Saturday, December 25, 2010

Reflection of Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas

Integrating technology across the content area was a very enjoyable course of study. I'm a digital native so utilizing technology is like using my feet walk. This course has provided me with some very important concepts in order to create dynamic lesson plans. One of concepts is called the GAME plan; Goals, Action, Monitor, and Evaluation.
I plan using this lesson format next school year, after I present it to my superior commander for approval. The best part of the course is meeting other instructors with like minds and fellow shipping with them in order to test the best strategies in order to positively effect our learners.

Currently I'm using www.Edmodo.com with my science classes as an extension to our learning experiences. The students are very pleased that I'm using such a technology to keep them informed about classwork as well as missing assignments. They love the way the technology integrates with their cell phones as a way of communication. I would advise any teacher to at least give it a shot. :-)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I'm going to use the GAME plan process to integrate technology within every lesson I create. Weather is educational networking or presenting projects to the class. Technology is a part of everyone's life.

Creating a wiki could be kind of difficult in my district due to FERRPA laws, however there are some web2.0 sites like www.edmodo.com that protect the privacy of the classroom.

While students are engage I can illustrate how to determine if a site is creditable for academic research. This will make the student aware that there are biases within the realm of the internet and every source must be verifiable.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

GAME Plan Revisit

# What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?
What goals are you still working toward?
Well I have applied an educational network in my class, where students can comment and collaborate on projects. I'm still working on getting everyone to understand the benefit of this added tool. I have some students more involved than others, however I see progress everyday.
# If you are not ready to set new learning goals, how will you extend what you have learned so far?
Next I'm going to start giving daily questions or bell ringers via the educational network, as well as seek out additional strategies from other faculty members.
# What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?
Seek out more 3rd party literature on technology integration. I want to approach my next class with a lot of fun and engaging projects.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Game plan update

I believe effort is tied to achievement and so far I have met the goals I've set. I have learned and still learning how to utilize technology to differentiate instruction while keeping the student engaged in meaningful lessons. What I have learned so far is the more you integrate technology uniquely into my lessons. The more my students what to learn and be very engaged. Well my current need is more time, I have setting up a social networking site for my students to discuss the beauty of science. Not all my students have access to a computer, so this is going to be a challenge. I have directed them to the school and local library, however most 12 to 13 years old are very lazy and stubborn at times. Does anyone have idea on how I can get around this crucial problem?

Wednesday, November 24, 2010





Well on this quest of meeting my technology goals I have been fortunate an abundance of resources. From the CAST conference I met a lot of educators, vendors, and administrators who offered 100 percent support toward my education endeavors.
At this point I do not feel the need to modify my GAME plan as of yet, however I have more information then one can process at a time.
So far I've learned about two wonderful sites to use in my classroom, They are www.edmodo.com and www.thatquiz.org. Edmodo brings social networking into your classroom with a way of posting assignments and blogging with classmates. ThatQuiz is an excellent site for creating formative assessments utilizing online access or you have the option of printing the assessment out. The one big question I have as an educator is when and how do you spiral all of the information together? How do you know when you're on information overload? Some of us are perfectionist who have no problem attaining goals, however we evaluate progress in tiny tedious steps :-)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Tools needed to complete GAME Plan

First I will need a computer with internet access, attend the CAST conference, and dialogue with colleagues about strategies they are using in order to be successful. There isn't any additional information needed, however I did attend the CAST conference and learned a lot from other colleagues from around the state of Texas. I was given a lot of useful sites like www.blabbster.com to incorporate into future lesson plans.

I have also been searching the internet and talking to other colleagues about there internet usage policies in their districts and how these policies are transferred to the student and parent. I'm currently waiting on some additional information from different teacher from multiple districts. Lets see how this turns out :-)