Here is a link to the Voice Thread that I created that discusses online learning.  Enjoy!

http://voicethread.com/share/1539482/

Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology: A Reflection

Throughout this course, I have discovered the importance of differentiating in my instruction as well as incorporating the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in to my teaching. As a group, we put together a resource of websites, articles, strategies, and learning activities that will help us to incorporate these principles seamlessly into our teaching. As a first year teacher, I have come to realize how important it can be to reach and engage all types of learners that come into your classroom. Utilizing technology and the principles of UDL as well as the incorporation of technology can help you to achieve this. Incorporating technology into your teaching can help you to create an environment that is engaging and allows you to personalize learning for students and essentially prepares them for a global marketplace and the real world (Laureate, 2009).


Using the Differentiation Station learning resources will truly help me to differentiate for all of my students. There are tools for beginners, such as myself, so that you can take small steps towards differentiating until you have a firmer grasp and can explore new tools and strategies. As someone that is new to Universal Design for Learning, there are strategies for getting to know your learners and information on how to accommodate for the various types of student needs using technology. There are tools for students, tools for teachers, teacher blogs to follow as your begin your implementation of these different strategies and technology tools. Even if it is just links for books online, a teacher’s blog to follow as they begin their journey of differentiation, there are many resources that are a great aide as you try to reach all of the learners in your classroom. This is a resource that I will continue to use throughout my teaching career as well as share these ideas and strategies with others.

As a part of my immediate incorporation of differentiation and UDL, I would like to get to know my students as the different types of learners that they are. As part of my job, I work to differentiate for the students that are a part of my caseload. I work to customize learning for them so that they can still maintain their role as a student in their classroom. Using the tools that I have gained from this course, I will establish student surveys and learner profiles so that I can find different activities and strategies that will appeal to them as learners and that they can use across many different types of educational settings. Using “technology can provide the teacher with tools that can facilitate assistance, remediation, or extend the learning” (Bray, Brown, & Green, 2004, p. 16). I want to bring different technology tools into my teaching with them as it will help to make their learning even more individualized. I want to discover the tools that will be the most beneficial to them so that I can engage them in the content and increase their knowledge and skills.


References:

Bray, M., Brown, A., & Green, T. (2004). Technology and the diverse learner: A guide to classroom practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

Reflection: Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas

Throughout our course at Walden, we discovered ways to implement new ideas and approach to teaching NETS-S standards through the establishment of a GAME plan. A GAME in this case is used to outline different steps towards working towards a goal. For my own GAME plan, I wanted to increase my knowledge and confidence in is Model Digital-Age Work and Learning, which would be helping me to discover more ways to use different technology tools within my teaching such as using other teachers as models from which to learn and in the establishment of my own blog to use with my teaching. In using the GAME plan approach to this topic, I have taken steps throughout this course to achieve my goals. With this goal, I have really discovered the many different tools that are available to us as teachers as well as for our students (blogs, digital storytelling, facilitating online collaboration). I am excited to begin to implement some of these into my own teaching. The educational service that I work for has many tools that I can use with the students that I work with. I plan on looking into using some of these as a way to enhance my teaching with my students.

The second part of my GAME plan approach dealt with increasing my professional development with the vast amount of opportunities that are available to me through my district as well as on the internet through educational blogs and articles. I have not achieved this portion of my plan as many seminars and lecture begin in the fall. I have however subscribed to some of the different blogs on the internet and have found useful information for my teaching through them. In a way, subscribing to and reading through my colleagues posts from my course at Walden have broadened my horizons and provided me with new and exciting information with real life examples and experiences. I intend to take this knowledge and excitements and ignite excitement for learning with my own students.

Using the GAME Plan Process with My Students

Throughout my course at Walden, I learned about different ways to integrate technology into my teaching. As a part of this we worked with NETS-S standards and established a GAME plan to take this process step by step. As a part of my GAME plan, I wanted to begin to familiarize myself with the technology tools that are available within some of the schools that I work in as well as future schools that I will be placed in. As a part of my GAME plan, I plan to observe teachers and do some research online trying out different technology tools and instruments. I have already obtained a lot of knowledge from my course and have explore using some of these tools so I will know how to use them with my own students and teaching. As the school year approaches, I plan to find different teachers who are experienced with different technology tools and have really tried to incorporate as much technology as they can into their classrooms. I think that by learning from them, I can also share my knowledge with others. The second portion of my GAME plan, I plan to attend some professional development courses to enhance my knowledge in different aspects of teaching. I plan to make time for these seminars in order to help my students as well as other teachers that I work with.

In using a GAME plan approach to the NETS-S standards, it will help my students become better acquainted with the different types of technology in classrooms. Helping students learn to become 21st Century literate and learn to communicate are some of the major parts of the NETS-S standards. I hope that by take a GAME plan approach to becoming more proficient in these standards, it will in turn help my students learn as well. Using the GAME plan approach would also be helpful for students to accomplish their own goals in and easy to follow step by step way. It will help to make tasks seem less daunting as they focus on one step at a time. This can be used in many different areas of teaching. I hope to use the GAME plan approach with the students that I work with this upcoming fall. Using these standards and the GAME plan approach will help my students become more proficient and be better prepared for the 21st century teaching and learning.

GAME Plan Progress

Reading back through my blog posts, I realized that I have been slowly moving towards my goals. In the beginning of developing my GAME plan, I discussed using a blog to host different activities and websites for practice with different topics for my students. I wanted to better acquaint myself with different technological tools even if I am not using them on a daily basis (such as an interactive whiteboard, Elmo…). The second part of my game plan was geared more towards professional development and working towards fitting more of this into my schedule. I have been looking for different opportunities to take on when the school year starts. I want to be able to share my knowledge that I gain from these opportunities with my fellow teachers. As the school year approaches, I will most likely revise my GAME plan slightly depending on the amount of students I am able to take on for this may impact the time and dedication I have to finishing these goals.

As I am not quite ready to set any new goals, taking this GAME plan approach will help me in the future with other endeavors I may take on. This approach to setting goals and taking them step by step in order to achieve them is a very logical method. I will most likely be using this method when I would like to accomplish a task as the idea of goal setting helps you to feel more accomplished and is an easy way to actually do the tasks you only talk about. There is so much that I am learning about through these courses, I feel that I am already on my way to helping others make changes and enhancements in their classrooms.

Update on My GAME Plan

I have begun to sort through my resources for students in order to organize them effectively in to a wiki space. I have so many sources that are on paper in the form of worksheets or diagrams and I am working on sorting through those as well and will most likely begin to transfer them to the computer either through scanning them or re-typing them into a more workable format. Through the advice of some of my colleagues, I have begun to use a Delicious.com account, though I am not entirely familiar with it, it seems that it will work for me in helping me keep track of different websites that I encounter. These actions that I have taken towards my GAME plan have been effective in my following through with creating a page for students to go to for extra help or practice. In reviewing these sources, I have been revisiting different ideas and information that I can use in the upcoming school year.

As for my professional development portion of my GAME plan, I have been thinking about whether or not I want to familiarize myself with one particular topic such as technology in the classroom seminars or autism seminars, or if I want to attend different seminars in different areas related to my field. I have not figured out if I want to limit myself to one genre in order to become more knowledgeable in an area and share this information with my colleagues or do I want to attend different seminars to gain some more knowledge in a few different areas. I feel that if I did it this way, I would not retain as much information but I also feel that it would help to make for a better rounded base from which to use in my teaching and help to teach others. As more opportunities arise in the upcoming school year, I guess I will make that determination.

Working on My GAME Plan

I must admit that I have taken some time off from my GAME plan and finding different resources and preparing for the upcoming school year. I have many different resources for the first part of my game plan in many different locations and areas and one of my first steps to be taken would be to compile these sources and information together in one location. In doing this I will be able to organize them and categorize them into a workable format. I have not yet decided how I will organize them (subject, games …) and will have to wait and see when I have all of the sources together. I do think that creating this website will be beneficial to the students that I work with for some I work with for a short time during the school year or over the summer and it will be a good way to stay connected and allow them to continue making progress.

For the second portion of my GAME plan, working on attending more professional development seminars and truly enhancing my knowledge base, I have not made much progress towards this. As the school year begins, more seminars are sent to me and once I have my schedule I can begin to plan on attending more of these. I know that this summer may have been a better time to try and explore these opportunities and work towards attending perhaps one or two, but my schedule did not really allow this. I really think that these presentations and seminars will really be helpful in allowing me to expand my knowledge base and share this information with other teachers so that we can all benefit and establish more productive and exciting classrooms for our students.