All teachers should make a formal GAME plan in which they set Goals; choose Actions; Monitor goals; and regularly Evaluate their own progress (Laureate Education, 2009). I am especially interested in learning more about technology and ways to integrate it into my Kindergarten curriculum. The information and resources that I need to strengthen my GAME plan are readably available to me, it is just a matter of being able to have the technology to use in my classroom to follow through with the plan. My action plan is always being modified. I like to modify it in my head on a daily basis. I am always thinking of ways to make my plan just a bit better for myself and my students. So far, I have learned that there are many assessments out there to use with technology. I am excited to be able to incorporate some of the assessments linked to using technology in the future. One of the neatest assessments that I found to be interesting was the company Wireless Generation. They use a handheld computer to allow teachers to gather and compile student response almost instantaneously (Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). I thought that this was amazing. It is a great tool to use when having to do running records for the whole class. Doing them by hand is time consuming and takes more than one period. Cennamo states that you can make changes to your instruction as needed, even daily as necessary, based on real time data collection. Technology is just amazing. Even though it changes daily, there is so much that I do not know and so much that I want to learn. A question that I have learning about technology and technology resources would be to find out if grants can be written for other types of technology to be available to schools. At our school, we currently have a grant writing team for Smart Boards, I wondered if this type of grant or grants were available for other types of technology such as the handheld computers to aide in running records and instant results.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
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Amy,
ReplyDeleteMy school’s technology personal just ordered and received the wireless response systems for my school. I am in the process of trying to figure them out and what I can do with them in my classroom. Have you ever used qwizdom remotes? I am hoping there is a tutorial on-line to get some more information. You mentioned gathering a lot of data from the remotes; I was wondering what data you had in mind? I was planning on using it for everyday homework to see how well the class understood the material.
Jenna Enevoldsen
Response to Amy & Jenna,
ReplyDeleteAmy,
At our school district administrators use the hand held pda's to evaluate teachers with, so those hand helds can be used in a variety of ways.
We also have what is called the LEF fund, which is a community eduation fund where companies, business people, educators, and local businesses contribute monies and that money becomes available for grant. Teachers then have to write a grant asking for whatever piece of equipement they would like and an LEF committee panel awards the money based on need and useful in the classroom. This is how I got my Qwizdom Student Response System last year. Check to see if there something like this for your local area.
Jenna,
If you call Qwizdom, they will provide for you a free training session to get you started. They are excellent. Give them a call. Or you can go to their website and view / download tutorials on how to get started. Good Luck.
I particularly like what you said about "My action plan is always being modified. I like to modify it in my head on a daily basis. I am always thinking of ways to make my plan just a bit better for myself and my students." A good teacher knows that it is crucial to be flexible each and every day. I imagine that is even more true with kindergarteners.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to me the technology that my 4th grader and kindergartener already are exposed to and know how to use. It is important that what we teach remains relevant to their lives. For those of us knocking on the door of 40, our children probably know more than we do about technology already. Integration requires confidence. Dr. Ertmer states "You're okay saying 'You show me how this tool works'" (Laureate, 2010). How empowering to a student to be able to show the teacher how something works.
You are setting an excellent example for your students. Good luck in your journey.
Reference
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Kim,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the positive comments!! The students are like little sponges and absorb all of the technology information that I present, I love it! Everyday we use the Smartboard and they love it! It is amazing to me because I will show them something one day and the next day they will actually tell me how to do it,ex: how to get on a website. It is so amazing of what they learn and everything they want to learn!
Amy
Jenna,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information! I am definitely going to check into that and see if any companies support something like that for my district!!
Amy