Reflection

I have enjoyed creating a game plan for this course. Although I did not fully complete my game plan I have begun to implement the plan into my classroom. The newsletters have been a hit with parents. By communicating through email parents are more likely to receive them and are able to communicate back to me without the fear that I may never receive it. The incorporation of technology has been slow progress but I have begun scheduling computer time in the lab for access for all students. Hopefully this will get the ball rolling with this part of my game plan.

With this game plan I have learned that not everything needs to be set in stone with a plan. I know things happen and lessons need to be changed based on many different things but when I always thought of a plan of action I am the type of person who creates a plan and sticks with that exact plan. With this game plan I have realized its ok to change the plan from week to week. It is a plan that is created to help me grow as a teacher. This concept will help me in my instructional practice especially when I start to incorporate more technology into my lessons. Technology is very unpredictable so this process will ease my inexperience with using technology.

This course has opened my eyes to many new technology applications that are out there. I plan to incorporate at least 2 technology lessons that I have learned about in each quarter. This will also help me to achieve my game plan of incorporating technology into my classroom. I have begun to have my students create game plans for themselves. This is a wonderful experience for the students because when they have a plan they are more likely to be involved and successful in the learning experience.

Using the Game Plan Process With Students

In order for students to use a similar Game Plan as we have used in class I will have the students look up the NETS-S standards and we will go through them so the students are familiar with what the standard is saying. For my third graders I would probably make a poster that has more kid friendly terminology so they can better understand what the standard is saying. Once we have gone through the standards I will ask that each student write it down on a goal sheet that they will keep in a folder at their desk. I will also have projects that students can complete throughout the year listed on my board. The students will need to choose an assignment to complete and create their Game Plan for the assignment that they have chosen. The students will be given a certain time frame to complete the project and will be given time in class to work. This way I am there to facilitate and answer any questions. The students will be completing four projects a year where they would need to chose a different standard each time to work on. By giving students the option for the project that they want to complete it will be more meaningful to them and their Game Plan will mean something to them as well. If I was to give them a project to complete that they were not into then they would not be into the Game Plan either.

I think a Game Plan is a great way for not only students but also teachers to focus in on what they want to achieve. I felt that this Game Plan has made me really concentrate on incorporating technology into my lessons and become more technological. I hope that the Game Plan will be as beneficial to the students as it was for me.

Revising My Game Plan

The biggest part of this game plan that I have learned is that I feel that I have set my sights a bit high to start off with. If I was to start this again I would start with something that I knew I would be able to accomplish to gain some confidence. It has been very frustrating with part of my game plan because I do not have much control over what technology I have in my classroom.

Although it has been difficult to incorporate technology into my game plan I have thought of a new idea as to how to begin maybe not for this year but hopefully for next. I have been looking into grants to help get some technology into our school. Since our principal and the board obviously do not have the money or the means to get us technology I guess it is up to me to get something done. My plan is to start drafting a proposal to begin the grant process. Hopefully this will begin the process of getting this part of the game plan started.

As far as my monthly email progress reports go I have had great feedback from parents. It is not just a monthly progress report but also a monthly newsletter about upcoming events. I have had some parents ask me to give more weekly reports but then the issue comes back to me having time. The monthly progress reports are time consuming but it is only once a month and I feel like I can handle this, but making it weekly just seems a bit much for me.

Does anyone have suggestions for grants? Are there any sites where I can try to find a grant that will help me get some technology into my school?

Progress of Game Plan

This week I had a sense of accomplishment with my Game Plan. I sent home my first monthly report to my students parents today and got immediate feedback from those I sent via email. Parents said they loved this because sometimes papers that are sent home are lost some where between school and home. Parents also said it was nice to have something sent home that not only dealt with scores, but with their child's behavior, strengths, weaknesses and upcoming events. I am very happy with this part of my Game Plan thus far I just hope that I can keep up with it each and every month. Time is still my enemy!

As far as the other part of my Game Plan I am afraid I am just not getting very far with technology. Many of you have given me amazing feedback as far as what I could do to try to get technology into my classroom. Although my principal does seem very strict with this idea of keeping many sites blocked I have a feeling it is not really in her hands. She is just doing what is being asked of her. My whole county is having issues with getting onto educational sites. It seems that it is more of a county wide issue and not just a school issue. I do love though how they always preach to us teachers that we need to make learning fun and meaningful to students, yet we are still using overhead projectors and have 2 computers in our classroom. How can I make an overhead projector fun for the students to learn? When I am home I do like to search for different ideas on how to incorporate technology into lessons and what technology other teachers are using. In case one day I am blessed with technology in my county!

Game Plan Progress

My game plan has been coming along but not as quickly as I would have liked. I have been able to find lessons that I teach that would work nicely with technology. The only issue that I have is that a lot of sites that I would like to use with my students are blocked. I am tired of using Power Point and Word as my technology pieces but that seems to be the only type of technology that my school district is allowing for me to use. With creating tutorials for parents on my website I must admit that I have been slacking on that part of the game plan. It is not that I do not have the resources to complete this part of my plan because I could always get onto the sites at home and create them there to publish on my webpage, but the fact that I can never find time. This is something that I am going to have to make time for and figure out a way to make it work.

When looking over my game plan I think I might modify sending out progress reports to parents. I would like to modify this by sending home monthly progress reports instead of quarterly reports. It seems that even though I send home Friday folders with students graded work in them parents still like that communication with teachers. So at the end of each month I will send home a report that gives the students behavior, current grade, upcoming assignments, and events. This way parents will feel up to date. I could always get these out during my planning time and for those students who do not have internet access I could send home a hard copy for their parents to sign and return.

The one thing that I have learned so far is that you may start out with an amazing plan, but something will always have to be changed or modified. This goes along with teaching as well. No matter how great a lesson can be for one group it will more than likely need to be changed for the following group of students. Same with my game plan. Depending on how knowledgeabe my students are about technology next year will determine how quickly I can get into lessons with technology in them. If the students are unfamiliar with technology then I will need to take some time to teach them the basics before getting started. I also learned that your colleagues are a great resource. I have spoken with many of my colleagues who are having the same struggles as me. It is nice to know that I am not the only one out there who is frustrated with not being able to get on certain educational sites. Hopefully we can ban together to get something done about it.

Does anyone else have similar struggles as I do with sites being blocked? If so how did you manage to incorporate technology into your lessons? Are there other technology devices that I may still use without the internet that I am unfamiliar with? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Carrying Out My Game Plan

Resources:
In order to achieve my game plan I am going to need to use a few resources. In order to allow students the ability to use technology in my lessons I will need to create time in the computer lab in order to allow all students the ability to work with a computer. I will also need some feedback from my colleagues on what lessons they may have used that worked well with technology and what lessons did not lend themselves to good technology lessons. I would also like to do some readings on what might be some helpful tips when teaching technology lessons. Since this will be something new to me and my students I would want to make sure that I am giving them the best teaching possible.

Additional Information:
Since working with technology is something both new to myself and my students I would like to give my students a questionnaire on how comfortable the students feel in using the technology. I hear some of my students talking about Facebook and some other Internet websites that they use. But I would like to see how they really feel about using technology in the classroom. If students responses come back that they are uncomfortable with using technology then I will need to make sure I prepare them before I just start a lesson.

Steps So Far:
I have been able to take a look at some of the lessons that I already teach that I could add some technology into. I have also started to create a questionnaire that will help me identify how comfortable the students feel about technology. However there is still a lot more that I need to focus on in order for this Game Plan to be a success!

Carrying