In order to turn my classroom into a 21st Century learning environment, I need to meet the goals for my GAME plan. The two goals that I have been focusing on are collaboration with parents and professional development. These are two areas that I feel I can improve on and create a better learning environment for my students.
As I progress toward my goals, I have incorporated a list of websites on my classroom webpage for students and parents to use at home. These websites include skill work, reading help, and the link to our classroom blog. Even though I have these things on here, we have not participated with the classroom blog yet. I feel that I have run out of ideas for how to best utilize my classroom blog. Any suggestions? In addition, I do not want parents without internet access to feel left out or inferior, so how can I get them involved without doing that?
The next goal I am progressing toward is professional development. At the moment, there are not any opportunities available. My goal was to make sure I was striving toward learning more about technology integration in the classroom through professional development opportunities. I feel that reading and watching the video clips from this class could possibly be one way that I am reaching this goal.
I have listed my goals, started taking action toward them, and currently I am monitoring these goals and the action I have taken to reach these goals. I need to evaluate and/or extend what I have learned when looking toward these goals.
References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Assessing Student Learning. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.
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Linzie,
ReplyDeleteI share your concerns about connecting with parents that do not have internet access. Many of my parents do not have computer access, and I struggle with finding a way to connect with them as well. Even though I send out the weekly newsletter in my student's folders, that type of communication seems to be outdated.
Hayley
Linzie,
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly off to a good start with parent communication, but I can relate to your concerns about access. My only thought is that, if your public library system is anything like Baltimore’s, parents can get Internet access there. If you are teaching at a neighborhood school, you might be able to make arrangements with a librarian to have a brief evening workshop with parents in which you get them signed up for library cards (if they don’t already have them) and introduce them to the library’s policies for Internet access and to your site. Another idea is, if you haven’t already done so, to send a survey home to parents about Internet access in which you ask if they have access to the Web through their cellular phones. For my students, most of whom are on free reduced-price lunch, a cell phone with Web access is a mandatory social accessory. Regarding the blog, you could set up a virtual refrigerator, where you could post students’ work. Work that is not already digitized could be scanned in and posted on the site as JPEG files. I have seen some great elementary school class sites with beautiful drawings and other student products. I imagine your students and their parents would take great pride in seeing their work online. -Dug
Linzie,
ReplyDeleteI use my classroom blog for open-ended questions. I know from your discussion post, that you use your website for open-ended questions. I do not teach elementary, but I know some elementary teachers send weekly/bi-weekly/monthly news letters home, you could use your blog for that and print it for parents that do not have Internet access. I also like Dug's suggestion of using your blog as a virtual refrigerator. I take tons of pictures of my middle school students at work, print them out, and have students write in the margins what they were doing, then post them on my classroom and hallway bulletin boards. You could do the same with your blog without using student's names.
Jean-Marie
Dug,
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of a virtual refrigerator. Could you give me some more information about how to do that?
Linzie