Monitoring my GAME Plan

            I am slowly but surely working towards my game plan goals.  I want to be sure that I do not move fast because if I try to do everything all at once I know that I will probably not stick with it.  I want to be sure that these changes will stay around because I know that they are going to be positive changes. 

            First, I’ve started to move towards changing my blog into a forum setting.  In the beginning of this week I met with our building website leader to help me set up the site.  I have set it up and plan on taking my students to the computer lab and answer some test questions after we review the rules of the blog.  Based on how well my students do in computer lab with the forum I may give them a forum assignment for homework, just to get them thinking about how to use the new format.  I want to set up my students for success so if they are not yet ready, I will sign up for additional computer lab time to reinforce the skills that are expected.  I will want to model what features they have available and what I expect to see on the forum versus what they posted on the blog.

            So far I have learned that students need time to learn new technologies and that my students are only ten and eleven years old and sometimes, they just have to use size 72 font with a pink background.  Using the forum is really going to challenge me to allow my students to be ten and eleven years old and that sometimes it is OK.  A question I have related to this is, how much is enough?  Normally, I would not let any of this be OK, but it has become apparent to me recently that sometimes they just can’t help it.

            My second goal is to add a technology based project to one unit at a time.  I’ve decided that for my first one I want to try a science project.  I want to try to introduce a concept mapping software into a project.  Concept mapping will “help reveal student thinking and can illustrate misconceptions” (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p.149).  This can help me see what the students know and what they do not.  We have been working on the scientific method in addtition to force and motion.  I think I may try to combine these two ideas in a concept map.  This idea will take much more thought but this is what I have so far.  If anyone has done something like this I would love some suggestions or ideas or advice on how it went.  Picture of projects would be a plus but any suggestions would be helpful.

References

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.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). Assessing Student Learning With Technology [Video webcast]. Baltimore, MD.: Author