Reflection

As I walk away from this course I realize that my learning has really just begun. Knowing that technology will continue to emerge and students will continue to enter my classroom with more diversity than ever before, it is essential that I do not stop my professional development simply because my Masters is completed. I am thankful that this course has provided me with more resources and clearer definitions of how to apply what I have learned.
My classroom learning community has already benefited from my learnings; students are more frequently using technology across all content areas. I am becoming more comfortable with the idea that not all of my students need to be doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. Wow, I sound very old school even admitting that my classroom tended to operate in this manner! Fortunately, while my students are learning and growing this year, as their teacher I am as well. I am very excited to continue to implement new instructional tools into my lessons and I am seeking out grants to help my school advance in our resources available.
While I have been exposed to many new resources from this class, I will need to continue to locate resources that are geared more towards second graders. Technology can be exciting and engaging, I always need to focus on the essential understandings to ensure that the end goal will be achieved by my students and that the tool is age level appropriate.
At times I get frustrated because I feel like I am on a solitaire ship traveling up river with my push to design more differentiated instruction and UDL into my lessons. I understand the importance of applying technology into my lessons to make DI and UDL possible. Yet as I collaborate with other members of our school technology committee, I am often told that our school is already doing well with technology and we should be thankful for what we have. With a student body of 654 students, I struggle appreciating the mere forty-five laptops we have to share. Our school needs more because our students deserve the best education possible.

PTA Support Presentation

Realizing that 25% of our student population is reading below grade level by the time they reach fourth grade, I am proposing to PTA the following presentation:

http://prezi.com/ysmfywlzgowx/online-learning-modules/

Lexia is an online reading program that individualizes reading instruction to the student. A para is not needed to teach the student and the progress is made easily available to the teacher. Students time away from core instruction is limited, as the recommended time with Lexia is a mere twenty minutes per day, which would be a great addition to a students literacy time. I would love to hear your feedback, prior to my presentation!

Reflection

As I reflect on my learning over the past few months around my GAME plan, I realized that I made terrific progress in some areas but, there are still some other areas where I see a need for improvement. My first goal was to increase the implementation of new lessons that provide relevant learning experiences while incorporating digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity. Originally, I planned to develop one of two lessons a month but found myself increasingly striving to plan one to two lessons a week as I noticed how engaged my students became with each new lesson. In regards to my goal of emailing the finished lessons or posting them on my website so that parents are able to see the digital-age work and learning occurring in the classroom, I found that I had forgotten about the amount of time it takes a beginning of the year second grader to complete a project using technology. I still hope that I will be able to communicate with parents their students’ successes however as the year progresses.

Another goal I am continuing to work on is engaging in more professional growth opportunities to collaborate will fellow teammates around technology. I am struggling, however, in positioning myself in groups that are challenging me to grow in my skills, as it seems I am doing more teaching then learning. I am becoming more proficient at the skills and tools I already know. However, when I set out to achieve this goal I envisioned myself learning more about integration and implementation of technology not just sharing what I already knew. I do still plan to reach this goal, and now understand the reality that I will need to branch outside of my school to further my development. Though this is not my preference, nor will it be as convenient, I believe it will be more beneficial for my students and me in the end. Though I need to come up with more feasible and flexible communities to collaborate with, I am excited to attend the ISTE conference in Philadelphia this summer!

I can say that I am effectively and actively modeling digital age lessons! My students are provided with ample opportunities to use the tools to show and further their learning. I am excited for second semester when more time will be devoted to using the tools to share their learning verses this semester where much of our time is consumed by learning how to use the technology. My teammates are also enjoying the new lessons and slowly but surely creeping on board. I would like to see our school dedicate more time to professional development opportunities where teachers are expected to model digital age lessons that are successful in their classrooms.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students...

As I think about how I can assist my students in becoming proficient in the technology standards, the first thing that comes to mind is exposure and opportunity. Many of my students have computer assess at home, however they tend to go to the same games and websites they are familiar with. As their teacher I need to provide lessons and time for my students to play and discover. Just as adult learners in technology need time to play and learn, kids also need that time. In fact, it has been my experience that many kids are better at playing and teaching themselves about the computer than many adults. I also think it is my responsibility as their teacher to show my students the standards and explain/model what being proficient at each of them would like. From there, the goal setting comes into play. My students are very familiar with setting goals and using strategies to reach those goals. We goal set in all content areas, it would make sense for us to do the same in technology.

Revising My GAME Plan

As I revise my game plan I feel it is necessary to review and repost my goals. My two goals are: 1.Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments,and 2.Model Digital-Age Work and Learning.

In regards to goal number one, I am not too pleased with my progress. Yes, my students are benefiting from digital learning experiences, and yes I am providing those experiences for them. However, I have not been able to create time for expanding my own knowledge to design NEW lessons. Instead, it seems that the time I would normally be able to sit down and "play" prior to developing a new lesson, I am being pulled to share everything I am doing with my colleagues. Don't get me wrong I know it is important to share with your team mates and that our students are all of our students. I am just getting frustrated that at this point it feels like the professional development time we are given is only benefiting the teachers who have no background experience with digital learning tools because all the rest of us are stuck teaching it. I get that we need to share our knowledge. I struggle with the idea that my time is not being respected though, as it seems that if we are stuck teaching everyone else, we are not getting the time needed to continue to expand our own knowledge. It is with this time that I would like to be able to sit down and DESIGN new lessons that I can then provide to my students. That being said, I am working on improving the amount of time that I can dedicate to improving my ability to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments. I spoke with my administration about requiring independent time to play with technology, rather than always having to have collaboration and sharing time. I believe this will be very beneficial to myself and to my colleagues. It will help me...as I struggle being able to tell a colleague no when they ask for help, and it will help my colleagues as they will be forced to actually learn how to use the tools rather then depend on someone else to do it for them.

As for goal number 2, well as you can see from above, I have been doing a lot of modeling! I am ready for the learning now... On a serious note, my students are coming to school with ideas from what they practiced at home and sharing with me what they chose to create or use on our class website at home. So I know the modeling is happening not only from me, but from my students as well. I am pleased with the progress of this goal.

Evaluating my GAME Plan

Is anyone else amazed that another week has already passed? As I think about my goals and how I am doing in meeting them, I am torn. Part of me feels like I have not dedicated near enough time into them, however, the other part of me thinks I am naturally incorporating steps into my daily teaching and planning to meet them. My biggest problem is that I continuously feel like I should be doing more and can not seem to be satisfied with celebrating the things I have implemented. Does anyone feel this way? I am continuing to update my website, encouraging my students to blog, my students independently completed a descriptive writing activity and presented it on Tagxedo, a group of students is working on a script for a voicethread about what we are discovering in science, and parents are telling me that their kids are coming home excited to show them new things they are learning in school.

My goal for this week is to introduce http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ to my students as a choice for free-write time.

My Progress...

Our technology committee met this week and I left there quite discouraged. Of our 75 laptops we have had in the previous years, 26 of them are broken. I know that I should be thankful for the laptops that we do have, however, at a time when I am anxious and enthusiastic to implement new lessons into my classroom with my students, it is discouraging to learn that our mode of instruction is diminishing. As a second grade teacher I am kind of at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to prioritizing what grade level would benefit the most from the computers and when we are now sharing 49 computers between 636 students, my time available for computer check out is looking slim. In relation to how this is impacting my progress with the goals I have set, I will say that my first instinct was to revamp them as I felt like why bother if we don't have the tools. But then my pouting session ended and I decided to be proactive. I have applied for several grants in hopes of adding more computers back into our school.

Our tech committee has already started discussing what lessons we want to share with the other teachers first to get more technology integrated into the classrooms across the grade levels. My students began blogging today about the books they are reading and I am anxious for more to begin sharing their writing on the blog as the week progresses. Parents are actively checking the class website and responding to my emails. I am hoping to get parents to begin commenting on the class blog as well. I think this will be a powerful tool for students, as it guarantees them an audience.