aspects of the application. Even a simple word document and altering formatting for a Facebook page template took on a whole new dimension when I realized my students were aware of inserting text boxes and formatting graphs and tables. The lesson took much longer than I had anticipated and was nearly as neat looking as I would have hoped for, but I am able to say that those students who finally figured it out were very excited about their final project and learned more about characterization through a Facebook character page than they would have through a test.

I look forward to many more exciting uses of technology integration in the classroom as well as more engaging and thoughtful lessons for my students to connect to the standards as provided by our state.

GAME plan for my students

One of my desires for my own students is for them to create their own blog page or wiki page highlighting what they have learned their 8th grade with the idea that rising 8th graders can use their pages as a tool to prepare them for the new year. As students began to prepare and make plans for their blog, utilizing a GAME plan like the one we have used during this course will be an excellent tool for students.

Setting their goals - what they want to highlight in their page will be essential to the organization of their page.

Action comes in a couple different forms. First students will have to be certain they are adequately delivering the content of the standards they have mastered on their page as well being certain they using the technology correctly and in the best way to demonstrate and teach to the younger students.

As we have done with our own blogs and wikis, students will need to monitor their pages being careful to address any technical issues that arise as well as answering any questions posted by younger students. This part of the GAME plan is also useful because it continues to reinforce what students have already learned.

Finally, I will evaluate their pages for content as well as peer evaluation of each other's pages will allow students to appraise the quality of their own as well as other's pages. This is an excellent way for students to take responsibility of their own learning and demonstrate the knowledge they have acquired throughout the year.

Forward progress!!

After receiving feedback from Debb (thanks girl), I was able to set up a "discussion board" of sorts for students who had yet to turn in their permission slips in order to use the internet. Through the student drive on our intranet, I posted a question to a word document. I attempted to make it look as "blog-like" as possible and saved it in a folder where these students can access it and respond to it. They seem to be doing quite well. In addition, the Facebook pages they have been working on are coming out great. While the template looks easy, we have had some complications with the formatting issues (very similar to my wiki page (-:)and how you are able to insert text and pictures. I am working on finding a better method for the next time I use this particular lesson plan. What I find most exciting is the collaboration among students. Even though each of them has a different character, they are offering advice and guidance to each other, and I often hear them asking another student, "Now remember, this is your CHARACTER'S Facebook page and not yours. Do you really think your character likes Woka Flocka Flame?" or something to that effect. I LOVE it.

One step at a time...

My GAME plan is progressing. While I haven't been able to get the blogs completely up and running due to not all parental permission slips being returned, I was able to integrate an activity to get the students on the right track. As I stated earlier, I hoped to create blogs for my students to "blog in character". In order to get them started, I developed a Facebook template for them to create their character. It is not an authentic Facebook page as the school forbids the use of Facebook through its filter, the students are very excited about their pages. It is phenomenal to watch them get excited about the reading of the book because they are trying to establish who their character is. So much fun!! We will be going to the lab on Friday for them to search out pictures to add to their Facebook pages and then I will print them out on the color printer. For all their excitement, you would have thought I had invented the greatest lesson on the planet - yeah me!!

The only true difficulty that has arisen is the few (very few) students who don't have a Facebook for one reason or another, it has taken a little more explanation for them to understand the concept of "status updates", "recent activity", "networks", etc.; however, the opportunity for them to have a Facebook page is "sweet", as one of my students stated.