The International
Society for Technology Education’s (ISTE) standards for teachers are clearly
stated, timely, flexible, and reflective of solid 21st century teaching
practices. The National Education
Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) include the following:
1.
Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning
and Creativity
2.
Design and Develop Digital Age Learning
Experiences and Assessments
3.
Model Digital Age Work and Learning
4.
Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and
Responsibility
5.
Engage in Professional Growth and
Leadership
Of these standards
(ISTE, 2008), I feel the areas I could develop further would be standards 1 and
2.
Connecting to and engaging students is one of the most
important jobs I do after knowing my content well. A brilliant mind may contain extensive
content information, but if that instructor cannot communicate it in a relevant
way to students, it does not hold the same value. There are two indicators that I would like to
focus on in regard to standard 2: customize and personalize learning activities
to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities
using digital tools and resources; and provide students with multiple and
varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology
standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. To complement
that standard, I would also like to focus on standard 1 and one of its
indicators: promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and
clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative
processes.
To develop my proficiency in these standards, I will
create a GAME plan that allows me to set goals,
take action, monitor my progress, and evaluate
and extend my actions (Cennamo,
Ross, & Ertmer, 2010). My goal is to
create one project and one assessment that allow students to use a different
technology than we have used in class to reflect diverse learning styles, allow
for collaboration, and utilize students’ creativity as they plan their project and
self-assess upon completion. I will take
action by looking at my standards and essential questions for my Hunger Games unit and create an activity
that encompasses my goal. I will ask my English 10 team for ideas and
collaborate with them. I will monitor my
progress by completing the assignments creation by Thanksgiving break,
providing a rubric for my students, and sharing the final assignments with my
team. I will evaluate my actions by observing
the students’ participation in the activity and assessment and have them
evaluate the activity and assessment as part of their final reflections and
self-assessments.
By following a GAME plan, I hope to make the lights go on
for my Hunger Games participants; I want them to be able to use their choice of
technology at school, creatively express the content knowledge they have, learn
the way they want to, and connect students to their world (Prensky, 2008, p.
45). By strengthening my proficiencies in
the ISTE standards, not only do I become a better teacher, buy my students become
better 21st century learners.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology
integration for meaningful classroom
use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
International Society
for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for
teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved fromhttp://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers
Prensky,
M. (2008). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40–45.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI believe that Standards 1 and 2 are the most important and most challenging of these goals to master. Your GAME plan is well thought out. I believe incorporating technology within a project coupled with high interest reading will prove to be very engaging to your students. Collaborating with your colleagues is a great place to begin. You mentioned that you wanted your students to use their choice in technology at school. Does your school implement a Bring Your Own Technology/Device program? That would be very advantageous to your students if they are allowed to select their own devices to use. If not, are you prepared to provide a variety of devices for your students to use in the classroom? By allowing students to choose their own technology, all learning styles will be addressed and students will truly be able to creatively demonstrate their understanding of the story. Best of luck as you begin this GAME plan.
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteYes, I am lucky enough that my school does have a BYOD policy. In my classroom, I have a "red light/green light" icon I flip on the front board to indicate whether or not we are doing an activity where they can use their devices. I still have many students without smart phones, but enough have them that I can group them and have at least one member with a device to find information if needed. For projects like the one I have in mind for this, I will need to make sure to provide classroom laptops for students to use. I would like to incorporate Voicethread as a possibility to discuss characterization inside the novel The Hunger Games and I would like to assign each group a Vine, a six second video clip summarizing an event or student interpretation of an event or character from the novel. A larger project I am also doing now includes students working in groups to create the next arena for the Games to take place. They create the arena (time and place), decide on features that would make it advantageous or challenging, symbols to include, a different time period that influences games, characters that will take part in the games. Using Google Sketch Up is a platform I am looking at using for their final products. I am still learning it, so I hope I can come up to speed quickly!
Erin