Developing Your Personal GAME Plan

As a teacher just beginning her career, I believe the two indicators that I feel the least confident in falls under c. and d. in Standard 2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. I have very little experience in developing/using assessments and differentiating learning to meet the needs of all students’ learning styles in a real-life setting. Yes I did this in my methods classes, but they were seldom put into action to see if they worked appropriately in the classroom.

GOAL:

ASSESSMENTS: I want to learn about different assessment tools and how to apply the right tool to the lesson designed. Along with that, I want to become stronger in creating effective rubrics that state exactly what is expected in terms the student will understand, is reflective of the whole process and not just the final product and allows for the student to conduct self-assessments as well as my assessment.
DIFFERENTIATED LEARNING: I want to develop my skills in creating lessons that allows students to customize/personalize their learning. I want to better learn to recognize different learning styles.

ACTION:

BOTH GOALS: I believe the best resource for me to learn will be from my mentor and by networking with veteran teachers. I need to be open for constructive criticisms and apply the suggestion received to classroom. I will also stay abreast of current trends in teaching by regularly reviewing educational journals and attending PD. Reflecting on what works and what needs to be done differently will be paramount to developing my skills in these areas.

MONITOR:

BOTH GOALS: Reflecting, reflecting, and more reflecting! Asking myself questions such as:
• Are the assessments I am using assessing the learning objectives? Could I have used something different to get a better picture of learning that took place?
• Do I need to try something different? Am I using the same types of assessment for lessons?
• Am I networking and apply suggestions?
• Are students engaged and motivated? What could be done differently? Am I being flexible?

EVALUATE:

BOTH GOALS: After reflecting it will be necessary to make the necessary changes and implement them. Without following through on this part, the reflections are meaningless. Continue to stay current by subscribing to educational journals and keeping updated, as well as actively participating in PD opportunities will help extend my learning. Most importantly I need to realize that experience is very much a factor in this process. Learn from things that don’t work and take pleasure in what does.

I know that I am sharing this class with many veteran teachers whom I would love to hear suggestions and words of wisdom about my goals. Please feel free to share your insight!

Reflection (EDUC - 6712I - 4)

After going through this course, the most striking revelation that I have about teaching new literacy skills is how easy they can be aligned with benchmarks for our general curriculum. However, I did struggle with trying to figure out how I can adapt an inquiry research for my students, who are special education students in an MD program. I will revisit this idea and try to adapt, because I feel that many of the skills taught here will be good for my students. It could be done in a collaboration with a gen ed classroom where my students would be paired up other students and they could work together on an inquiry research problem.

I think that through this course, I am more aware of the needs to start teaching students how to think critically about the information they find, especially online since that seems to be the most popular way that students access information; the earlier the better. I have worked with teachers that utilize the Internet for research projects, but they do not teach them how to find quality information that is reliable. Student’s, even high school students (as I have addressed this problem with my son who is 16), have the idea that if it’s on the Internet then it is true and unless they are taught what to look for and how to determine a websites reliability, finding reliable information is nothing more than the luck of the draw.

I think that I would like to try to do some kind of inquiry research project in collaboration with a gen ed teacher next school year. I may wait until later in the year to begin this as I am not only a new teacher, but the program was moved to a new building for next year and I want time to develop a relationship with other teachers. As for exact professional development, I would like to further explore different types of technology and its application for the classroom. Because it is more applicable to my classroom, I would like to focus my study on assistive technology. They have so much wonderful programs and devices that are used to adapt and modify curriculum to individual needs, but I don’t know how to use a lot of what they have to offer. Actually, this is where I think this is the direction I’d like my career to go, but I am just beginning my teaching career. I’d also like to learn How to use technology such as Web 2.0, podcasting, digital imaginary (using video editing software), etc.