6 Evaluating GAME Plan Progress

I was able to incorporate my first current event blog with my students last week.  I gave them a specific article, read through it with them, and helped them to understand what it meant.  Then we decided that we could form 3 different opinions.  Students could agree with the actions taken, disagree, or be uncertain about their opinion.  I had a blog template that I asked them to follow, and I stepped through the first paragraph with them.

Surprisinigly almost all of the students embraced the idea and easily took off.  I did have to remind students that a comment such as "That's stupid" or "Hey Buddy" was not an approrpriate comment.  I feel like I am meeting both of my goals of introducing real-world problems as well as improving their critical thinking skills.

Right now, I have not forseen any other problems. This week I am going to be out of town at a workshop.  I am going to have the students attempt to work on a new blog without my help.  They will still follow the blog template from last week, but I won't be there to walk them through the process.  Then I should have a good indicator if I need to readjust anything.

*** This Email was sent by an educator at Riverside High School in Western Line School District.

7 Moinitoring the GAME Plan Progress

As I continue with my GAME plan, I am currently searching for sites that offer current events that will be appropriate for my 7th graders. I do not want to send them to news articles that are too in depth and wordy for them to comprehend. I have looked at several sites such as

• Channel One News
• Scholastic Kids Press
• PBS News Hour Extra

I am anxious to expose my students to more global real-world events that will foster creative, critical thinking skills.

One way that I want to begin their blog experience is by creating a type of blog post template as well as comment. That way students can follow the format for their first few posts and comment replies. Once they have mastered the idea, they can deviate from the template as long as they still include the necessary information. Even though I will model the behavior, I think beginning them with a template, much like tracing letters when one first learns to write, will solidify the format that they should follow in this activity.

I hope to start the students with this new project by the end of the week. If possible, I will evaluate their responses and continue to monitor and adjust as needed.

7 Carrying Out the GAME Plan

I am focusing on two aspects –

1. Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources
2. Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness

I plan on having my students read at least 1 news article a week, blog about that article, and respond to their classmates. Students already have a blackboard account and access to computers everyday. I would have them read a specific article on Monday and blog about the topic on their blackboard account. By Wednesday, I would have the students respond to at least 2 students, and by Friday, students would respond to the comments on their blogs, posting a new blog article if need be. As of now, I have not begun this process, but having the blackboard accounts and blogs already set up eliminates a lot of ground work. I need to focus on finding websites that offer news that my 7th graders can read and understand but that deals with real-world events.

5 Developing Your Personal GAME Plan

As teachers, it is not only our duty to teach content knowledge but also to incorporate technology that will solidify the content we are presenting to our students. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has a list of standards that teachers should integrate in their classroom. Although I teach a technology class, I find that even I am not meeting every National Education Technology Standard (NETS).

I wish to focus more on the first NETS standard "Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity" (ISTE, n.d.). Within that standard, there are two indicators in which I would like to strength my confidence and proficiency in by using the GAME model (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).

Goal: (1) Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources

(2) Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.

Action: (1) Come up with "real-world issues" that students or professionals may encounter and have students brainstorm ideas to solve these issues.

(2) When I give an assignment, demonstrate the thinking process I would go through to complete the project. Encourage students to come up with other ways to complete the assignment.

Monitor: (1) View students solutions to problems

(2) Discuss the numerous ways students wish to complete an assignment.

Evaluate/Extend: (1) have students apply these solutions to see if they work. Also have students reflect

on their solution. Were there better ways to go about solving the problem?

(2) Allow students to use their actions in their assignment and then reflect on the

outcome. Are there other ways the assignment could be completed?

Resources:

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.

ISTE NETS for Teachers 2008. (n.d.). International Society for Technology in Education Home. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx

*** This Email was sent by an educator at Riverside High School in Western Line School District.