ISTE's National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) help promote continuous learning and effective integration of technology in the classroom. As a technology teacher I have had the opportunity to focus on broadening my knowledge of the standards, but two NETS indicators that I would like to strengthen my proficiency of are:
Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
Teachers: collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
Teachers: develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.
My GAME plan for developing NETS-T standards is as follows:
Goals: I would like to develop and coordinate a globally collaborative internet-based learning project for first grade students. Teachers and students can communicate and share information about weather, climate, plants, animals and insects found in their schoolyard environment with other students from different regions of the United States and around the world. Students can compare and contrast similarities and differences, which will promote further questioning and communication with students of other cultures.
Action: I will collaboratively plan with the first grade teachers in my building. We will develop a specific timeline of activities. I will create a wiki which will describe the project and also provide a platform to share the information collected from each classroom. I will reach out to my professional learning community on Twitter to begin connecting with other first or second grade classrooms.
Monitor: The first grade teachers and I will teach and engage our first grade students in the learning activities planned. Students will collect, describe and illustrate information about our schoolyard environment. Students will complete a KWHL chart to demonstrate understanding of environments in different regions. The wiki with collected information will be shared by linking to my classroom website for students, parents and community members to view and leave comments on.
Evaluate: I will evaluate and assess the success of the project by the active participation of our students and other classrooms. Formative assessments of students’ observations, questions and communication throughout the project will help guide instructional practices. Self-assessment and reflection will help to guide my plan in developing my own knowledge of using communication and collaborative tools in order to connect students to a global community.
Cindy,
ReplyDeleteI like your GAME plan for your first grade. I am a second grade teacher, and it sound like smeting my students would be interested in. You mentioned that you would use Twitter to reach other classrooms, however there are many other sites that you could use to connect to other classrooms. One site that I learned of in my last class was www.epals.com. This site is to connect classrooms world wide. Your students would most likely find it interesting to compare weather and other items from different parts of the world. (I don't use Twitter, so maybe that does the same?)
Your plan seems well thought out and one that will have great succeess. Have you started putting your plan in place? I would be interested in hearing how it works for you.
Allowing students to communicate in global communities is a great way to introduce them to the way much of our society works today. We need to prepare our students to work globally, so your first graders will have a great start.
Thanks.
Cindy,
ReplyDeleteYour GAME plan really reinforces the two NETS-T indicators that you chose. I love the idea of having students globally connect with other classrooms. What a wonderful opportunity for first grade students to be exposed to current digital tools. I believe that you will afford them a great opportunity to learn how people communication and work globally in our society. They are fortunate to have you for their teacher. Good luck with your GAME plan.
Jill
Cindy,
ReplyDeleteI think your goal is exceptional! I would love to see this plan take affect. I think that a great deal of students are left out of technology use because of their age, when really there are several programs and applications available for their. There are several ways to do this, and perhaps you could use a wikispace, or even use Ning. It was posted in our discussions this week by our professor, and seems like something that may really help you succeed.
I am meeting with the first grade teachers in our building this week, and they're very excited about this project as well. We know going in that we're all learning, but having each other to collaborate with makes it much easier. I'll let you know when we get the wiki set up and the plans finalized so that anyone who would like to join in can do so.
ReplyDeleteCindy,
ReplyDeleteHave you thought of using Skype for this project? You would probably only be able to use it with a school that is in a similar time zone, but I've found that kids like to be able to see the person they are communicating with. If not, perhaps videotaping students so they could introduce themselves might be more realistic.