Monitoring Your GAME Plan Progress

Again, thank you colleagues for your continuous support and feedback in regards to my GAME plan. I feel as though I am making progress towards one of my goals and that is with setting up and utilizing Edmodo in the classroom. I spoke with one of the History teachers in my building who uses technology in his classroom quite frequently and he gave me some great feedback. He told me the more I utilize it within the classroom, the better it will be for my students. They will also tend to use it more if they know how to use it. He also gave me ways I can use it to encourage discussion among the group which would be great for student interaction. I have decided it would be best to focus on one area for my GAME plan even though I feel as though I have two great goals. I think with everything already consuming my time, focusing in on implementing Edmodo would be best and the students could really benefit from this experience.

There are four questions I would like to address. Here are the questions and my answers to each question.

1.      Are you finding the information and resources you need?

I feel as though I am finding the information and resources that I need. I have been able to connect with a teacher at school who uses Edmodo in his classroom and I have also been reading some blog posts about utilizing Edmodo. The internet is a great way to locate and find some good resources! The Edmodo site has been the most helpful because it breaks down different uses for Edmodo.

2.      Do you need to modify your action plan?

I do not feel as though I need to modify my action plan for using Edmodo. I did however modify my action plan with collaborating with another middle school teacher outside of my school to set up a wiki page or blog. My reasoning for this is because I want to focus in on one area right now so I can really get the most out of my experience with using the Edmodo. I need to brainstorm on ways I could utilize the wiki page or blog with another middle school teacher first before I approach them with the idea. There is just so much consuming my time and I felt getting the Edmodo site up and running would be best for my students at this time.

3.      What have you learned so far?

I have learned some really cool features with using Edmodo. There is a calendar feature I can set up for my classes so they can see due dates of assignments or upcoming quizzes and tests. This feature is great because it keeps the students informed and they can refer to it if they left their planners at school or didn’t write down the assignment! I would love to continue hearing ways about how teachers you know or how you yourself utilize Edmodo! In the next couple of weeks, I will be taking my students to our computer lab to help get them signed up! Yay!

4.   What new questions have arisen?

I am curious how teachers signed up their students. Did you have the students log on to computers as a whole class and walk them through the process? I have thought about doing that so that way it is explained easily to a larger group. What do you suggest doing?

Carrying Out My Game Plan

I received some GREAT feedback in regards to my GAME plan. Thank you to the colleagues of mine that left comments because this really helped me to develop a good mindset as to how I could effectively work towards getting this plan in place. I was given some great programs that can be utilized well in the classroom.  For example, Edmodo, a site program similar to Facebook, was suggested by many of my colleagues.

There are several resources I will need to carry out my plan. First, I wanted to research the usage of Edmodo a little further and understand how it can be utilized in the classroom. I decided to use the internet to research Edmodo and typed in “using Edmodo in the classroom”. Fortunately I came across a blog from another online user (http://teachingthatsticks.blogspot.com/2010/02/using-edmodo-in-classroom-five-days.html) that laid out some good foundation and rules for using Edmodo. This particular user also discussed ways in which his students were learning through Edmodo.  I also went to the Edmodo site (http://www.edmodo.com/) and watched a video on how to turn my classroom into a community with Edmodo. In order to move forward, I would love any and all types of ways you utilize Edmodo in the classroom (if you do!). I would like to continue learning new ways to incorporate this into my everyday teaching practices. I went ahead and set up my teacher account, however I want to get confirmation from my principal that this will be okay to use with my students. I am not quite sure if I need to send something home with the students so the parents are aware as well. For those of you that use it at your school, how did you go about this process?

My second strategy is to develop a collaborative partnership with the other middle school in my district. I have contacted some of the other teachers at the school, but unfortunately I am not receiving much support from them. I would eventually like to sit with one of the teachers to brainstorm ways our classes could collaborate with each other, if one of them is willing. With that being said, I started to research ways to collaborate within a global community. For example, in one of my previous courses, one of my colleagues mentioned the “ePals” website. I will be conducting more online research on how to effectively collaborate with another class globally. I will also need to look into getting this approved by my principal. One of my plans is to explore the “ePals” website to gather ideas as to how I could make the collaborative community work with my math students. Have any of you had experience with ePals?

I feel I have some good ideas. However I really want to focus on one aspect of my GAME plan which is the Edmodo. I do not really feel as if I have the second strategy well-developed. I suppose this will come with time, but I feel the Edmodo site will be good because students will be able to still collaborate, but on a smaller scale for now. 

Developing My Personal GAME Plan

The two NETS-T indicators I have chosen in order to strengthen my confidence are:

1d. Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

3b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.

I chose these two indicators because I feel I have room for improvement in the areas of facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity, and also modeling digital age work and learning. The goal I would like to set for strengthening my confidence and proficiency in the first indicator is to establish a collaborative partnership with the other middle school within my district. I would like to collaborate with another class through blogging, utilizing a wikispace, a social networking site such as Twitter, or even through e-mail. To achieve this goal, I will begin my own collaboration with another eighth grade teacher from the other middle school and discuss different ways our students could utilize technology to communicate with each other, and to help each other with the math we are learning. I might also ask how they utilize technology with their students in class in terms of collaboration. I will also research other ways different teachers and classrooms engage students, colleagues, and others in learning. To monitor my progress, I think it’s important to keep in contact with the teacher and develop a plan for how the students can utilize the technology as a collaborative learning experience. It is also important to reflect upon how the students are responding to the collaborative efforts put in place. In order to evaluate and extend my learning, it is important to maintain a collaborative relationship with this other teacher so we can continue the developed partnership. I also think we should examine the effectiveness of the collaborative knowledge gained by the students and teachers during the experience if we do set something up between our classes. This would be my first experience with collaborative construction with technology so I would be open to any suggestions as to how other teachers might utilize this within their own classrooms.

The second indicator I chose concerns collaborating with students, peers, parents, and community members to support student success and innovation. I currently have a classroom website where students can access basic classroom information such as homework, notes, announcements, etc. I would like to extend this piece and incorporate some way of collaborating with the students in the event they want to reach out to others while they are at home. There are two options I was thinking I could take action with. The first option would be to set up a classroom blog. The second option would be to set up a classroom Facebook page. I feel as if the second option would be best only because so many students are on Facebook daily. A student might see a math-related question posted on the page by a classmate or peer, and would easily be able to respond to them. I have considered giving my students a survey for which networking tool they would find to be the most beneficial for them in their success. It would also be fun to post a challenging problem and having the students interact with each other to come up with an answer. This would be something done on their own time. I do have two concerns with this idea. Some of my students do not have access to a computer at home. However, most can access Facebook on their cell phones. Secondly, I would want to make sure their responses to one another are appropriate and on task. Addressing this up front would be essential. In order to monitor their progress, I would be able to see who is posting and encouraging ALL students to post if they can. To evaluate and extend their learning, I would make sure the Facebook page or blogging tool is being used appropriately. I would ask or survey students within the class to find out what components they feel to be the most helpful. This will be good for me because then I can make adjustments to what I can post in order to help the students or what actions I can take to appropriately meet their needs.