After reviewing my personal GAME plan, I realized that I
still needed additional resources and information to carry it out. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will
continue to gather the needed resources and information to make my personal
GAME plan more complete.
Goal 1: To
utilize technology as a way for students to collaborate and reflect on newly
learned content.
Resources I will need:
1. Examples of classroom or students blogs/posts that I can
use as models and exemplars.
2. List of prompts and questions based on content in the
curriculum for the students to respond to.
3. A rubric that contains specific criterion for assessing
students’ blog posts.
4. Time to meet with grade-level colleagues to see if they
are interested in utilizing blogs in their lessons.
5. Discussions with educators that are already using blogs
in their classrooms to get ideas and suggestions for successful implementation.
6.Websites and articles about blogging with elementary-aged
students.
Additional information I will need:
-Is Edmodo the best forum for my students to begin blogging?
-Are there other sites that have safety features that are
acceptable in my district?
-How can I make blogging a more authentic experience? Do I open the doors to new and varied
audiences outside our own classroom?
-How much emphasis should I place on conventions in blog
posts? Do I focus on content and writing
traits?
Steps I have taken thus far:
-I have sent home permission slips to parents to ensure that
all students can participate in blogging.
-Parents have started to email and call with questions about
this activity, so I have begun to answer their questions and put their minds at
ease about the safety of their children on the web.
-I sent out an email to my grade level team about discussing
blogging and setting aside time at our next PD to hash out details.
Goal 2: To
model appropriate use of citations and teach students how to cite media, text,
graphics, and other sources within their own work.
Resources I will need:
1. Mentor texts with proper citations and acceptable
paraphrasing.
2. Templates for proper citation of each type of source students
use.
3. Time to collaborate with my grade-level team to create
lesson plans, templates, and locate mentor texts for teaching students about
digital citizenship.
Additional information I will need:
-Are there district guidelines in place about digital
citizenship already?
-Did the technology committee address digital citizenship in
any of their planning last year? If so,
how?
Steps I have taken thus far:
-I have compiled a list of commonly used sources to create
citation templates for.
-I have read through the district’s policy for Internet
safety and ethical standards for the reuse of materials.
-I emailed my grade-level team about discussing digital
citizenship at our next grade-level meeting.
I have begun to take steps in gathering the necessary
resources and information for my GAME plan.
I have even more information to gather.
It is absolutely essential that my grade-level team finds time to meet
and discuss blogging with our students and how we will make teaching digital
citizenship a priority.
*Any suggestions and ideas are welcome. Thanks!
Kori,
ReplyDeleteOne of the most impressive aspect of your plan so far has to be what you have already accomplished! Contacting parents, phone calls, permission slips, e-mails to your PD team, your almost ready to be an administrator! Not until I had become one of the teams myself did I realize the true importance of that last step. Using the input from a PD team can provide such a wide variety of support for a teacher that I can't even begin to list the supporting aspects. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) conclude that a professional development team can be an excellent place to voice one's personal opinions while still enjoying the correlating advice of professionals within your field.
Once again, a great start to your GAME plan! Great work so far!
Nate P.
Reference:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Nate,
DeleteThank you for the kind words! I do feel that I have made some steps in the right direction toward getting these goals accomplished. It continues to be a challenge to make time during our grade-level meetings for things that I find to be of importance. This time is supposed to be uninterrupted and used for the needs of our team, but often the time gets used for looking at data, or scoring assessments and work samples. I do feel these activities are important too. However, there never seems to be much time left over for new things that we want to implement. I think it is critical we use this data and discussion to make changes to our curriculum and address our students' needs so they can be even more successful.
I would like to hear about how you schedule your PD meetings. Do you choose your agenda topics? Is there enough time to accomplish what your team has planned? Maybe some insight into your PD meeting could help in making changes to my own.
Thanks,
Kori
Hi Kori,
ReplyDeleteAs Nathan notes, you have already done so much! I am using my GAME plan to refine my use of Edmodo in the classroom, and one of my concerns right now is grading and designing a comprehensive rubric. After receiving advice from Gayleen to bie.org, which provided a lot of insight as to what I should be including in my rubric. I also just went through a variety of different Google searches and I was able to pick and choose from a number of different rubrics that gave me insight as to what I want to hold my students accountable for. You also mentioned that you are unsure of how you want to hold your students accountable for conventions and grammar. When creating the rubric for Edmodo discussions, I focused on broad, yet simple, categories in order to focus on content and ideas. For example, my rubric has a 4 point scale, and I defined a maximum number of spelling and/or grammar errors for each point (4 points is no spelling or grammar errors, 3 points is 1-3 spelling or grammar errors, 2 points is 4-6, and 1 point is 7-9, 0 would be over 10). This way, students have clear and easy guidelines for spelling and grammar, and they can focus on sharing their thoughts and ideas with their peers. As Andrade (2000) notes, rubrics provide clear expectations and allow students to produce work that meets specific technical skill and critical thinking requirements, but it also gives students the opportunity to assess their own work and make meta-cognitive decisions as to how they can improve their products.
Good luck with your GAME plan!
Rebecca
Andrade, H. (2000). Using rubrics to promote thinking and learning. What do we mean by results? 57 (5) 13-18. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb00/vol57/num05/Using-Rubrics-to-Promote-Thinking-and-Learning.aspx
Rebecca,
DeleteI appreciate your suggestion of how to include grammar and conventions on my rubric for assessing students' blog posts. I think it is important that students are held to high standard on writing skills. If they know what the expectations are for the highest possible score, I believe they will work to achieve it. If it is left undefined, they don't know where to begin.
Thanks for your feedback! Good luck to you as well.
Kori
Kori,
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed by how fearlessly you have jumped into this! Involving colleagues and parents takes this from a personal GAME plan to one of accountability where others will now be aware of your progress and actions. Good for you! Your confidence in committing and jumping in shows great creativity, which is a critical skill for teachers to have so that they can cultivate it in their students (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
Do your students all have laptops in order for this blogging to be done at school? When will you structure this blogging in your day? On a different note, I'm sure it has been interesting navigating these waters with concerned parents. Good for you for not letting that hinder you from taking on this project!
Stephanie
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Stephanie,
DeleteTo answer your first question, we have a mobile lab of Chrome books that I have varied access to throughout the week. The students also have 40 minutes of technology time scheduled in the computer lab every Monday. I plan to have students blog once a week either in the computer lab or during a mobile lab time. I have other lessons to teach and work on during these times, so it will be important for students to manage their time and make sure they complete their posts within one of the two times that they have access.
I was able to put parents' minds at ease for the most part. They seem excited to see what their children will do with this technology and how it will enhance their learning and motivation. It helps to have a principal that is very pro technology too. Thanks for responding.
Kori
Kori,
ReplyDeleteBlogs are a great way for students to work on different styles of communication (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I think that allowing your students to blog will increase the amount of writing in your class and the students will enjoy it more. I really like how you have informed parents about blogging in your class and have gotten student permission. I was wondering if any parents have refused to give their student permission? Also, what would you do with that student instead of blogging? I hope that all of your students were given permission, but sometimes you don’t know. I also like that you are able to collaborate with your grade level team. I hope that they are able to help you with blogging.
One of your concerns were with how much emphasis to place on conventions when blogging. I would say it is up to you. The students will adapt to whatever you want from them. As long as you show them examples in the beginning the students will be able to handle it. In my class I would want to focus on having the students write. Students in my school do not like to write, so I think blogging would be a great way to have them write more. Whatever you want from your students just make sure it is on the grading rubric so that the students are aware of what they will be graded on.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.