As I continue to dig into my GAME plan (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009) and as I work my way through my current course at Walden, I am constantly learning new information to help me work toward my goals. Like I have stated previously, one of my main goals is to implement collaborative blogging between my students and a class from another state or country to help my students enhance their cultural and global awareness. Well, this week I learned about a variety of tools that could help me do just that and more. In my current class, we are focusing on social networking and online collaboration this week. This coincides to my goals perfectly! This week I have discovered so many other ways my students could collaborate with other students outside of our area that I had never before considered. These include Wiggio, micro-blogging tools such as Twitter, Ning, and ePals (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009). In reviewing the NETS-T (National Education Standards for Teachers, 2008), I see that there are numerous other learning goals I would eventually like to set for myself so that I can become a better instructor and so that I can better prepare my students for the twenty-first century workplace. However, in light of the new information I seem to be constantly learning in this class, I do not think it is fair to either myself or my students to start working on new goals at this time. Rather, I want to explore these new tools, which I have not had a chance to do yet, so that I can extend the knowledge I have already gained as I have worked my way through my GAME plan (Cennamo et al., 2009). By thoroughly focusing on just a few of these tools and considering how I can successfully implement them in my classroom, I believe I will do better justice to my students rather than I would if I went ahead and skipped ahead to make new goals when I haven’t truly learned all I want to know so that I can reach my original goals with my students.
That is one of the most pivotal things I have learned throughout this process--not to overwhelm myself or my students by trying too much too soon. I am guilty sometimes of being overly ambitious; I see new and exciting technologies and want to figure out ways I can integrate them all at once into my classroom. When that becomes too challenging though, I seem to burn out and go back to my traditional ways of instruction. That is something I want to keep in mind as I strive to improve my learning. You do not finish a race in one leap; instead, you just keep putting one foot forward. Rather than focusing on quantity, I want to strive instead to focus on quality. I want to remember that it is okay to start with just two goals and to stick with those for a while. Once those have been achieved and are moving along, at that point it is important to consider moving forward with new goals. However, not everything happens overnight, and it is important for me to remember that as I continue my learning.
As I work this week to revise my GAME plan (Cennamo et al., 2009), I have learned that my GAME plan is a good one and that I want to continue focusing on the goals I have set for myself before I try to “burden“ myself with more goals simply for the sake of saying I have them. By continuing to seek information and to test out new tools related to my current goals, I can confidently and successfully implement these technologies in my classroom for my students’ benefit before moving on to new and exciting goals in the future!
Amanda Bryant
8th grade reading/language arts
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Spotlight on Technology: Social Networking and Online Collaboration, Part 1. Baltimore: Author.
National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/
2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf
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I also have the problem of being overly ambitious. Reading and viewing about the social networking sites makes me want to start one now - and I only have 7 days of school left. I need to play with the software over the summer, gain some confidence, and plan some ideas. I don't want to use these sites just to say I that I am using them. Like you, I will try to focus on one or two things at a time.
ReplyDeleteToby Abrahamsen
6th grade L/A
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more that we need to pace ourselves. If we are feeling burned out as teachers, the students will feel the same way. I know that it sounds lazy, but I try to get students to do some of the things that I would have to take home so that I have more time to improve lessons and prevent burnout. I think it is good for the students to evaluate their own work instead of just submitting it for a grade and not looking at it any further.
Being realistic is key. Making a goal to just say you have one is not the purpose. I find that I too sometimes bite off more than I can chew. I have tried to make my goals extentions of things that I already do within my classroom. It is helpful to see what you currently use and then make goals that you will actually be successful at meeting.
ReplyDelete