Reflection on Learning

At the beginning of this course, I developed a GAME plan.  The GAME acronym stands for goals, actions, monitor progress, and evaluate and extend.  My goals were found in the International Society for Technology in Education Standards (ISTE, 2008).  One goal was to “[d]esign or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.”  Another goal was to “[p]romote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.”  I feel that these two goals coincide.  Thus, I have been working on these two goals together.  The action I took in the last few weeks was to incorporate digital tools for the students to express their creative thoughts.  I have monitored the progress by asking the students to reflect on if they enjoyed the digital tools they used throughout a unit about reducing, reusing, and recycling.  After evaluation of this goal, I have concluded that I have been using new digital tools for students to create artifacts of learning.  This is a step in the right direction.  However, I will extend my learning by researching new ideas to incorporate more digital tools into my lessons and units.  Cennamo states that “[c]reativity is of critical importance in today’s world” (Laureate Education Inc., 2009a).  Thus, I need to allow as many opportunities for students to use technology to be creative as possible.

Another goal was to “[c]ommunicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats” (ISTE, 2008).  Over the past few weeks, I have been looking for ways to take action to increase my communication using digital media.  A few days ago, our school has begun to use Twitter as a method of parent communication.  Students can also access Twitter via parents.  In addition, teachers are beginning to follow each other in order to see what each classroom is doing.  I will be inviting parents in the coming week to follow me on Twitter.  After a few weeks of using Twitter, I will plan to monitor my communication methods using a survey sent to parents.  After some feedback is collected, I will evaluate and extend my methods of communication.  This goal is in the early stages because I was following the trends of the school as permissible from administration.  I plan to use digital communication to express how students are using digital tools to express themselves creatively.  I feel that showcasing the students’ creativity will hold me accountable as parents would begin to expect to see the students’ artifacts posted to Twitter.  In revision of my GAME plan, I plan to focus on digital communication in order to build relationships with parents.

As I have been working on my GAME plan, I have realized that students can also develop their own GAME plan regarding content in which they express interest.  Students can select a topic they would like to learn more about.  The topic or section of a topic may be a goal.  The student can decide on an action to help them learn more about the topic.  Then, they can monitor the progress by keeping a journal.  Last, they can evaluate and extend their goal as they reach goals.

There are some immediate modifications I am making to my teaching practices.  I did not used to focus on problem solving as much as I feel like I need to.  When learning about problem solving, I have noticed that so many problems come up during the school day that can be solved by my students if given the opportunity.  The problem and solution can be showcased on our Twitter or blog.  I have realized that my students are able to blog using videos and video responses.  Uploading videos to a blog is something that takes time to learn, but is possible for prekindergarten students.  Students can blog with each other or students from other classrooms. Vicki Davis suggests using video blogs as one way to blog (Laureate Education Inc., 2009b).  Digital storytelling has been engaging for my students.  I would like to use more digital stories during read aloud times.  I conclude by saying that I want my students to see me use “technology to accomplish [my] goals” (Laureate Education Inc., 2009c).  Thus, I need to use the technology that I expect my students to use.

References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for

(NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009a). Integrating technology across the

content areas: Promoting creative thinking with technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009b). Integrating technology across the

content areas: Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009c). Integrating technology across the

content areas: Spotlight on technology: Digital storytelling, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

GAME Plan Status

When reviewing my GAME plan, I think about new ideas and resources, modifications to action plan, new learning, and questions that I have.  For my first goal of using digital devices and resources to promote creativity and learning, I have been maintaining charged devices in literacy and math centers for students to use various applications in order to learn and showcase learning (ISTE, 2008).  The resource I used was already available to me.  However, I am always looking for creative applications that offer higher order thinking and creativity.  I learned that there are more engaging applications than PicCollage.  For example, the students can use Toontastic puppet show application.   I have modified my action plan to include Toontastic on the devices and promote the use of Toontastic for digital storytelling because the students have more flexibility to show their creativity with voice, movement, and expression.  These features were not available on PicCollage. 

Regarding my goal to communicate more effectively with students, parents, and peers with digital media, I have gained some new information (ISTE, 2008).  I have spoken with several parents to determine the frequency in which they are able to visit the blog.  More parents than I expected were unable to view the blog due to no internet access or unfamiliarity with accessing blogs.  My idea as a result of this is to modify my action plan to include available times for parents to come to school to get a tutorial on how to access the blog.  Another idea is to allow parents to use a school device to access the blog via quick response code at certain times of the day.  I feel that this would allow for more parent involvement.  Also, posting a quick response code would allow students, siblings, parents, and other teachers to access the blog with one scan of the reader.  I have learned that providing multiple ways to access information is the key to parent involvement and communication.  I would like to ask my colleagues for input as simple, digital ways to communicate with families.

My third goal is to encourage creativity, innovation, and inventiveness (ISTE, 2008).  I have allowed the students to express themselves creatively using videocameras.  However, this activity that I tried was not using technology in a creative way.  It was more about being creative and videorecording the experience.  Even though my goal was not based in using technology, I would like to modify my goal to include technology in the learning experiences.  However, I am having a difficult time finding technological resources that my students are capable of using.  I thought about finding a flip book resource that is user friendly or another application designed for students in prekindergarten or kindergarten.  Can anybody provide resource ideas that will help promote creativity, innovation, and inventiveness with young students?

References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Ashley Davis

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

As I take a moment to review the three goals of my GAME plan to improve my teaching practice, I think about the resources I need to have available, additional information I need from colleagues or students, and the steps I have attempted so far.  To carry out my first goal of incorporating more digital tools to promote student learning and creativity, I will need to maintain charged personal devices for the students to use during small group time (ISTE, 2008).  So far, I have shown the students how to find letters in the classroom or create letters with the toys.  Some of the students, using their creativity, have created collages of letters using the PicCollage application.  One student went around the classroom taking pictures of the letter “A”.  She found several of the letter “A” to take pictures for her collage.  I encouraged other students who began taking pictures of other letters.  Variety in technology is important (Laureate Education Inc., 2009b).  John Ross mentions that teachers usually can, as I would like to, attend professional development to learn about technology that is available to use to assist the students in showing their skills (Laureate Education Inc., 2009b).  I would like to have some additional information from students about what they know and their creative talents as I collect their work samples.

The next goal I have is to communicate information to students, parents, and peers using digital media (ISTE, 2008).  My plan for this goal is to effectively use the classroom blog as a way of communication.  Before using the blog, I decided to use the Remind 101 application to send emails and text messages to parents.  I did not receive as much response as I would have liked to.  As I attempt to use the blog for communication, I feel that I will be more successful since more media can be posted to the blog such as announcements, pictures, and videos.  I feel that I will receive more response with more exciting media posted.  In addition, I could post videos including content or instructions for students and parents to view at home (Laureate Education Inc., 2009a).  This would help extend the learning to the home environment.  The additional information I need is feedback from the parents about what they would like to see on the blog and how often they will be able to access the blog, if at all.

My third goal is promoting creative, innovative, and inventive thinking (ISTE, 2008).  I was able to provide the students with a writing prompt about how to catch a leprechaun.  The students mostly came up with some variation of putting the leprechauns in a box or cage.  I realized that their writing samples were not very creative, innovative, or inventive.  Thus, I realized that I should enhance their imaginations.  I took the students outside to the playground and the wooded area near the playground on a leprechaun hunt.  Outside, we looked around at the imaginary rainbows which were only imaginary and pots of gold which were tree stumps.  I had the students look for an imaginary leprechaun and try to catch him.  The nature elements sparked their imagination and gave them ideas of how to catch the leprechaun.  Next, I plan to use iPods for the students to create skits showing how to catch a leprechaun.  I would like more information on how to create more creative environments to engage the students in their own creativity and inventiveness.

References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for

teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009a). Integrating technology across the

content areas: Meeting students' needs with technology, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009b). Integrating technology across the

content areas: Meeting students' needs with technology, part 2. Baltimore, MD: Author.

GAME Plan

I have reviewed the International Society for Technology in Education Standards to determine the indicators on which I can improve my teaching practice and create a GAME plan (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).  One goal I have is to “[d]esign or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity”.  One action I will take to achieve the goal is to use personal devices during small group instruction.  I have realized that I do not offer as many opportunities as I should for students to interact with technology for meaningful learning experiences.  For example, I will allow students to create digital artwork including letters and captured images of items that begin with each letter.  I may use these digital work samples to create a digital book on a personal device for the students to read in the library center.  I will monitor progress by ensuring that all students have an opportunity to use the devices frequently to create artifacts to showcase learning in a media of their choice given various applications.  I will post their work to our class blog to promote students using the technology.  My learning will be evaluated and extended after seeing the work the students create and determining how the students can be guided to use a larger variety of digital tools for creativity and showcase of learning.

Another goal that I have is to “[c]ommunicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).  An action I will take to achieve this goal is to use the classroom blog to communicate events, exciting achievements, and student work with parents and students.  Since my students are generally incapable of searching for our blog, I plan to create a quick response code linked to our blog for students to be able to see our blog just by scanning the code.  I will monitor my progress by communicating with parents to gain feedback on the blog as to what can be added.  My learning will be evaluated by taking the parent comments and the frequency of students viewing the blog into consideration to determine the effectiveness of the communication.  Next, I will extend my learning by adjusting the blog components to ensure parent satisfaction and student engagement.

The next goal that I have is to “[p]romote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness” (ISTE source).  The actions I will take to achieve this goal are to encourage students to create something different than their peers, look outside the classroom for student inspiration such as at a nearby park, and post work that is truly innovative to encourage individual thought.  I will monitor the progress by looking at the work of my students to determine how including these actions evolves their work into more creative work.  Then, I will evaluate the students’ work and my teaching practices to determine how I can change my teaching and the classroom environment into a more creative classroom.  The goal can be extended by allowing more media to be used for creativity.

References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers