Emerging Technology

It is amazing how fast technology emerges. It seems like their is a new technology out there each day. What amazes me the most, is how it takes no time at all to fall behind on the new technology. I recently graduated from college and throughout my master's experiences, technology would be introduced and I knew nothing about it. This happened many times. Some of the technology I had never even heard of before. After three years, I had already fallen behind. After this class, I plan to keep up to date on the emerging technology. I will take classes to learn the concept and functions of the technology. I will also experiment with the technology myself and incorporate it into every educational experience that I can. This will enhance every learning experience for my students.

Diffentiation

I think that Social networks are a great way for students to communicate learning. I plan to use social networks to posh questions and have the students discuss their understanding through a discussion. Also, when I assign group projects, students can communicate their roles in the project, resources they found, information they have learned, etc... It is a great way for students to communicate both inside and outside of the classroom.

I am going to adjust my current use of technology by providing more opportunities on the computer. We currently use the computers for test preparation. I would like to incorporate the computer into lessons by having students research information, graph information, create tables, etc... I think it will relate learning to students lives more and make the use of computers for effective.

GAME Reflection

My turning points lesson was very engaging and fun for the students. It also allowed the students to see the skills they know and the skills that they need to work on. It was an immediate understanding for the students of their abilities. This program also gave me a chance to see what the students as a whole needed additional teaching of. It was a great way to assess students so I could reteach the concepts that the students did not understand.

One thing I would like to change about my GAME plan is technology involvement with the students. The turning point program only allowed for students to use the clickers. As the teacher, I used the computer and created the questions. It lacked the technology involvement. Next time I would like to get more technology involvement for the students.

Technology Enrichment

Any opportunities students have to use technology can be very helpful in their learning process. It keeps them interested and involved in their learning. I hope that by creating lessons that involve technology, students will be more engaged and responsible for their learning. I have created a blog site. We have not done it yet, but I have the topic and I am going to try it with one of my classes in two weeks when I get the computer lab again. This will give students a chance to use technology and holds them responsible to participate and for their learning.

GAME

I have not made much progress in my Plan this week. I was supposed to give my turning points pre-assessment today, but we have been off for the past two days for snow. I plan to reschedule as soon as possible. The problem with turning points is if we have a day like today when I reserved them and then couldn't use them,they could be reserved for the next several days and this puts me behind. Any teacher knows that it is hard to be behind with all the Indicators we are expected to teach. Two days off and now I have to reserve the clickers as soon as I can which could take several more days. It will be hard to catch up.

GAME progress

I have completed my turning points questions and have reserved the clickers to use them in the classroom. I have everything set up and ready to go. I plan to use the results as a pre-test for my next unit. I will use the information to adjust my instruction.

GAME progress

I have been making great progress on my GAME plan. I began to set up my turning points questions. I have created 5 questions that relate to the unit I am teaching. They are questions that will give me a great understanding of student understanding. I made sure to pick a few questions from each standard that I would like to assess. This will allow me to make sure that one correct answer will not mislead me to believe that the student understands when realistically they had a good guess. Students will have to get multiply questions correct for each standard to ensure they actually understand the concept.

GAME cont.

In order to carry out my GAME Plan. I decided to take a professional development class on the turning points program. This class taught me how to set up the format to create questions, how to locate the information of student results, and how to use the information once its collected. It was a great way to assess students understand quick and easy. Also, I can see the students loving using the program.

GAME

Standard 1: 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.
I would like to use more formative assessment to assess understanding. Formative assessment is a way to check understanding throughout the learning process and adjust teaching based on the results. I often use formative assessment, but then do not always stop to re-teach the material that the students do not understand. I am not utilizing the importance of formative assessment.
I would like to achieve this goal by using Turning Points, a clicking system, to assess students through formative assessment. Turning points is a way to check student understanding over certain content knowledge immediately. It will allow me to see who does not understand the material, those who do, and the topics that the students are most struggling with. Then, I can take this information and make centers. One center will cover the students that are lacking the basic understanding of the concept, another center will address the students that are just making minor common mistakes and the last center will be for the students that have mastered the material and need enrichment activities.
I will monitor my progress over my re-teaching by giving the formative assessment before and after to ensure the students have improved in their learning.
I will evaluate my learning by reflecting on the re-teaching skills that are most benefitting the students. Then, I plan to eliminate the teaching skills that are not working and improving on the ones that are.
Standard 2: Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.
Change is hard for many people. My goal to get students to be more responsible for their learning is to take one step at a time. I will first teach students how to make goals in their educational career. Then, we will work on how to monitor progress over their learning goals, and then I will teach them how to assess their progress. Students rely on teachers to determine their success. It will be hard to change that, but I think showing the students is the best way.
I plan to get students to be more responsible for their learning by providing resources to get them started. For example; providing I Can statements and tracking charts. Also, I will model for them how the process works. This will give them an example of how to manage their own learning.
I will monitor progress by having individual meetings with each students to check in with them over their goals, progress, and how they are assessing their learning.
I will evaluate the process by asking the students and monitoring their success with their learning.