The web site for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (2008), lists 5 standards that should be applied in the classroom. The two that I want to focus on are #1 “Facilitate and Inspire Students Learning and Creativity,” and #5 “Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.”
Dr. Katherine Cennamo describes the acronym G.A.M.E as a productive method for teachers and students to organize their learning and actions (Laureate Inc, 2009). G.A.M.E stands for set goals, take action, monitor progress, and evaluation (Laureate Inc, 2009). National standard 1 and 5 directly compliment each other because if a teacher facilitates and inspires student learning and creativity, then it will be easy to become a leader and share with a professional community about successes, and if a teacher partakes in professional growth and leadership, then they will have more tricks on how to motivate and engage their students.
My first goal is to review each of my lesson plans before I teach them and find a way to incorporate technology into my lesson so that it compliments both the curriculum and learning objectives. Technology, when added to the mix of learning, provides a powerful tool to both engage and motivate the students, as well as provide a plethora of useful information (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). One thing that I stress is that the technology aspect is added after the lesson plan is created. I follow the rule that Biology Teacher Tim Best suggests on how in education we teach a concept and we find technology to help us teach this content. We do not take a form of technology and try to adapt the curriculum to make it fit into the specs of the technology (Laureate, 2009). Other goals will be to model the use of technology with my students, promote growth and creativity using technology within my students, and lastly to present ideas to and learn from my professional colleagues.
The action step is basically to find ways to make my goals become a reality. I am constantly looking for ways to find technology that compliments my subject of music. Students are constantly walking around with Ipods and phones that play music. Also, software like garage band and I-tune are making manipulating and creating music possible for students in the classroom and at home without a professional recording studio. As for the professional growth and development section, I am always one of the teachers that presents to my colleagues at the musical in-services every year. I will continue to provide opportunity to share and learn from my fellow music teachers and also from my colleagues that teach other subjects who use ideas that can transfer into my music classroom.
The Monitor and Evaluation phase of the GAME strategy is the most important of all. Sometimes I think of the most creative ideas for my students and suddenly when they are put into action, they flop. Or sometimes, I think an idea is perfect, but when I try it out, I find that it needs to be adapted to the needs of my class. I teach 4 sections of 5th graders and although I am following the same lesson plan for every section, my teaching method is different for each individual class. This happens because I am constantly monitoring and evaluating the needs of my students.
Charles Lane
Resources:
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. (Executive Producer). (2009). Enriching content area learning experiences with technology, part 1 and 2. [Motion Picture] Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Promoting self-directed learning with technology. [Motion Picture] Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.
National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). (2008) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.
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I like how you talk about technology promoting creativity. Students seem to be more responsive and excited to learn when the content is presented in a new way. The best way for me to do this is use interactive websites that are colorful and engagine for students.
ReplyDeleteJonathan,
ReplyDeleteI teach grades K-5 and the SMARTboard plays a different role for every grade level. The younger primary students are drawn in by the colorful and engaging images. They love to manipulate the board and since they are at the age when reading music lyrics is a huge challenge I can replace the words with pictures. This method of using pictures instead of words keeps them engaged and it also gets them to learn lyrics which compliments my curriculum. As the students get into 1st and 2nd grade, I can use half words and half pictures, which slowly builds their reading skills.
The older students are not as easily amused as the primary grades. They could care less that a song is written in colorful letters with interesting graphics. They enjoy the graphics when the graphics serve a purpose like a point of reference to the song. However the SMARTboard lets me teach faster because all the information is right there in front of them and it eliminates the tedious process of handing out paper lyrics to a song, and making large expensive cardboard visuals of music. This constantly moving pace of teaching helps keep them engaged.
Charles
It is impressive that you are a regular presenter at in-services with colleagues. I am sure they find it nice to always have a familiar face offering new ideas for their teaching. Your plan to be more proactive about incorporating technology in your lessons sounds feasible. Create your lesson plans first, then reflect on them to see how technology can work into them. Do you think it will be difficult to find a way to use technology in your classroom for every lesson? I think that could be the most challenging part, to keep ideas and approaches fresh with how the technology is used.
ReplyDeleteAshlee,
ReplyDeleteI mostly use technology in every single lesson that I teach. Sometimes it's as simple as a computer to play music or a small video, and sometimes it's a presentation on the SMARTBoard. I have my music set up so it wirelessly plays the music from Ipad to my computer and out of the speakers in my ceiling. It makes life much easier in my classroom.
However, sometimes technology is not the answer. I created a note reading bingo game where the caller cards are shown as a powerpoint presentation. After using the game for a few years, I decided to use it with my substitute teachers. However, I found that it's easier to not use the powerpoint technology and just use paper caller cards instead. They serve the same purpose and then the substitute doesn't have to know how to work the computer, SMARTboard, and project. Like I said before, the technology compliments the lesson and if it is not needed, then I don't use it.
Charles