Final Reflection for Course 6713

It is true that by setting goals, having a plan, monitoring progress, and engaging in reflection; we can create a technology rich environment and help to prepare our students for future tasks, jobs, and life situations, (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2010). As we began the process of our GAME plan, I found it to be a great tool for organization, goal setting, and accountability. I still believe that we must place careful thought into how we approach and document these tasks; but after having monitored my GAME plan throughout the duration of this course, I realize that this can be done in a number of specific ways. Originally, to achieve my first goal, to become more “proficient and confident in promoting and modeling digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information,” (NETS-T, 2008); I had stated that I would engage in proper training for technology tools, increase the number of opportunities that my students had to utilize technology, and to model and scaffold the idea of proper etiquette and responsible social interactions related to technology use. I even had the idea of developing class guidelines for use with each individual class that I engaged. While this is a great starting point; creating lesson plans that helped to clarify what proper use is and isn’t, using teacher think-alouds, and helping my students focus on my own thoughts of how to use technology responsibly becomes a piece of that support. Ideas continued to develop and lead my vision to be further detailed with pedagogy and specificity. The idea of incorporating Problem Based Learning Lessons that promote in-depth understanding of subject-area content while simultaneously developing student’s higher-order thinking skills (Ertmer & Simons, 2006), became a reality. Anticipating my students becoming self-directed learners, learning to collaborate with others in an effective and productive manner, and to have confidence in my students and the technology that I have taught them to use to solve problems which may not have a concrete solution became a larger part of my focused approach. Online collaboration is a piece of my plan that allows for social group work and improves the amount or frequency of feedback that a student receives. Assessing students and providing feedback using a checklist or rubric allows for me to facilitate learning and to record when students shared data, analyzed data, and completed writing tasks to communicate their findings.

The second goal that I aspired to of being able to “exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others,” (NETS-T, 2008) is one that did not necessarily change throughout my GAME Plan revision, but one that became a goal that I could see more clearly as the course and our knowledge evolved. Now, a few weeks before the new school year, I am again reminded that no matter what subject we teach or how much experience we have, that there are people out there in the same position, trying to take risks, increase rigor, and infuse technology in their classrooms. This fact drives me to keep open lines of communication with neighboring middle schools and to share resources and knowledge that we develop. Even more so, it invests me in the idea of supporting the new teachers we have at our middle school. With my dissemination of information relating to the NSTE-S and NSTE-T, and the inspiring help of my colleagues; we can and will develop activities, assessments, rubrics, and guidelines for strengthening reading, writing, literacy, and technology skills.


References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Ertmer, P., & Simons, K. (Spring 2006). Jumping the PBL implementation hurdle: Supporting the efforts of K-12 teachers. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 1(1), 40-54. Retrieved from http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=ijpbl.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.