GAME Plan Update
When creating a GAME plan it is important to take steps to implement that plan (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2010). Honestly, I have had some difficulties taking steps to implement both of my GAME plans. First of all, these past two weeks have been report card weeks. I just sent students’ mid-year report cards home today. Also, I have been planning outdoor school. This has taken at least 40 hours of my time in the last three weeks since we will be gone most of next week to camp. Yes, these are excuses, but this is the reality of an educator. We often spend many hours outside our workday to do the work we need to do. Alas, I have yet to discover how to clone myself and thus my GAME plan has been neglected.
At this point I began using a Wiki, https://skyline502.wikispaces.com/, for my school building. I have hit a few snags in this process. The first snag is that I have timed starting a Wiki during a time where all of my coworkers are only focused on report cards. Thus, out of the 30 plus staff members I invited to the Wiki, only six have joined. Those who have joined have not had a chance to explore the wiki yet. Also, a few staff members have had issues creating accounts and logging into the wiki. I am still trying to figure out how to fix some of these issues. I have learned how to format and adjust the wiki and to create new pages. I am excited about the potential the wiki holds and look forward to learning more and continuing with my wiki GAME plan.
As for my second GAME plan of Google forms, I have not worked a great deal with this yet. However, today in computer lab, I worked with several students on using Google Presentation. Together we figured out how to do a presentation simultaneously by sharing the presentation with partnerships. I think from this experience, I would like to adjust my GAME plan to include learning how to use all of the Google Document options better. I intend to use Atomic Learning to figure out how to best use these tools. I also still want to find videos and create my own online learning on these tools.
Overall, I have obtained new information and skills on both wikis and Google Documents. I still have a huge learning curve and look forward to explore both of these digital tools more and follow through with my GAME plan.
-Jill
References-
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Judy to Jill-
ReplyDeleteYou are so correct; no one really knows what it takes to be a teacher unless they know one or have been one. We cannot leave it all at work unless we neglect everything else and stay late “at the office”. I understand where you are coming from. I have not had as much time as I would like to work on my GAME plan or other projects I have going for this program. Fortunately, we are all in the same boat and understand where you are coming from.
At least you are trying. Maybe now that report cards are done you can get some more work completed and more teachers involved in your school wiki. As for your trouble spots, once you overcome them you will have learned more about the program and how it works. This will make it more successful when you implement it in your classroom. I believe experience is the best teacher and technology fits in there better than any other subject.
Good luck with your project and I look forward to seeing how your teachers respond to your wiki now that report cards are done. Hopefully they will get on board and you can help them implement it in their classroom next year.
Judy Spears
Thanks Judy! I also hope that once outdoor school is over next week, I will be able to focus more on my personal goals and master's work. I do believe there is a time and season for everything. Unfortunately, this feels like it is the time and season to do so much. I am learning to prioritize and plug away. I also hope my coworkers get involved with my wiki. However, I have some staff members who still struggle with email. The learning curve is different for us all!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you again for your uplifting words. It does feel good that we are all in the same boat!
-Jill
Jill,
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I said out loud when I read your post was, I know the feeling. It seems we have so many things we want to do in our classroom but the time required to do this is often overshadowed by the paperwork and planning that comes with teaching. I love the fact that you took the initiative this week to sit down with students and start to work through the process. In my own experience, students love to teach the teacher or at least to help in an area that they feel confident in. Each day I feel I learn something new from my students as they work with technology. I too have the goal of working with GoogleDocs. This is a highly relative form of media for our students and the more they are able to use it, the better prepared they will be. I am going to a conference for the media strategy and look forward to sharing information I receive. I believe we will be out of this class but will be more then happy to pass on anything you would like.
I find that even if I find one little way to implement one technology strategy a day, I feel that I am working towards my ultimate goal of becoming a tech savy teacher.
Keep up the great work.
Mary
Thanks Mary! It sounds like we have similar goals. I definitely want to learn more on technology and I am so thankful for students that help me reach this goal every day. I really try to create an environment in my classroom where we are all learners and we are all teachers. Thank you for your comments!
Delete-Jill
Jill,
ReplyDeleteYour descriptions of the life of a teacher are spot on. Even when you think you're getting ahead and everything is going to go as planned as it can be you're out sick for a day and it messes up everything! I'm interested in your comments about camp for the next week? Does your entire school go on a camping thing or something? I know that's not what the GAME plan is about, but I'm so curious!
I also learned about GoogleDocs recently, more from a student. She didn't have PowerPoint at home, but really wanted to do her book report in a Power Point format. She came in very excited and showed me how she created it in Google Docs. Although I knew about Google Docs from teaching message board, I didn't realize that you could actually use it to create the documents, I thought it was simply for uploading and sharing. I think implementing that will be great because it gives kids access to these expensive programs that they might not have at home.
Jillian
Hi Jillian!
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing what we can learn from our students. My students just presented their $1,000,000 project where they had to pick a theme and decide what they would do with a $1,000,000. I love this project because it encompasses a lot of math and research skills. Several of my students used Prezi to present and I was amazed what they came up with. I am going to have these students become experts and teach the rest of us how to use this tool. Here is a link to one of the projects-
http://prezi.com/1nlbyeoyq03k/million-dollar-project/
I am just so proud!!! :-)
This is the first year we have gone to outdoor school, so the planning has been a nightmare. The fifth and sixth grades are going to Camp Killoqua for three days. I have taken students to different outdoor education camps before. They have heated cabins and modern bathrooms and everything. The kids get to do things many never have gotten to do before like canoe, do a huge rock wall, archery, night hike, survival skills, etc. It is a great learning experience with science as well as how to be good to our environment. In the past I never really planned camp. This year I planned and organized it for four large classes. It really has been a lot of work (I have at least 100 or more hours into this). We leave tomorrow and get back on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the weather report says it will rain the entire time, but hopefully it will still be a good experience. No matter what, it will definitely be something these students will remember for the rest of their lives!
-Jill
I'm so impressed with your students projects as well! Thank you for sharing! I think I may show this to my kids!!
DeleteThat is amazing that your school does such adventurous thing! I'm incredibly jealous!!! How does the school pay for all of this though, is it through the parents? Do you teach at a public school? I hope you have a great time at camp! It sounds like such an amazing opportunity!!
Jillian-
ReplyDeleteI teach at a public school and we fund raised like crazy!The total cost of camp for 100 students was approximately $15,000. Our PTO generously funded $5,000. Honestly, it was my idea and consequently I worked many hours (way over a hundred at least) to prep for this event. At this point, I will just be happy to have it over! :-)