As I reflect back on my progress throughout this course, as well as the progress of the GAME plan I created almost two months ago, I am amazed by what I have learned and accomplished. Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer (2009) assert that creating a GAME plan is a means by which teachers or students can hold themselves accountable and measure their academic growth. Throughout this course, I have made gains professionally through the creation, implementation, and evaluation of my GAME plan. I have also learned how to use successfully many 21st century tools that will aid in my teaching and students’ learning.
As a reminder, the two goals that I created for myself are: to seek out professional learning opportunities on a consistent basis to enrich my learning of various technologies, and to then incorporate one new technology into my curriculum once a quarter. Because we are in the midst of the holiday season, my desire to develop a wiki to discuss new technology ideas with colleagues in my district has been put on the back burner, as many of my coworkers’ schedules are tightly packed, in and out of school. I have, however, taken Sarpottle’s suggestion (2011) of meeting with one colleague in my school on a consistent basis to discuss technology in the classroom. My fellow third grade teaching partner and I have started meeting once every other week to discuss how we can implement technology into the curriculum over the following few weeks. Because of this, I have found myself making a more conscious effort to include technology throughout various parts of my curriculum. Prensky (2008) has argued that students need technology integrated in the classroom to stay engaged and motivated in the curriculum. I have seen this to be the case in my room.
I have also begun receiving the magazine, Learning and Leading with Technology, which has given me some wonderful ideas, such as creating an ‘assistive technology toolkit’ (International Society for Technology in Education, 2011).
Finally, in terms of implementing a new technology tool into my curriculum once a quarter, I am pleased to share that I will the recipient of a brand new SMART board come beginning of January. While I used to have an Eno board in my old classroom, I have never used the SMART board technology, and I cannot wait to learn more. I have already registered for a training session about using the technology through my district. Richardson (2010) has made the point that teachers must continue to learn about new types of technology and how to implement them in the classroom, so that students have the opportunities they deserve to work with these 21st century tools.
In reflecting on this course and the lessons I created for my unit on Jamestown, I realized that integrating technology into all curriculum areas is possible! Abrams (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009) shared a plethora of ideas on how teachers can implement digital storytelling into subject areas like math, science, and social studies, using a number of free online tools. In learning this, I came to the understanding that there are so many resources available on the web and elsewhere that can help me in integrating technology into some of the more difficult subject areas, such as math, I did not think would be possible.
I also learned in this course that problem-based learning is possible for younger students. In implementing my problem-based lesson with my third grade students with a small scale simulation, I immediately noticed the higher level thinking and collaboration that occurred amongst my students. Ertmer and Simons (2006) mention that problem-based learning can be implemented successfully in the classroom when starting small, and this was definitely the case for my class.
I hope to use tools like problem based learning, online collaboration, and digital storytelling throughout the various subject areas and more consistently as a teaching and learning tool. Some future projects I have in mind that use these tools include collaborating with classes from other states to learn more about their home state, creating a digital story about famous people in United States’ history during a biography genre study, and presenting a scenario in which students must identify rocks based on various properties and tests they have learned about through an Earth Materials science unit.
I am excited for the rest of the school year, as I have developed my knowledge of various technological tools I can utilize in the classroom, through this course and GAME plan implementation. As Cennamo (Laureate Education, Inc. 2009) stated, teaching and learning is a continuous progress that is adjusted as one reflects back on the progress. I have done this throughout this class, and will continue it throughout my teaching career.
References
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.
Ertmer, P., & Simons, K. (2006). Jumping the PBL implementation hurdle: Supporting the efforts of K–12 teachers. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 1(1), 40–54. Retrieved from http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=ijpbl.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2011, November). Build an Assistive Technology Toolkit. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(3), 22.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Prensky, M. (2008). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40–45.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
SarPottle. (2011, November 28). Re: Monitoring game plan progress. [Blog message]. Retrieved from: http://lmackley.blogspot.com/2011/11/monitoring-my-game-plan-progress.html#comment-form
