I think that my GAME Plan has been going very well so far. I have been monitoring my progress through each chapter, and I am now on my second chapter in each class since starting the plan. The integration of technology in my assessments has seem to boost my students' interest and they are performing slightly better on the assessments overall. By allowing them to show me how to accomplish the content through the technology they are more interested in the content and doing better on both the standards based assessments as well as the technology based assessments. For instance, I just got done grading the take home quizzes I gave to my Honors Geometry students during spring break, and the grades were higher than ever before. I had multiple students say that after making the required question using the technology they went back and fixed other problems in the quiz because they realized they had done something wrong. So, for my students to be able to synthesize the information needed to create a problem they actually performed better on their other problems. With these results I have gone into my next chapter and started to add in more technology pieces to the project I already have in place.
My Algebra students have also shown better completion in their quadratics unit from simply being able to use a calculator to help them graph. They have also taken the initiative to find a couple of websites to help them walk through solving quadratics by different methods. Some of the websites they have found are wonderful and I have posted them to my school website for all the students to use. This give them the opportunity to learn in different ways and see step by step instructions away from the classroom.
As for my second goal I think I am making some headway in the tech department and administration on allowing blog and wiki sites past the filter for my students to use. Someone suggested that I look for .org or .edu sites that allow for this, and when I asked if this would be easier to get through the filter both the tech department and the administration said yes. So, right now I am in the process of finding good blog and wiki sites that are .org or .edu. When I find them I will be putting together a presentation for the administration on how to use them and how I can monitor what is happening on them. I think this may work, so if anyone has found any of these sites in a .org or .edu format please let me know. If I cannot find them I may have to drop this fight and pick it back up over the summer so that I can get it implemented for next year.
Overall, I am excited about my progress and I can't wait to see how it ends up by the finish of the school year.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress
I have been working on my GAME plan very intensively this week because I am on spring break. This has given me the time to look at many of my assessments and change them to include technology based ideas. In both Algebra and Geometry I have a "lab" set up for the following chapters, and part of my assessment will be involving them using that technology to demonstrate full understanding of the content. For example, I have always done a project based unit for area in geometry where the students need to design something with all shapes represented, research how big it would be in real life, list those dimensions, scale the dimensions down, draw the design to scale, then find the areas of all the shapes represented in real life measurements. This year I have decided that the students will be using drafting software to create their drawings, and then they can use google sketchup to create a three dimensional representation of their design. This will allow me to not only use the technology, but bring the projects into the next unit of surface area and volume.
As for the websites getting approved I have been actively working with the administration and tech department to figure out what will be allowed and what will not be allowed. If they put a stop to what I want to do then I will need to revise my plan a bit. I will still make the blog site and wiki site that I want, but it will be hard to make it mandatory for the students to use them because not all of them have Internet access at home. Hopefully all will go well when I meet again with them next week, but as for now my plan is not changing.
I am happy with my progress so far in my GAME plan. I don't know about the rest of you, but I actually feel a sense of accomplishment. These are goals I have had for almost a year now, and I am finally put them into practice. For me it has always been hard to get started, and this class has forced me into starting these ideas in the classroom. It has been wonderful to see that my ideas are starting to take shape in the classroom and my students will benefit from me finally doing what needs to get done. So, overall the journey to this point has been a lot of work, but very fulfilling and rewarding. I cannot wait to get everything done and in place for my students to use.
As for the websites getting approved I have been actively working with the administration and tech department to figure out what will be allowed and what will not be allowed. If they put a stop to what I want to do then I will need to revise my plan a bit. I will still make the blog site and wiki site that I want, but it will be hard to make it mandatory for the students to use them because not all of them have Internet access at home. Hopefully all will go well when I meet again with them next week, but as for now my plan is not changing.
I am happy with my progress so far in my GAME plan. I don't know about the rest of you, but I actually feel a sense of accomplishment. These are goals I have had for almost a year now, and I am finally put them into practice. For me it has always been hard to get started, and this class has forced me into starting these ideas in the classroom. It has been wonderful to see that my ideas are starting to take shape in the classroom and my students will benefit from me finally doing what needs to get done. So, overall the journey to this point has been a lot of work, but very fulfilling and rewarding. I cannot wait to get everything done and in place for my students to use.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Game Plan Update with Resources
So far, I have been able to accomplish part of my goals, and establish how I will be taking the actions I want. While working on making sure I assess using different technologies, I went through Chapter 10 (circles) in geometry and Chapter 10 (Quadratics) in algebra and took a look at my current assessments. In geometry I usually give a take home quiz over spring break that the students work on. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to add a question to assess the technology standards. With the students having a whole week to work on this, they have plenty of time to find a computer to do what is necessary to complete the question. I added a part that incorporates using technology to create a problem involving circles, and then finding or using technology to solve that problem. I think this is a great way to get the students to be both creative and use technology to further their knowledge of the properties of circles. I have not quite gotten to changing any algebra assessments other than the fact that I have integrated the calculators more and let them do all of the graphing of quadratics using them.
To reach my second goal of using technology to interact with the students and the community I have had to do way more planning. This is the goal that I need to really research the resources I need to accomplish it. The district has a fairly strict firewall and I need to get through many hoops to make sure that the wiki I want to use can be used by students in school because not all of them have access to the internet outside of school. I am currently working on this process now, and may be lucky to get the wiki in place for this year. I will be updating the blog as that journey progresses.
I am looking for any experience in the area of getting the district to accept wiki's as parts of educational learning. I have provided examples, but I am still getting some resistance. If anyone has gone through this I would really appreciate any help I can get. Thank you all in advance.
Paul
To reach my second goal of using technology to interact with the students and the community I have had to do way more planning. This is the goal that I need to really research the resources I need to accomplish it. The district has a fairly strict firewall and I need to get through many hoops to make sure that the wiki I want to use can be used by students in school because not all of them have access to the internet outside of school. I am currently working on this process now, and may be lucky to get the wiki in place for this year. I will be updating the blog as that journey progresses.
I am looking for any experience in the area of getting the district to accept wiki's as parts of educational learning. I have provided examples, but I am still getting some resistance. If anyone has gone through this I would really appreciate any help I can get. Thank you all in advance.
Paul
Thursday, March 11, 2010
GAME plan for addressing the National Education Standards for Teachers.
After looking at the National Education Standards for Teachers I found two specific performance indicators that I would like to improve upon in my classroom. The indicators I would like to improve upon are:
· Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
· Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.
The reason I picked these two indicators is because I feel like I do them a little, but that it would be very beneficial to my students if I did them consistently throughout the year. So, I have devised a GAME plan according to the DVD we watched to make sure that I strive to accomplish these two indicators in my classroom.
Goal: My goal is to make sure that I accomplish these standards once per chapter in my math classes. By forcing myself to accomplish the indicators every two to three weeks, I will know that I am consistently striving to improve my use of them in my classroom. Then, by using them that often the students will become more comfortable learning with the technology, and I will become more comfortable using the technology to assess and collaborate.
Action: To achieve my goal, I will have to do some revamping of my current way of both teaching and assessing. The first indicator will be hard for me to personally accomplish because I am so use to using tests and quizzes aligned only to the content standards to assess students. So, I will be creating at least one assignment, quiz, or test that aligns to the technology standards. This will mean going through my “old” material and finding a way to integrate the technology standards into them. It will also mean having more technology on hand in the classroom so that students can use it to accomplish these assessments. To accomplish the second indicator on a weekly basis I would like to create a wiki for the students to be able to use. I went into this year telling myself that I would create a wiki and blog for my students to use, but I did not actually commit to it and do it. So, I actually be creating the wiki to use, and then I will be posting a problem of the week for students to work on. This will allow for more collaboration outside of the classroom through virtual means. It will also allow all students to express themselves in different creative ways. So, I will get the chance to collaborate with all of my students, and not just the ones that express themselves in class.
Monitor Progress: I will monitor my progress with a checklist of what needs to be done each week to accomplish my actions and goals. By using the checklist I will be able to see if I am revamping my “old” routine to accomplish my goals. If I find that I am not doing what is on the checklist then I know that I am just relying on what I use to do instead of pursuing my goals of using the new indicators. The checklist will have things such as, created a wiki, posted a question of the week, interacted with students on the wiki, created a new assessment, and aligned an old assessment with the technology standards. These things will show me that I am really trying to accomplish the goals that I set.
Evaluate: As I am going through each week, I will look back and evaluate both the checklist and student achievement to see if I am accomplishing my goals. If my checklist is not done then I have not done my best to become better with the indicators that I have chosen. If my checklist is all checked off then I know I am doing everything in my power to complete the goals that I have set. However, my work toward accomplishing my goals means nothing if the students are not achieving in the classroom. So, I will also be comparing my students’ achievements with their own previous records on other topics to see if there is improvement, and I will be comparing them to the records of previous year’s students to see if there has been improvement in my students on that topic. If the students are improving then I know what I am doing is helping the students and I will continue to work in the same way, but if the students are not improving or declining then I need to reassess my actions to accomplish the goals so that I am benefiting my students.
I am really looking forward to working on these goals and doing what I can to improve student achievement in my classroom. If anyone has any ideas of how I can achieve my goals or improve upon my actions please leave a comment and thank you all in advance.
Paul Severino
· Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
· Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.
The reason I picked these two indicators is because I feel like I do them a little, but that it would be very beneficial to my students if I did them consistently throughout the year. So, I have devised a GAME plan according to the DVD we watched to make sure that I strive to accomplish these two indicators in my classroom.
Goal: My goal is to make sure that I accomplish these standards once per chapter in my math classes. By forcing myself to accomplish the indicators every two to three weeks, I will know that I am consistently striving to improve my use of them in my classroom. Then, by using them that often the students will become more comfortable learning with the technology, and I will become more comfortable using the technology to assess and collaborate.
Action: To achieve my goal, I will have to do some revamping of my current way of both teaching and assessing. The first indicator will be hard for me to personally accomplish because I am so use to using tests and quizzes aligned only to the content standards to assess students. So, I will be creating at least one assignment, quiz, or test that aligns to the technology standards. This will mean going through my “old” material and finding a way to integrate the technology standards into them. It will also mean having more technology on hand in the classroom so that students can use it to accomplish these assessments. To accomplish the second indicator on a weekly basis I would like to create a wiki for the students to be able to use. I went into this year telling myself that I would create a wiki and blog for my students to use, but I did not actually commit to it and do it. So, I actually be creating the wiki to use, and then I will be posting a problem of the week for students to work on. This will allow for more collaboration outside of the classroom through virtual means. It will also allow all students to express themselves in different creative ways. So, I will get the chance to collaborate with all of my students, and not just the ones that express themselves in class.
Monitor Progress: I will monitor my progress with a checklist of what needs to be done each week to accomplish my actions and goals. By using the checklist I will be able to see if I am revamping my “old” routine to accomplish my goals. If I find that I am not doing what is on the checklist then I know that I am just relying on what I use to do instead of pursuing my goals of using the new indicators. The checklist will have things such as, created a wiki, posted a question of the week, interacted with students on the wiki, created a new assessment, and aligned an old assessment with the technology standards. These things will show me that I am really trying to accomplish the goals that I set.
Evaluate: As I am going through each week, I will look back and evaluate both the checklist and student achievement to see if I am accomplishing my goals. If my checklist is not done then I have not done my best to become better with the indicators that I have chosen. If my checklist is all checked off then I know I am doing everything in my power to complete the goals that I have set. However, my work toward accomplishing my goals means nothing if the students are not achieving in the classroom. So, I will also be comparing my students’ achievements with their own previous records on other topics to see if there is improvement, and I will be comparing them to the records of previous year’s students to see if there has been improvement in my students on that topic. If the students are improving then I know what I am doing is helping the students and I will continue to work in the same way, but if the students are not improving or declining then I need to reassess my actions to accomplish the goals so that I am benefiting my students.
I am really looking forward to working on these goals and doing what I can to improve student achievement in my classroom. If anyone has any ideas of how I can achieve my goals or improve upon my actions please leave a comment and thank you all in advance.
Paul Severino
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