This past Monday I was contacted by my schools local LST and informed that I could proceed with my private classroom blog through www.classpress.com. Needless to say I am excited but also nervous. My goal to develop a community of learners is about to take shape. After comparing many similar avenues through edublog and wiki spaces I chose classpress because of such features as drop box, unlimited classes and students, can buddy up with another Health teacher in my school, it is kid safe, filtered content, no ads, does not publish to the web unless I want to, I see all responses, have access to all usernames and passwords, and many other features. In short I can have complete control over the blog and motivate them to use it in a productive way. Students can design their own page with their favorite colors, sports heroes, movie stars, and even their own avatars. My goal this week is to educate them in the lab to the blog and it's possiblities and next week to begin by asking a discussion question based upon our content and each student must post an answer on their page that three students must respond to, much the same as we do weekly in this class. The intent is to develop this community where students are depending on their classmates to help them solve and clerify open ended questions. As far as new questions that have come up, the idea of monitoring has been solved in my mind through the site and my interview with two middle school teacher I found in our system that use this site. If any of you are doing a similar blog or wiki what issues have you had? What advice could you offer?
John
HS Health
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Game Plan class blog.
Sorry for my being late in my blog. This has been a very difficult time. My mother has been very ill for the past ten days and I have been greatly concerned for her health. She is some better.
My game plan centers on the idea of creating a class blog. I feel it would be an outstanding tool for interaction outside of my classroom between myself and my students as well as between students. My wife, a sixth grade teacher, is doing this with her class and having great success. The idea is a private classroom environmental blog. I googled educational blogs and came up with www.classpress.com. It cost $30.00 per year and is unlimited in terms of the number of students/classes you can utilize. Currently, our four Health teachers and 11 classes are about to start. We are waiting for final school approval (only a formality). I can't wait to share with you the results.
Stay tuned in.
John
My game plan centers on the idea of creating a class blog. I feel it would be an outstanding tool for interaction outside of my classroom between myself and my students as well as between students. My wife, a sixth grade teacher, is doing this with her class and having great success. The idea is a private classroom environmental blog. I googled educational blogs and came up with www.classpress.com. It cost $30.00 per year and is unlimited in terms of the number of students/classes you can utilize. Currently, our four Health teachers and 11 classes are about to start. We are waiting for final school approval (only a formality). I can't wait to share with you the results.
Stay tuned in.
John
Sunday, January 17, 2010
My GAME Plan EDUC 6713D-1
My general goals are to become more proficient in the use of technology. As Dr. Ertmer indicates that integrating technology effectively requires first knowledge and technology skills. My personal technology skills have grown a great deal educationally in the past six years. For most of my teaching career I used little if any computer technology tools, but in the past few years I have increased by leaps and bounds in my opinion but still feel very inadequate. Additinally, I want to a better resource and facilitator for my students as the use of technology continues in my class with the goal for them to become self-directed in their learning.
After investigating the International Society for Technology in Education's (2008) (ISTE) web site and the National Educational Technology Standareds for teachers (NET-T), I feel that I have much to learn, but one step at a time and I will reach my overall goals. I am certainly not very confident or proficient in the use of many of these technology skills and tools but must step out and not be afraid to fail and try again in order to gain the confidence and proficiency I will need to be effective as a teacher in the twenty first century. Through the plan outlined by Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) called the GAME plan, I can reach my personal goals by; setting goals, taking the action to reach those goals, monitoring my progress in a systematic way, and learning to evalute those individual steps along to way of reaching my goals.
My first objective as a classroom teacher in this application is 3b, " collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation" (ISTE, 2008). My plan is to start a class blog from which the goal is to expand beyond the classroom to the school, the county, and beyond. Already having a web site within our school is a tremendous tool for sharing information about our course such as, syllabi, class requirements, assignments,calendars, and etc. but the interaction is missing. The class blog would be used to create that needed interaction where students could discuss the topics, add information, explore other avenues, as well as allow parents access to see th interaction and participate. With parents able to follow the class discussions, links to online resources, current events, and such , the parents would then be able to assist and participant in their child's education. The blog would include; a private classroom environment, personalized blogs, no advertisements, content filtering, drop box, create PDF journals, connect with buddies, and control of access rights. The web site for this source is www.classpress.com. It is a very inexpensive way to create a wonderful classroom learning mechanism. I am in the process of getting final approval at my school site and will begin as soon as that is given. With this goal I will be on my way to reaching my general goals as an educator in the twenty first century.
My second goal follows, 3c of the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for teachers (2008), it reads," communicate relevant onformation and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats" (ISTE, 2008). This objective will meet my two general goals to become more proficient and a better facilitator of technology skills to my students. My plan will involve expanding my blog to reach other health classes, first within our school, next within our county, with the intent to go beyond those borders and become global. The ultimate goal is to bring my students into this process and extend their educational boundaries.
The ISTE indicators can be intimidating. With the GAME plan and taking one step at a time the process can become a life long process that will help both myself and my students better understand the wonderful process of technology and the products it will yield in our lives.
John
HS Health
After investigating the International Society for Technology in Education's (2008) (ISTE) web site and the National Educational Technology Standareds for teachers (NET-T), I feel that I have much to learn, but one step at a time and I will reach my overall goals. I am certainly not very confident or proficient in the use of many of these technology skills and tools but must step out and not be afraid to fail and try again in order to gain the confidence and proficiency I will need to be effective as a teacher in the twenty first century. Through the plan outlined by Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) called the GAME plan, I can reach my personal goals by; setting goals, taking the action to reach those goals, monitoring my progress in a systematic way, and learning to evalute those individual steps along to way of reaching my goals.
My first objective as a classroom teacher in this application is 3b, " collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation" (ISTE, 2008). My plan is to start a class blog from which the goal is to expand beyond the classroom to the school, the county, and beyond. Already having a web site within our school is a tremendous tool for sharing information about our course such as, syllabi, class requirements, assignments,calendars, and etc. but the interaction is missing. The class blog would be used to create that needed interaction where students could discuss the topics, add information, explore other avenues, as well as allow parents access to see th interaction and participate. With parents able to follow the class discussions, links to online resources, current events, and such , the parents would then be able to assist and participant in their child's education. The blog would include; a private classroom environment, personalized blogs, no advertisements, content filtering, drop box, create PDF journals, connect with buddies, and control of access rights. The web site for this source is www.classpress.com. It is a very inexpensive way to create a wonderful classroom learning mechanism. I am in the process of getting final approval at my school site and will begin as soon as that is given. With this goal I will be on my way to reaching my general goals as an educator in the twenty first century.
My second goal follows, 3c of the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for teachers (2008), it reads," communicate relevant onformation and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats" (ISTE, 2008). This objective will meet my two general goals to become more proficient and a better facilitator of technology skills to my students. My plan will involve expanding my blog to reach other health classes, first within our school, next within our county, with the intent to go beyond those borders and become global. The ultimate goal is to bring my students into this process and extend their educational boundaries.
The ISTE indicators can be intimidating. With the GAME plan and taking one step at a time the process can become a life long process that will help both myself and my students better understand the wonderful process of technology and the products it will yield in our lives.
John
HS Health
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition).
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (2008). The ISTE National Educational Technology
Standards (NET-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers.
Retrieved from
Final.pdf
Prensky,M. (2008, March). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40-45.
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