Developing My Personal GAME Plan

The two standards that I chose to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in are (1)Model Digital-age Work and Learning and (2) Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.

My goal is to be more knowledgeable in new technologies and to incorporate those technologies into my lesson plans and to help other teachers incorporate them into their lesson plans. I would like to collaborate with other teachers using these new technologies. I believe that this will benefit me, my colleagues and our students.

To achieve these goals, I need to make a commitment to engage in learning opportunities and projects that will strengthen my technology skills. I do not believe that I am currently at a place where I am comfortable with the new technologies that are out there. I feel that in some cases that maybe my students are more knowledgeable than I am. I need to take more initiative and spend more time exploring these different technologies and determine what may be useful and beneficial to me, my students and my colleagues.

I believe that I can monitor my progress in these standards by how comfortable I become with these new technologies. I believe that by becoming comfortable with these new technologies and exploring them that I will have more confidence teaching these technology tools to my students and my colleagues. Being able to communicate the advantages of utilizing these tools and teaching my students and colleagues about the unlimited technological resources available to them is my goal. However, in order to do so, I know that I need to take a more proactive approach to learning about all of these tools. I will utilize the internet and different learning opportunities that are available through my district and local colleges to further my skills.

I will evaluate my progress by setting short term goals and monitoring my success. For example, one short term goal would be to introduce a tool to a colleague and collaborate on a project utilizing the tool. I believe that by collaborating with a colleague I will be more apt to take the initiative to further my skills in order to help the project succeed.

Any thoughts that you may have please comment. I look forward to hearing from you.

New Literacies Week 8

This course, Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom, has been a very beneficial and helpful course. The most striking revelation that I had about the teaching of new literacy skills is the importance of verifying sources. I believe that many of my students do not verify the correctness and validity of their sources. Most assume that all information on the website is correct. I am also one who probably did not spend as much time and effort as I should in verifying website for validity. This is definitely something that I will review with my students in the classroom.

I hope to utilize many of the techniques that were outlined in this course. This course has been very helpful for me. I teach computer applications so I feel that many of these techniques will be beneficial to my students and help them with their other courses as well as future projects. I am excited to incorporate many of the ideas / techniques into my lesson plans.

One professional development goal that I would like to pursue is to become more Internet savvy. I believe that there is so much to explore on the Internet. Also, I do not feel that I am where I need to be professionally when it comes to utilizing, verifying and synthesizing Internet sources. I hope to explore the net and review the techniques that I learned from this course. By doing so, I believe that I will be more comfortable with my information literacy skills. This not only will benefit me, but will also benefit my students.

Reflection

After reviewing my personal theory of learning, I do not feel that I will make any major modifications. I will continue to utilize collaboration in my classroom. I believe that by allowing students to collaborate and to utilize each other’s strengths and build upon their weaknesses, they become more involved in the learning process and are more inclined to retain the material. Also, I will try to encompass as many learning theories into my classroom as possible to try to reach all learning styles and abilities.
I am eager to use Voice Thread and virtual tours in my classroom. I have already had my students try out the virtual tour. They seemed to enjoy the experience. I am getting ready to have my Computer Apps II class complete a project using Voice Thread. I’m excited to see how this will work out.
One goal that I have is to use more images and graphics in my PowerPoint presentations. From listening to Dr. Orey speak in his videos, I realized that maybe I use too many words and not enough images. Another goal I have is just to embrace different technologies and to not be afraid to make changes and expand on what I have been doing in the past. I am excited to learn and use about different technologies and to utilize them in my classroom.

Respect in the Classroom

Voice Thread Post

http://voicethread.com/share/1041236/

Attached is the link to my voicethread.

Social Learning Theory

This weeks lesson deals with social learning theory. I believe that one of the most important skills that students can learn in the high school setting is how to effectively interact with others. I believe that this skill will be invaluable to them in the future. If students are unable to communicate and collaborate with others, they will have a difficult time in the workforce.
In many of my classes, I try to create projects in which I can group students together and have them work toward a common goal / assignment. Currently, the technologies that I utilize most are blogging and wikis. I am excited to learn about the Voicethread technology. I believe that I can find many uses for this in my classroom. Also, I believe that it might be a great way to have the students interact and gain confidence in their communication skills.
We teach our students many things but are they just memorizing facts or can they apply the knowledge? I believe one way to ensure that they can infact apply the knowledge is to allow them to work collectively and to collaborate to build upon each others strengths and weakness and gain a better understanding of the content.

Constructionism

There are many tools that were discussed in the learning resources this week that can be utilized to accomodate the constructionism theory. Many of the Microsoft Office applications are great tools that allow students to create and build. I also use wikis as a tool to allow students to explore. By utilizing these tools students are engaged in learning and the process of creating.