In order to increase my efficacy as a teacher, I need to continually examine my practices to make sure that I am adeptly preparing my students and growing professionally. Turning my evaluating and assessing skills inward will help me to be able to reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses and begin to make corrections. This on-going process is called self-directed learning, and is essential for me to use in order to meet my own personal learning goals. To guide me in this practice, I will use the GAME plan. According to Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer (2009): "The GAME plan enables you to customize your approach to learning tasks, to develop relevant skills that are important to you, and prepares you for lifelong learning" (pp. 3-4). The four elements included in this plan are: goal setting, taking action, monitoring, and evaluating. By managing my own self-directed learning, I hope to be able to model the same techniques for my students.After visiting the ISTE Web site and reviewing the standards and performance indicators for teachers, I recognize areas where I need improvement. Here is my GOAL plan to help me make the necessary adjustments and strengthen my proficiencies:
c. promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes
Goals—Utilize digital tools for reflective purposes in addition to collaboration
Action—Make use of journaling and/or posts through our class blog, a wiki, email, or specialized software to assess student understanding. Encourage students to respond to classmates' reflections by offering their own views.
Monitor—Become an active participant in this reflective process by providing guidance and feedback.
Evaluate—Determine if reflections are reinforcing content by "facilitating group and community learning" (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 79).
NETS-T-2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity
Goals—Increase authentic experiences and activities for my students that endorse creative thinking
Action—Consider how digital resources can enhance student engagement and autonomy and match available tools with real-world activities. Investigate having students build databases, create digital stories, and design concept maps
Monitor—Continually examine and scrutinize success of activities to determine if students are meeting goals and mastering skills
Evaluate—Determine if the technology tools and activities are good matches, if they support the course content and learning goals, and if they are being used in purposeful ways. Determine what changes need to be made to improve.
NETS-T-2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments c. customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources
Goals—To consider the unique and diverse needs of my students when planning activities
Action—Use student data and observation to adjust activities to match abilities, learning styles, and backgrounds
Monitor—Perform ongoing assessments to determine if students are reaching potential
Evaluate—Determine if grades, understanding, and performance correlate. Examine technology tools, lesson plans, and allotted time to make necessary modifications.
NETS-T-3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
c. communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats
Goals—To make use of a variety of channels to communicate with my students
Action—Investigate assigning students to update our class blog daily with assignments and pertinent class information. Increase use of email for whole-class messages. Consider using Voicethread to share information and ideas. Investigate designing class Web page.
Monitor—Request feedback from students on new channels of communication and track use
Evaluate—Based on comments concerning new communication formats, make adjustments to better suit suggestions, criticism, and views.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final
Posts
Hello Wanda,
ReplyDeleteThroughout this master's program, I have definitely honed my skills related to self-directed learning which has been such a positive aspect as I learn new technology tools and how to integrate them into my instruction. A key word that struck home with me is when you mentioned patience. I agree that it will take time to include more technology in the learning environment and just keeping up with modern technology that is constantly changing on a daily basis can be quite the challenge. Taking things one at a time and in small increments will contribute to all of the modifications that I am planning for current teaching practices. Wonderful post as usual. Your goals are very specific and certainly attainable. You have such a crisp, clear, and concise writing style.
Kristin
Nice job with the game plan! I like how you laid out the framework to help you achieve your ultimate goal and helping students become Self-Directed learners.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the ISTE standards are important and we as teachers have to become proficient in using them so our students can also benefit from them.
Good Post,
Eric
Wanda,
ReplyDeleteYou have a very nice and professional looking blog here. You also have a very nice response to this week's writing prompt.
My biggest weakness is the monitoring aspect of the GAME plan. I am very good at trying new things and embracing technology and what I lack in expertise I make up for with enthusiasm. When it comes to monitoring my successes and failures I have a lot to learn.
I especially like how you address the monitoring in your personal GAME plan. your monitoring section is simple, consise, and has a specific purpose. I strongly feel that it is through this monitoring of ourselves that we can reflect to better develop our craft as educators.
You have a nice post here, keep up the great work and thanks for sharing.
Kristin
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insights as well as your kind words. I certainly agree that this program through Walden has given us exposure to self-directed learning skills and how to use them as we discover new technology or varied ways to utilize current technology. Learning new technology and strategies has given me the encouragement I need to now bring them to my students--but in activities that will be meaningful and in sequential steps that they can build on.
Paul
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback, support, and compliments. I agree that the monitoring phase can be a challenge. This self-reflection process is so necessary, though, as we determine if what we are gaining is aligned with our goals. It is sometimes difficult to establish whether our plan needs revising or if it is just working slowly. I view this monitoring step as a way to improve and regroup--what is working and what is not--just like we do with our lessons. You mentioned that you like to try new things, to improve; and this is an important factor in being able to monitor ourselves.
Eric
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your comments and hope your classes are going well. Constructing our GAME plans this week has helped me to acknowledge areas that need changing and develop a strategy to help me make modifications. I agree that by structuring and reflecting on our own learning, we can then pass the same skills on to our students and broaden the learning experience for them.
Wanda,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the post and thought you covered it beautifully. I was especially glad to see that you were familiar with your personal and teacher efficacy. I beleive it is a much misunderstood and misused behavior. Along those lines, I was curious to see when you might assess your student's efficacy across these domain specific areas you addressed. If students are not performing to ability, how might you use efficacy builders to increase confidence and behavior?
Additionally, I enjoyed reading about your committment to communicating relevent information to your students via blogs, etc. However, does your GAME plan include communicating with parents along those same lines?
Terrific job and a pleasure to read.
Lauren
I really enjoyed reading your post. Your GAME plan for each standard was very clear. Have you started to implement any of this into your class? How do you think this will help your class? Do you think your students will respond to this? Keep up the good work!
ReplyDelete~Becky
Hi Wanda,
ReplyDeleteYour post is very comprehensive-good job! Your final comments ring true with me, as I have to remind myself to be patient - one cannot do it all in one school year, no matter how much we would like. I think the point made in this week's video resources about needing a supportive environment is an important one, as we need to use the resources around us, including colleagues, to help us make the strides we would like to and that our learners deserve (Laureate Education, Inc., 2008).
Monica
Reference
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Program number three. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas [Motion picture]. Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology, Part 1. Baltimore: Author.
Lauren
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your insights on my GAME plan. As you stated, efficacy is important for both teachers and students. My goal is to assess my students and myself continually in order to determine areas that need to be revisited or adjusted. When modifications are required, I think it is good to use additional modeling and scaffolding in order for my students to get a clearer picture of where their focus should be. In this way, their confidence is boosted by feeling secure in their learning direction.
Concerning your question on my correspondence with parents--you are right that it is missing in my GAME plan. My students are adults (or nearly) and I rarely speak with their parents. In fact, I am not allowed to disclose information such as grades, attendance, or personal information to anyone except my students. However, if I did communicate with them, I would want to use the same channels that I use to share information with my students.
Again, thank you so much for your contributions to my GAME plan. It is in this collaborative process that I am able to clarify my thoughts and continue to work on my effectiveness.
Becky
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your input. Yes, I have started to implement all of my action plans; however, this will be an ongoing process. I have seen student motivation increase since putting more concentration on pairing technology tools with authentic activities. Also, because of the ability to differentiate, my students are finding varied ways to express themselves and learn content at the same time. I hope to continue to realize these gains as I employ my GAME plan.
Monica
ReplyDeleteI agree that while it is crucial to have a GAME plan, it can also take time to implement it and see the desired changes. As you suggested, having supportive colleagues and other available resources are so important in the success of our GAME plans. Interacting and exchanging ideas with others can help us to reaffirm our priorities in education and then design a plan to put them into action.
Thanks so much for your views and also for your kind words.