Reflection

During my most recent class I have been exploring incorporating technology in my classroom. I have learned many new tools to use with my students. The most important of these is a GAME plan. A GAME plan is a step by step way to reach goals. When teaching my students to use technology it is important that we create goals and steps to reach them. This class required me to create my own game plan to reach two goals. My two goals were to use blogs more in my classroom and to create a technology support group at my school. I have begun both of those goals. My class has started a group blog and they are working individually on it each day. This gives me a chance to work one on one with them on how to work a blog while still in a group setting. Hopefully after some time with this my students will be able to work on individual blogs. I have also sent out surveys and I am planning the first meeting of my schools new technology support group. In edition to using blogs with my students I plan to begin using other things such as ePals and digital story telling.

Using a GAME plan

I was very worried to begin with that creating this GAME plan would just add to my list of things to do and get pushed to the side. However, the way the GAME plan works a little at a time really kept me focused. I have wanted to create a blog for my class since we were first introduced to blogs, but I just felt so overwhelemed. Using this GAME plan I created a whole class blog that is step by step becoming more student directed and less teacher directed as they learn about it. This step by step process can lead to the students have their own individual blogs.

It will be important for the students to understand the GAME plan and how it works so that they do not become overwhelemed with a great idea that has some many steps to get there. I think it will help my students to become lifelong learners that will continue to make goals for themselves.

GAME plan

I waited to post this week, because I presented to the faculty Monday my wish to start a technology support group. I sent out surveys and asked them to return by Friday. I wanted to see how much interest I had before I posted my blog this week. My entire 1st grade team is interested and I also got a lot of interest from other grade levels. I am going to spend the break planning my first meeting, which I will have when we return to school. I plan to do two meetings a month. My goal, since I will be taking maternity leave in April is to get this group started and hopefully it will become more a sharing group and less of a in-service led by me.

GAME plan update

This week I started a class blog. I decided to do a blog that we would complete everyday as a class. Most my students have little access to computers outside of school and being in first grade they have had limited time at school. We are blogging about our morning meeting and sharing our daily routine with the world. I plan to expand this as the year continues. We will add special events that occur such as field trips. I would also like for the student of the day to add a sentence about something we learned the day before. This will give them an experience reflecting on learning. My kids are really excited about the blog and enjoy completing the template I created each morning. I think they will really enjoy it as we add more to it. Please stop by and visit, also they LOVE to receive comments: mgillenwater.edublogs.org

GAME plan update

I have been continuing to work on my GAME plan this week. It has been a different sort of week since the last post. I spent the Thursday and Friday of last week at a conference for first grade teachers, and then had a short two-day week this week. I used my conference to continue my research toward creating a group of teachers to discuss technology. One of the sessions I attended was on technology and the speaker gave 312 web resources for teachers to use in the classroom. This is the kind of thing I could use as a topic of discussion for a group meeting. My goal of creating a group at my school is my top priority right now because I feel that this will help me toward reaching my other goal of having students begin to blog. I think it will be easier to set this up if we have a support group and multiple teachers trying this together.

GAME plan

I want to begin this post by apologizing to my classmates for it being late. I have been sick this week and blogging was the last thing on my mind.

In order to implement my GAME plan I will need to research using blogs in the classroom. I will need to find a website that is accessible from my classroom and that is first grader friendly. Also, I will need to help my parents understand what a blog is, how I will make it safe for their child, and how we will be using it. I have begun researching blog sites that our technology department will allow us access to.

The second part of my GAME plan was to begin a group at my school to encourage technology use. In order for this idea to come to life I will have get permission from my administration, post any meetings for professional development credit, wait for that to be approved, and find resources to share during our first meeting. In order for this to be successful long term I will need to find experts willing to come and share with our school and video lessons we will be able to watch. So far I have discussed the idea with my principal. We will be mentioning the idea at our December faculty meeting.

GAME plan

After viewing the NETS-T’s I have developed a GAME plan for better reaching those standards in my classroom. I developed the GAME plan specifically for the standards I feel are my weakest.

NETS-T 1 Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.
c. promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes
Goal: Encourage students to share their thoughts on the learning process.
Action: Make use of blogs and wikis during projects and model for students how to express their thoughts on learning.
Monitor: Regular review of the blogs and wikis being used. Revisiting the modeling several times.
Evaluate: Determine if students are responding to the blogs and posting on a frequent basis about the process throughout projects.

NETS-T 5 Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources.
b. exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others.

Goal: To form a group of teachers to train and focus on integrating technology into the curriculum of our school.
Action: Invite teachers to join me for weekly meetings. During meetings have teachers share methods of using technology in the classroom and lesson ideas. Also integrate these ideas into our county curriculum map.
Monitor: Regularly update the rest of the school on our progress with a weekly email and information during faculty meetings
Evaluate: At the end of a term I will look back to see how many uses of technology we have added to the curriculum map and how many new tools we have trained teachers on in our school.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final

Reflection

At the beginning of my most recent masters class I was aware that students needed to learn certain aspects of technology. I was not aware the depth of that knowledge they would need or even the impact technology was having on literacy. We read differently today. I sit down in the mornings with my coffee (or current decaf beverage) to my laptop, when I was a child my parents sat down with the newspaper. I am still reading the news just in a completely different manner. How did I learn to do that? How have I learned to distinguish fact from fiction when there is so much information out there? I honestly have no idea how I learned that ability, other than being somewhat self-taught, but I do know that it is my job as an educator to teach children of today how to read technology. The basics are the same, read the information, process it, understand it, summarize it, and you have new information in your knowledge bank. However, students must know how to check the validity of a website and they must be able to focus their searches so that they get only wanted information. I think I was most surprised while completing my unit for my class how easy it was to begin teaching these literacy skills even in first grade. They may not be able to do as much research on their own as older students, but guided in the right way students as young as kindergarten, with help, can conduct research and check for basic aspects of a website for validity. If we teach this basic foundation in kindergarten, first and second grades, then when the students get to the upper grades that have some prior knowledge and the teachers have more to work with. My goal for my career as an educator is to implement lessons in my classroom that will teach students the literacy skills they need to survive in our new, evolving world. I, also, would like to work with and encourage the teachers in upper grades at my school to continue my work. This will provide our middle school and high school with tech savvy students that are capable of conducting research properly.

Research Methods

Educational research is being conducted everyday. It is important for educators to understand this research, what it is and how to read it, in order for them to use the research to improve the learning environment for their students. Below are four scenarios and my perspective on the methods used for each one:

Scenario 1: Ten students are available for in-depth interviews. Participants will be selected based on their involvement with the peer mediation program. They will be observed over three weeks. Analysis will attempt to determine issues concerning peer mediation.

This study is qualitative due to the fact that the researcher will conduct in-depth interviews with the subjects. Interviews are a “face-to-face” method of collecting data, which is a characteristic of qualitative studies. ((McMillan & Schumacher, 2008).

Scenario 2: Two classrooms of students are selected. There are 30 students in each class; each group will have similar demographics—age, sex, race, socio-economic background, etc. Classes will be randomly divided into two groups of 15 students. Of these two groups, one randomly selected group will get training on peer mediation and the other group will not. Thus in each classroom there will be one group that is trained in peer mediation and one that is not. Analysis will occur on which groups have the fewest office referrals.

This study is a quantitative study due to the fact that the researcher will be focusing on data from numbers instead of interaction with the subjects.

Scenario 3: A school counselor is interested in knowing how student attitudes affect the value of peer mediation to decrease the number of office referrals that are being filed for inappropriate interactions.

This study is a mix of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The counselor will be observing the students and collecting data from that, which is qualitative. Also, data will be collected from the number of students coming into the office, which is a quantitative method.

Scenario 4: Peer mediation has become widely used in many schools. The feelings of those involved in the process are little known—either from those doing the mediation or those receiving it. The ZASK-R Acceptance Preference Survey will be given as pre- and post-tests to 40 students participating in mediation. Follow-up interviews will be conducted on a bi-monthly basis.

This is also a mixed method study using both the numbers from the Survey and “face-to-face” interviews making it both qualitative and quantitative.

McMillian, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2006). Research in Education: Evidence-based inquiry (6th Ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Pearson Education, Inc.

Research Questions

I plan to determine the level of achievement on standardized tests in middle school students in 1:1 laptop classrooms and classrooms that have very limited computer access.

Who: middle school students

What: using 1:1 laptops in the classroom and those with limited computer access

Why: the level of achievement on standardized tests

Research Questions:

1. Is there a difference between the test scores of students that have constant access to laptops and students with limited to no access to computers?

2. Does the ability to access laptops throughout each day increase student engagement?

3. Does increased engagement predict increased standardized test scores

I feel that my methods would be a mix of qualitative and quantitative. According to Dr. Canipe qualitative methods focus on the person being studied and “the story” (Laureate Education Inc., 2008). My research questions 2 and 3 would require an observance of the students and their level of engagement. Dr. Canipe also describes qualitative as working with the numbers (Laureate Education Inc., 2008). Research question 1 will focus only on numbers from standardized test scores, and question 3 would be a comparison of the numbers to the observed engagement.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Program three. Research Questions [Motion picture]. Introduction to educational research. Baltimore: Author.