My voicethread for App 4

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My Final GAME Plan Post

As I look back on my GAME plan I am very happy to say that I have learned a lot of new things that will be to the advantages of my students. My students have not had the chance to use my classroom blog because I’m going to use it next semester, but I feel that I am completely prepared and they will love the blog. I am so glad that I took this class because I have learned so much about technology that I can now use in my class. I have my parent letters to send home so not only will my students be involved so will their parents. I have permission from my administrators and my school district to have a blog for my class because blogs are not usually allowed for our classes in my district. I am very excited and I can’t wait to put my blog into my student’s lives.

For my second goal, I have already secured my people in the community to come and speak to my students. For my middle school students our high school is a place that they all look forward to going to so I got all my people from there to come and talk to the students. The principal will come and talk to them about expectations of a high school student at his school. Our football coach will come and talk to the students about things they need to do to be successful in everything they do, and some of the high school football players will come and speak on doing the right things and working hard to accomplish the things they want in life. For my students this will really make a difference because they really look up to everyone that is at our high school.

One immediate adjustment that I will make to my instructional practice regarding technology integration in my content area as a result of my learning from this course is I will use a digital storytelling activity for my final for my health class. I will give the students a chance to pick from any chapter that we discussed and make a digital storytelling activity for their final exam. Before taking this course I would have never thought of anything like this I would have given the same test that I always give at the end of the semester. The students will love this idea for a final and these are the type of things I have learned with taking my master classes.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

My NETS-T standards were:
Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

NETS-S standards: Creativity and Innovation

Every week we have added on something new to our GAME plan, and I think that was great because that gave us a chance to evaluate what we were doing for it. I have gotten great feedback from my classmates and colleagues are helping me improve my ideas about my GAME plan. After looking back at the NETS-T and checking out the NETS-S standards I found that my two standards of the NETS-T matched the first standard of the NETS-S which was creativity and innovation.

I have my classroom blog page (3B) prepared but I have not tried it out yet in class because I'm doing it next semester. I will use it for everything from daily classroom assignments to getting information home to the parents. I hope that my parents get involved with the blog so they can help their children out when needed. They can also know exactly. What their child is doing in my class and they don't have to worry about getting the information from them. I don't know how well this will work because I don’t know how many of my students or their parents will use it.

With my second standard (2A) I try to promote student learning and creativity on a daily basis. I feel that with the help of technology it gets the students more involved and interested in what you are teaching therefore it will help them with their learning and creativity. I am currently using computers, internet, smart boards, TV, DVD players, and videos to help add technology into my lesson.

Monitoring my GAME plan

My GAME plan has not change a lot from last week because I am not doing my lesson until next semester, which is January. I am learning new tools for using technology in the classroom every week in the learning resources that we must read, and the videos that we watch. I do feel that I will be fully prepared and my students will love my lessons.

I feel that everything that I have done so far will help me to accomplish the goals for my GAME plan. I have my parent letter for my students to take home that explains what we are doing and how the blog will work. I already have the computer lab reserved for next semester so that the students can see what a blog looks like and how to use it. I have gotten permission from my administrator and the school district so that I can use a blog for my class because without permission, in our district, a blog would be blocked and I would not be able to use it. Vicki Davis said in the video that one of the benefits of using online networking sites for teachers and students was creating a blog (Laureate, 2009), so I am ready to add this benefit to my classroom. In addition, another tool that Vicki talked about this week that I feel that will be very helpful with the blog is to use a RSS Reader (Laureate, 2009). With this tool I will be able to manage everything that is added to the blog and I will only have to look in one place.

I am very confident that my blog will work, but I am still wondering how my students will react to the new tool that I add to my class. I know that my students will have internet access at school, but what about the ones that do not have access at home. I hope that their parents will get involved and maybe take them to the local library or a friend's house to use the internet. After adding this to my lesson, I can evaluate how many of my students and their parents use the blog. If it works well, I will add it to all my Health classes and this will enhance my student's ability to use technology for their success!

Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

Evaluating the progress of my GAME plan

I am still planning on using my GAME plan in January, but I have done a lot to make sure that my GAME plan works well for my students. For the first item in my GAME plan, I have decided to have some speakers come to my class. I have talked to the principal from the high school, the head football coach, and some student football players and they are planning the come down and talk to my students. This will be a big deal for my students because our high school has one of the best high school football teams in the state of Georgia. The high school currently has seven players that have accepted football scholarships to major colleges and they will come and speak about their journey to attain those scholarships. The head coach will come and talk to my students about hard work and dedication. The principal will come and talk to the students about the high school and how he expects them to be hard working, successful students.

The second item in my GAME plan was to get my blog approved from my administrator. I got the approval. I have also made up letters to send home to the parents so they will know about the blog. On my letter I will have examples of blog websites so they can go on them with their child, and they will see why blogs will be important for our classroom. Dr. Ertmer stated that one of the ways that teachers can assess students learning is by using blogs (Laureate, 2009).

Reference:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Spotlight on Learning: Problem Based Learning [Webcast]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress

One of things I have planned for my class is doing my class blog. In a previous Walden course, we learned about blogs, and I still have my blog today. For my class, I must continue reading and asking other colleagues about their classroom blogs. I will give my students the opportunity to go to the computer lab so that they can visit different blogs and get familiar with using them. I must make sure I monitor my students in the lab so that I can make sure they are on the right track. Before I introduce it to my class, I may have to go back to the site and refresh my memory on how to use it. I don't think I have to change my plan because I feel that my blog will be great for my students. Dr. John Ross stated that digital technology provides more flexibility for teachers (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). With this flexibility my classroom blog should be great.

To enhance my students learning and creativity I have been giving the students ample opportunities to use any technology available to them. Video, computers, and projectors are some of the things we use in class. Like Dr. Katherine Cennamo said, in order to have creative thinkers we must make our students confident in what they are doing (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009).

I am glad that I have concentrated on what I'm going to do next. I really want to try the classroom blog with my next class I get in a few weeks. I want to make sure I got everything together before I start my GAME plan.

Resources:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore: Author.

Resources for My GAME Plan

My first GAME plan indicator I will need the following resources: colleague assistance, computers and computer software, guess speakers, and a lot of patients with my students. I have to give my students a healthy environment in which they feel like it is alright for them to try new things to help them bring out their creativity. I will need my cell phone so i can call motivational speakers so they can speak to my students about being creative and being successful. I will have to talk to my administrator so that I can get approval to do all the things I want to do for my students. the only step I havetaken so far involves me speaking to co-workers about ideas of how I can reach my goals with this plan. They have been very helpful and I look forward to getting to some of the other options in my plan.

My second GAME plan indicator I will need the following resources: computers lab and computers, projector so I can show them examples of what blogs will look like, and the white board in the la so that I can write all the instructions up for the blog. I have created a blog in my masters program, but I don't think my students have ever done one. I have not been able to take any steps so far because the computer lab is always full; being a Health teacher, I always get to use it last. I am excited about doing a blog for my class because I know it will help my students stay up to date with all our asignments. Anytime I put technology into a lesson my students love it and they seem to do a better job in the class!