Revitalizing My Teaching Practice

Differentiating Instruction (DI) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) both promote the philosophy of opening up the classroom to provide more avenues for learning for all students (Laureate Education, 2009). There are now many online resources that support UDL implementation in any class routine. Hence, UDL’s core principles to provide multiple means of representation, expression, action and engagement can be facilitated in all subject areas and grade levels, thus eroding the many learning barriers that hinder students’ understanding of content material. DI is a mindset that is guided by the non-negotiable fact that students must be allowed to carry out respectful learning tasks that are directed by a high quality curriculum. These tasks can be differentiated according to content, product and process, affect and the learning environment and in turn, they are differentiated according to the students’ readiness, learning style and interest (Laureate Education, 2009). Both concepts seek to provide alternatives to learning for students, alternatives that will engage the students to learn at their optimum (Laureate Education, 2009). In light of what I have discovered throughout this course, especially in my differentiation station group, there are three areas in my teaching and learning routine that will be adjusted. These areas include my pre-planning brainstorming process, the types of learning activities with which I will engage my students and the manner in which I assess my students’ progress.

Previously, I would spend a few minutes to a few days “thinking about” how I plan on teaching the specific topic as stated by the syllabus. My focus was mainly to address content requirements, however, in light of my exposure to UDL and DI, I see the need to use the pre-planning time to brainstorm better for technological and non-tech resources and teaching/learning strategies that will help me to differentiate according to my students’ interest, readiness and learning style. The use of graphic organizers is one of the learning strategies that I have discovered from my differentiating station group. The websites, edhelper.com and spicynodes.com, as well as the software mindmap and mindjet are just a few of the technological resources that my colleagues and I shared that will allow me to truly differentiate content, product and process according to my students’ interest, readiness and learning style. The graphic organizers provided by the edhelper.com web site can be printed as hard copies, which the students can use to help them organize the content that they need to know for the topics that they are expected to learn. They can represent their learning as an interactive concept map on spicynodes.com or as a mind map on mindjet or mindmap. Each tool will allow the student to be fully engaged in the learning process and can be used as an assessment product (Laureate Education, 2009).

My pre-planning ideas will automatically provide the direction in which I intend to guide the lesson, and hence, they will help me to choose the appropriate learning activities for my students. DI encourages the creation of flexible groups, whether they are individually based or if they consist of pairs of students or more (Laureate Education, 2009). I have used the idea of projects, power point presentations, dramatizations, and videos on many occasions as the means to an end. As a result of completing this course, I intend to add another dimension to my students’ experience and that is the use of Web Quests. The web site, pbs.org, as suggested by one of my group members, provides ideas and templates for such a class activity. The web site ThinkQuest.com also provides great ideas on how to create such an activity by providing models for all grade levels. This activity is ideal in that it can be done for any topic and hence can be differentiated according to the learners’ readiness, interest and learning style. Web Quests also make it possible for content material to be represented in as many a sensory mode as possible. They will keep the students engaged and they will provide them with the chance to express their learning in the mode that works best for them. In the same breath, not all work will be graded because I intend to differentiate the learning process in the hope of ensuring that all students understand the content material as they interact with it. By doing this, the atmosphere for learning according to their interest and learning profile will be encouraged. In the end, I hope to use my ongoing assessment of their intermediate pieces of work to influence how I assess them summatively (Laureate Education, 2009).

It is important that I therefore adjust how I assess my students’ progress. Formerly, I recorded a grade for each piece of work. I intend to alter this habit based on my new understanding of assessment in the framework of differentiating instruction (DI) and UDL (Laureate Education, 2009). I intend to walk around with a clipboard holding a list of my students’ names and the respective skills that I intend to check for the given topic (Tomlinson, 1999). I intend to use Excel to record all the data making it available to both parent and student. I know my students’ competences, but I wish to have this recorded so that I can provide them with better and more specific guidance that will help them to achieve more. When I engage in this kind of ongoing assessment, I will not only be addressing their understanding of content, but I will also address the interpersonal and intrapersonal issues that impact their learning. My “grade book” will therefore have a different appearance. It will not only be filled with numbers, but it will also be filled with qualitative comments that constitute the whole student learner. Technology, in the form of Excel, or an online organizer, will therefore help me achieve this change in my assessment process; a process that will involve the student learner and parent (Tomlinson, 1999).

As I learn about new technologies and teaching strategies that are grounded in research and apply them in my teaching practice, I will continue to grow as a scholar-practitioner. As I strive to be a better effecter of learning, I know that my students will be better learners. As I infuse technology into my differentiated lessons that are undergirded by UDL principles, I know that there will be a change in my students’ attitude, motivation, achievement and performance in my content area.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Reaching and engaging all learners through technology. Baltimore: Author

Tomlinson, C. (1999). Differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervisor & Curriculum Development

My Final Thoughts

Setting goals, taking the necessary actions to meet those goals, monitoring the progress toward achieving those goals and evaluating whether the goals have been achieved which resulted in new learning that was extended to new situations, formed the basis of my GAME plan for the past six weeks (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). What was the purpose of such a plan? Simple. It was a plan that ensured that I took “steps to direct (my) learning process, specifically while learning about technology and how to integrate it into the curriculum” (p. 3). It facilitated three very important goals in my personal development: it allowed me to customize my approach to learning; it helped me to develop some additional ICT skills that will prove to be helpful in my future instructions and thirdly, reinforced my already strong foundation of bring a life-long learner (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009).

Consequently, I have gained quite a lot of knowledge as a result of creating my GAME plan, but my main take away from this course is knowing how to infuse technology in my daily instructional practice to meet the needs of my students while at the same time, meeting the standards or objectives of my subject curriculum. Being able to implement an effective lesson takes a lot of planning and thinking and this process is strategically met by the cognitive constructs of the GAME plan. The lesson plan template readily facilitates the whole process of learning-that of setting goals or objectives, putting action plans in place to satisfy those goals, monitoring the process and transferring the new knowledge learned to other areas of learning- and can be readily integrated into my present lesson plan format. Hence, this course has helped in changing how I will plan for my upcoming lessons in the fall semester.

Hence, I intend to adjust how I plan my lessons. Firstly, I intend to include the use of blogging and the wiki as my starter collaborative tools in my lessons. Secondly, I intend to integrate digital storytelling in my lessons, in addition to making DVDs, comic books and podcasts as other technological tools that my students need to use to facilitate their personal learning. Finally, as I strive to keep my skills up to date, so will I be better able to meet the needs of my students, not only for today, but also for the future (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009).


References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. , & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Mason, Ohio: Laureate Education, Inc.

GAME Plan: Students' Perspective

My past experience with using the GAME plan has allowed me to gain a lot of insight in to my own desire to learn how to integrate technology into my teaching practice. I do believe that, in this case, what has been good for the goose(that's me, the teacher) is also good for the gander (that's them, my students). I also believe that the applicatory quality of the GAME plan will exceed my limited expectations of its possibilities, achieving its potential in the academic lives of my students.

In my GAME plan, I have already highlighted the need for my students to set goals. As previously stated, I will continue to make this a feature of my classes. I shall use the goal setting exercise as the means by which to introduce my students to the concept of the GAME plan.

The second way in which I intend to use the GAME plan process is in the teaching of certain topics that will involve my students creating and using a personal blog or a group wiki. The purpose of the blog or wiki would be to encourage collaboration, communication, written as well as interpersonal, amongst my students. This would automatically impact how I plan my lessons; however, my school uses a specific lesson plan format to which I must abide. Nonetheless, my instructional planning for this aspect of their learning will mirror the GAME plan format to which they have been exposed.

The third and final manner in which I will use the plan with my students will be like a study strategy. Having been exposed to its elements, I shall encourage them to generate goals, actions, ways of monitoring and evaluating their understanding of the content and skills that they need to know in preparation for their final examination boards at the end of their academic tenure with the school.

In conclusion, I find that the GAME plan is quite moldable and can be fitted to suit the intents and purposes of any educational objective.


Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Chapter four. Technology-enriched learning environments. Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning

Checkpoint Three: Revision Time

For the past five to six weeks, I have learned quite a lot about my students as a result of having to modify my GAME plan. Vocationally, they are acutely aware of where they believe they will be, professionally, in the next five years. The use of the graphic organizers to help them set their goals is an aspect of my GAME plan that I will continue to use in all my lessons. Thus, my progress in this aspect of the GAME plan has been quite helpful. As it relates to my personal technological development, progress has been minimal. As the academic year approached its end, my timetable of events became swamped with preparation for several school functions and finals. I have resolved, therefore, to use my summer days to continue working towards my goal to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments. I am yet to discover and plan effectively the integration of the school's available technologies into my lessons both for instruction and assessment. Likewise, I have yet to learn how to incorporate Excel in my class routine of learning and assessment as well as to increase my pedagogical repertoire by adopting and adding to my teaching routine a minimum of three new strategies from the web sites that I have bookmarked on interactive activities and on differentiation.

I am not setting any new learning goals, yet, from the list of technology standards in the NETS.T document. This will be done after I am satisfied that I have met my goal requirements for standard two. Consequently, I plan on sharing my experience of creating a GAME plan with my colleagues at the teacher's workshop that the school will be hosting in the third week of August 2010. In this way, I believe, I will be extending what I have learned, not only in my other classes, but in several other subject areas and grades as well.

I will continue to use the learning strategy of inquiry as my main vehicle of discovering new ways to convert my classroom in to a technology-rich environment that will address the individual and specific needs of the diverse student body that I will be interfacing with daily. I also intend to continue working on my GAME plan, but this time I will invite my closest colleagues to help me accomplish the many tasks that I have planned for myself. In this way, the work will be delegated, and the end result of our combined efforts will benefit us all.

In conclusion, despite my overall slow pace of planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating my GAME plan, I envision great success for the future for my students, my colleagues, my school and myself.


Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Chapter four. Technology-enriched learning environments. Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning

Checkpoint Two for GAME Plan

As I continue to work on my GAME plan, I have found that I have accomplished some aspects of my goals. I have made new decisions which have resulted in me adjusting my schedules to fit into those of my students. Consequently, I have been afforded some time from teaching to search the Internet for the technological resources that I intend to learn about and use.

I have found that my decision to use delicious to socially bookmark the many websites that I need to browse for information was a good decision. The task of inter-facing with so many websites is still daunting, however, I have narrowed my search to a few websites that I have found to be extremely helpful; one such site is the IRA website.

I now recognize the significant relevance of engaging students in goal setting prior to the beginning of any academic year. It is a kind of documentation that informs students of their responsibility in their own learning. It provides direction and focus, a tool that can become an integral part of a student's self-reflection and assessment. I have also discovered that many students are not aware of how they, individually, learn and consequently, have no idea about how to study effectively to meet their own learning needs. This knowledge has proven to be valuable, especially as I am presently marking and grading the exam responses that my students have given on their English finals. I also believe that if my students set academic goals and work towards them, their academic achievement and performance will improve.

I still have to learn to use the technological device, the mimeo, in my instructions so that my students can use it in their learning. I also yet have to learn how to incorporate Microsoft Excel in my instruction, not only as a tool to record data, but also for my students to use it to develop certain language skills, such as inferencing, critical thinking, analysis and synthesis.
My school is soon to purchase a Promethean Smart Board and so the use of this technological tool will have to be included in my instructional planning to address my need to make my classroom instruction technologically-rich.

My plans, therefore, have changed only slightly, in that they now include learning to use this additional device to enhance my lessons. I also need to adjust the perspective of the goal setting exercise that I shall engage my students in. I plan to ask my students to include in their goals a decision to use at least one of the school's available technological resources to improve their academic performance.

Hence, I welcome any suggestions from my colleagues on lesson activities that will have the students using the mimeo device and the Smart Board as both presentation and learning tool in an English/Language Arts scenario.


Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Chapter four. Technology-enriched learning environments. Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning

How Am I Progressing With My Game Plan?

Time has always been an issue with me to get the most important and urgent tasks that I need to get done, completed. Yet, despite how hectic my schedule is, and no matter how busy I become close to the end of the academic year, it is my responsibility to find the materials that I need to meet the learning goals of my GAME plan as number one priority.

The information that I need and the cited resources that I have already bookmarked and recorded manually, are not difficult to access. Their degree of user-friendliness is not going to prove too challenging to me because I have already printed out and have begun perusing several pages of tutorials to improve my lesson designs, my recording of student data for grading and analysis and my presentation of my lessons.

I realize that I will need to modify my action plan. Prior to my students' departure from school for their summer break, I need to begin to alert them to my plan to have them set personal academic achievement goals for the commencement of the new term, effective September 2010. I intended to do this aspect of the plan in the upcoming new semester, but in order to make the experience a real, relevant and engaging task, I plan to encourage them to use their summer break to reflect on their learning and begin to make preparations for it.

I also need to prioritize my goals from what is most urgent and important to that which is least important and urgent. This approach will allow me to manage the mammoth task of my GAME plan in small, workable steps. Consequently, my new questions of interest have me deliberating on whether my Internet searches for tutorials, graphic organizers for goal setting and applicable learning and teaching strategies are the only ways in which I can achieve my goals? Is there an option that I am missing that I could also consider to integrate in my quest?

In conclusion, I have learned that this process of creating and implementing a GAME plan requires a lot of thought, interest and effort, and motivation.


Reference

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Chapter four. Technology-enriched learning environments. Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning

Keeping Tabs on my GAME Plan

As I continue to muse on my GAME plan, several crucial factors stand out as being urgent and important.

My first major concern is the availability of resources and information that I need to accomplish my goals. I have already bookmarked websites that will provide me with learning and teaching strategies that can understood and adopted by my students as they learn to identify their learning styles. I have recently included the CAST website as another tool that can assist me in “customizing and personalizing” learning for my students. It has provided additional websites that can readily be incorporated in my lessons, especially as it relates to integrating technology.
Apart from these sources, the resource of time is my only other concern. I foresee myself spending a lot of time on the computer, particularly the Internet, learning about these resources. This does not include the additional time needed to learn how to use the resources so that I can, in turn, instruct my students on how to use them, as well as how to implement the materials appropriately in my lesson plans. Most of the Internet materials are readily downloadable, free of cost, free and available to all, and needing only an Internet connection.

My main learning strategy is that of discovery learning and the computer will be the means by which this will be facilitated.

I have been rationalizing the steps that I need to take to carry out my goals in my mind. What I know that I need to do is to begin organizing the websites in rank order of most helpful to the least helpful. I also need to have my curriculum plans in place to appropriate the respective resources to the content that needs to be covered on a termly/semesterly basis.

These are just a few considerations that I need to address as best as possible.

References:

CAST (2008). Universal design for learning guidelines version 1.0. Wakefield, MA: Author

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore: Author.