Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Developing my personal GAME plan

So sorry folks.  Something odd happened with my old blog account.  I was having difficulty posting and when trying to resolve the issue, I no longer see my original blog.  I am updating as fast as possible. 

When looking through the Technology Standards I realized I would like to be more proficient in many areas, but I decided to focus this year on:

1.      Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats

2.      Design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity

In order to share information with families about my students, I will learn how to create digital portfolios.  I am very intrigued at the simplicity this can create and the organizational factor is huge.  I used to keep portfolios on my students, but when I began having such large class sizes, it went to the wayside.  As far as pursuing my goal with integrating more digital creativity, I will contact a colleague of mine that uses digital story-telling for a unit we put together.  I see her dedicating a large amount of time for students to create their story, so I need to definitely plan accordingly. 

It will be evident whether or not I am able to pursue my goals or not.  My hopes are to have students using a lap top to share they work with families by spring conference.  As well, the unit I want my students to use digital story-telling with begins in the spring.  I will keep track of my progress initially by creating these two items on my own. 

In order to properly evaluate the two goals I have set for myself, I would first like to have a family evaluation about how they felt the conference went using the digital format.  As for the digitial story-telling project, I would seek out critical feedback from my colleague that has used this previously and attending many trainings on implementation.

6 comments:

  1. Kelly,

    Your goals are commendable. Digital storytelling is a great way for students to get involved in the writing process (Cennamo, 2009). Video casting, podcasts, and the attending storyboarding and narrative writing motivate the children as well as hone a number of skills related to authorship (Laureate Education, 2012). Importantly, these actions can be monitored at various stages before the conclusion. In these phases patterns can be detected and activities tweaked for the benefit of the students.

    Communication with parents can be enhanced with blogs and wikis. Portfolio artifacts can be posted as well as photos and videos to keep the parents well-informed in real time. Skype and other software might be utilized to facilitate face to face meetings with those who cannot attend parents' night, etc. Thanks for your thoughts.

    Dennis

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    1. Dennis,
      I do appreciate project based learning due to the opportunities it lends for monitoring at various stages like you mentioned. I always stuggle with differentiating without other students or the struggling students themselves noticing their assignment is different. Also, I like you idea of using Wikis as a way to communicate with parents. I know this year only two of my students have internet access, but it could be something to utilize at some point in my career.
      Kelly

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  2. Kelly,

    I look forward to seeing how things work with digital portfolios and digital storytelling for you. I am also interested in keeping digital portfolios as I have so many students it is difficult to keep track of everything over the course of the year.

    I was wondering if you are aware if your school uses ISTE standards or not (http://www.iste.org/standards). I wasn't aware that our school had adopted them until I became tech coordinator, then as I asked teachers they balked at the idea of adding any more standards to the curriculum so it seems we're not mandating them. I'm curious to know if other schools use the standards or if they are deemed optional.

    Alisha

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    1. We are adopting or very recently have adopted the ISTE standards. You are right in the part about them not be mandated as such. My district still seems to be playing clean-up rather than being preventive. We continuously put all of our emphasis on reading and math. Actually we were told not to teach Social Studies because there just is not enough time. It is a shame, but luckily enough teachers know what we have to do and we get it done behind closed doors.
      Kelly

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  3. Kelly,
    I have some how missed this particular form of technology. Is a digital portfolio a scanning of work students have done in class and as an assignment or is it completed all on the computer? Thanks for shaking my brain. I have something go look up now. Thanks for the new idea.
    Jill

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  4. Jill, I do not have the book infront of me, but it was in one of the chapters we have read in this course. I have never done it before, but it does involve scanning if it is written work of course.
    Kelly

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