Monitoring my GAME plan

One of the goals in my GAME plan was to incorporate technology into two activities per unit. I also wanted to loosen the boundaries to allow my students to be more creative. I recently started a unit and wanted a multi-day activity to fill the half days of school prior to Thanksgiving. This caused me to think of an activity that closely aligned with what we were doing at the beginning of the project. The students had just learned ratio and started using ratios, percents, fractions, and differences in comparison statements. The textbook gave example of advertisements and I decided to have my students create an advertisement. They were required to look up factual information about a company of their choice. From there they were given the freedom to be creative and design an advertisement and the only requirement was that they had to write 4 comparison statements, include 1 in their advertisement, and explain why they chose it. I did give the students the option of creating their ad using technology or using a poster. A majority chose the poster because that’s what they were comfortable with. There was a student who created a video and others who used Publisher. Regardless, technology was used in some way in each child’s project.

So far I have not needed to use the internet for my own research. I came up with the idea of the advertisement and it evolved through conversations with other teachers. My colleague also did the project with her class and they, too, seemed to have fun with the creative nature of the assignment. Some embraced the technology more than others.

At this point I do not think I need to alter my action plan. Throughout the first 3 weeks of this course I have developed many ideas as to how to implement technology so I do not think it will be as difficult as I originally thought. Some things I am truly excited to get to with my students because I want to see how it will affect their learning.

So far I have learned that my mindset had to change. I was always trying to force the technology because I wanted my students to have that experience for Math, but because it was forced it was not beneficial. In the past I was also avoiding technology because the technology at our school is so bad, but I now know that I just have to suck it up and deal with it because the value outweighs the struggles. Lastly, I had to realize that I need to look at my lesson plans and see where technology would fit naturally and be a good resource for the students in what it achieving the objective.

In doing the advertisement project with my students, I was hoping that more students would pick the technology as a means of presentation. Perhaps it’s because they have not had enough experiences at this point with enough software to feel comfortable with them so they are playing it safe and doing what they know. Should I force the technology upon my students or continue to let them choose? I kind of feel like at some point I have to force them to use something they might not be familiar with or else they will not make any growth. Thoughts?

Resources for GAME plan

The biggest resource that I hope to have to accomplish my GAME plan is the help and support of colleagues. This is only my third year teaching and my third year teaching with the teachers I’m teaching with. In the past year I have noticed a division in our mathematics department because one other teacher and I are actively trying to progress our school’s mathematics program into the 21st century and use student-directed lessons that utilize technology. Many of the teachers in our department are very happy using direct instruction and don’t want to change that. Without the support of the other teachers in the department, it also makes it harder to get newer technology that we desperately need.

Anyways, until that happens I plan to utilize the internet for ideas and resources that will help me to find activities and projects that allow students to be creative. I actually did come up with one idea for a unit I am currently teaching to inspire creativity in my students. The unit we are working on is using ratios, percentages, fractions, and differences to make comparisons, particularly in advertisements. Over the next few days, because we have shortened class periods, my students are going to be creating an advertisement for a product where they have to use a percentage, fraction, or difference in their advertisement. Their advertisement can also be made using any means they would like - poster, PowerPoint, Publisher, etc.

I am still struggling with how to create a technology-enriched environment that allows students to explore their curiosities in Math while still making sure they are meeting the academic standards. This is where I need more help and information. Attending a conference or seminar may help as well as conversing with other teachers on a blog or wiki site.

GAME Plan for Integrating Technology

When I first visited the International Society for Technology in Education website and looked at the National Education Standards for Teachers, I felt like I had a lot of work to go. I looked again to try to focus on just a couple of things that I would select as my goals and started to feel a little bit better.

The first standard states: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity. I do not feel fully comfortable with this standard and do not feel like I am meeting this standard in a couple of ways. Inspiring student learning is not the part that I struggle with; it is the creativity. As a middle school math teacher the actual concepts are relatively black-and-white and I struggle with how to incorporate creativity into Math.

The second standard states: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. Due to a limited amount of accessible, working technology, I tend to shy away from using the technology that I do have at my disposal because it is often more trouble than its worth. Therefore, I do not feel I am doing a good enough job at creating digital-age learning experiences and assessments.

One of my goals to feeling more comfortable and proficient at both these standards is to incorporate an element of technology in at least two activities per unit. The main thing holding me back is me and my hesitance to go outside of the comfort-zone. The action that I will take to accomplish this goal is to review my unit plan before the start of the unit and identify where technology could be used to better learning tool. From there I will alter my lesson plans to incorporate some type of technology. I will have to monitor my own progress through self-reflection. I could keep a record of each time I implement a technology and assess what went well and did not go well and how I can avoid some of the blunders in the future.

Within the second standard it states: teacher develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress. Many of my students are not curious about math and it is hard to even guide them into something they would be curious about. Also, I find that when I incorporate technology into a lesson, I am still quite restrictive with the students. Therefore, I want to set a goal to loosen up the boundaries and allow students to have more control over their learning. One of my fears with this is that the content standards will not be met, but with the right assignment I think it could work. Since I currently do not know how I would do this, I will need to work with my colleagues to brainstorm a way to achieve this goal. Through the conversations with my colleagues at our designated department meetings I will be able to monitor the progress. When an idea is finally being implemented, I will evaluate the idea and my ability to provide a technology-enriched learning environment based on the independence of the students and the amount of technology they are using.

Does anyone have any ideas for my math classroom?