Online Learning ~ iMovie

Link for my iMovie on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T_ID5USYHs

Final Blog Post

Reflecting on my GAME Plan throughout this course, I can say that my students have been able to use technology in a meaningful way to help improve their fluency and learning.  All of my students have improved their reading fluency rate by at least 10 correct words per minute, in just the eight weeks of this course.  It is amazing how students can grow when given the opportunity to watch and evaluate themselves by the use of PhotoBooth.  My students have also become involved in using Discovery Education to strengthen and reinforce learning of other topics discussed in class.  My students enjoy this time to use technology to enhance their understanding.  The impact of my new learning based on my instruction is that I am going to continue using PhotoBooth and Discovery Education with my students because they not only enjoy the time on computers, but they are showing growth and improvements.  When thinking about adjustments I will be making to my instructional practice regarding technology integration in my classroom will be to just continue working toward using technology more and more.  I like to take small steps to not become overwhelmed, but my students and I both like the use of technology and I will continue teaching them different ways to use it to increase their learning.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

The GAME plan process is very beneficial for students because I was able to set goals, work through a process of steps, reflect on my steps and then evaluate my students.  I feel the International Society for Technology in Education and the National Education Standards for Students relate in a way that they are both wanting students to be thinking at a higher level and demonstrate collaborative thinking.  They both also want students to be creatively conducting research in a problem-based manner.  Students need to be using technology in a productive way to aid in student achievement.  I will continue to use thE GAME plan process with my students to help them develop proficiency in the NETS-S because it is a great way to guide my instruction.  I want to use this process because students need to be introduced and use the latest technology to inspire innovative thinking to aid in higher order thinking.

Revising My GAME Plan

Reflecting back on my GAME Plan, I can see that the use of PhotoBooth has been very beneficial for my students.  Over the past several weeks, I have seen improvement in student fluency upwards of 5 to 15 words per minute.  It is amazing what students can do when they are able to listen to their reading to help them read more fluently.  If they know their weak areas, they are able to practice that part to improve their reading abilities.  As for the use of Discovery Education, I have been able to assign students videos to watch and then short quizzes to answer.  I am then given feedback immediately.

As for the goal I am still working toward is the NETS-T Standard #1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.  I feel that I still need to work toward getting my students to be innovative thinkers and engage them in exploring real-world issues.

The new learning goals I am setting for myself is to get my students actively engaged in real world issues to become more creative thinkers.  The learning approaches I will try in the future is the use of educational networking to enable my students to not only collaborate with students within the school, but also schools around the country.  I am going to continue using PhotoBooth because I am seeing a huge benefit of this program for reading fluency.

Evaluating My GAME Plan Progress

The actions I took this week provided a variety of positive feedback.  My students that are using PhotoBooth to help practice fluency all saw a growth in their number of words correct read in a minute.  It was neat to see how they reacted to their final timed reading with me because several commented by saying something about how they didn’t make the same error while practicing because they watched themselves and knew to pay close attention to that part in the passage.  I have also viewed some tutorials about Discovery Education that has enabled me to pick out meaningful videos to show my class.  One we were able to show was based on first women.  In Wyoming, Nellie Tayloe Ross was the first women governor.  We celebrated her accomplishments on Monday and I was able to show a video clip about government and her.

I still need to learn how to take the Discovery Education program and assign students a video clip with a quiz they are required to complete.  I will be watching more tutorials based on this during this week to accomplish this goal.  In order to meet the needs of my students, they will continue to practice fluency on PhotoBooth to ensure an increase in fluency to reach our year-end grade level goals.

Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress

I am continuing to make progress toward reaching my goals in my GAME Plan.  My first goal is dealing with using technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning through creative and innovative environments.  I have contacted the district Discovery Education gentleman and he has told me about using different tutorials located on the Discovery Education website.  I have looked into a few of these and they seem to be very helpful.  I have also shown my students a video to help enhance their learning off the Discovery Education website.  As I progress though this goal, I have learned that using technology can have its downfalls.  As I was trying to download a video, it did not have sound.  I was able to fix this problem by downloading it in QuickTime player.

As for my second goal, we have one week of fluency checks done.  The way we were able to test fluency with Photo Booth was by allowing students to practice a few times and then take their hot reading test.  It was fun to go through the final recordings with each student and pause and go back to different parts to discuss errors or phrasing miscues.  I feel with continuing to work with students by using Photo Booth and the conference time, my students’ fluency will increase.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

Resources:

The resources I will need in order to carry out my GAME Plan will include student access to the Discovery Education website.  They will become involved in using this resource, so it is imperative for my students to understand how to access this Internet-based tool.  My students will need to be shown how to use the website to obtain the information, such as the videos, to complete the assignments.  As for my second goal, my students will need to be reminded how to use Photo Booth to assess their fluency.  They will need to have a computer and their small group reading materials to help assess this.

Additional Information:

I will also need to make sure students are able to e-mail me their completed assignments via Discovery Education and my e-mail account.  This will need to set up in advance so students are successful in submitting assignments.

Steps Taken This Far:

As of right now, my students have been working on Discovery Education to locate videos I have assigned to the class.  They also have become familiar with Photo Booth by modeling it and they have begun testing one another’s fluency.