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.
Wendi,
ReplyDeleteThe process of engaging students in creative thinking and in real world problems is not something that ever happens as quickly as we wish it would. I am so glad to see that you are starting it with the young students you teach. My eighth graders can barely think critically. They always want to take the easy way out. Don't give up trying!
Melissa
Kids are unsure of new ideas when they have not interacted with them. The creativity will come using many of th eproblem solving strategies we have been presented.
ReplyDeleteIt can be very frustrating to work so hard to create a new opportunity for your students which we think is creative, and we lay an egg. It is part of the process. Som eof my 8th graders asked me why we were writing, scripting, recording, and editing a story about the Turkey for Thankgiving, in a music class. I asked them how many of them had every listened to a cd of their favorite singer. They all had of course. They needed to see the amount of effort goes into the "end" product. Keep going, as the beginning of a new direction begins with the first step.
Engaging students does not happen over night! I know with my students it all depends on the day they are having or what the content that I am asking them to focus on is. Dont give up. They will be thinking creatively in know time!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear you are working with Discovery Education and having success with it. Many people in my district use Discovery Education. It is very reliable, and the video clips are short if you select just the segment you need. Also, being able to stream them, or download them to your computer is a great option. I hope you continue to find useful materials on there.
ReplyDeleteIt’s great to see you have such success with the students! It sounds as though you have really taken hold of the technology and put it to excellent us with beneficial results.
ReplyDeleteI have always been against social networking sites in education and still am up to a point. As I stated in our discussion area, I don’t believe that Facebook and My Space type sites have a place in education. They are social networking sites and not what Vicki Davis described as educational networking sites. She did open my eyes to the fact that there are a multitude of tools that can be used for our classes that can be closed off and used exclusively for education. Leave the Facebooking alone and let the students have a social place to escape to if they feel that is the socialization they desire. Like you, I am going to continue to explore this area and determine what I feel are the best ways to incorporate this type of collaboration in my classroom.