Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress

Are you finding the information and resources you need?
I have been having great results with finding information that I need.  There is an Edmodo blog that I have been using as a great guide.  This week I have been searching youtube for videos on edmodo to get new ideas and tutorials on how to use it.  One teacher at my school has been particularly helpful in showing me how she uses it in her class.  Since edmodo is a great way to share resources with students I am always on the look out for unique and helpful websites for students.


Do you need to modify your action plan?
I feel that my current action plan is still sound and will help me reach my goals of delivering content to students and improving communication with parents.

What have you learned so far?
So far I have learned about the capabilities of edmodo and ways I might use them.  This week I have been experimenting with the poll feature that allows me to pose a question and quickly get responses from students.  This would be a great way conduct quick checks for understanding at the beginning or end of class.  Also I have started uploading files to the library that I can then post and share with students.  I envision using this next year to give students a place to locate assignments they have lost or if they are not in class.  I like the idea of posting lessons that we do in class so students can still participate even if they are not in school.  I also learned that there is an edmodo ap for Iphones Ipods and Android phones.

What new questions have arisen?
Most of the questions that have arisen for me are about the engagement of my students when I use edmodo.  I am really excited to see how they respond and if it helps their understanding of the material we are studying.  Also I am also wondering if I am going to need to do a tutorial night to show parents how to use edmodo and all it has to offer them as a communication tool.  Finally I am wondering how can I might use edmodo to assess my students.  Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer write that threaded discussions are a way to assess students using open-ended responses and edmodo makes it really easy to conduct a threaded discussion(Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p 145) .

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.

Carrying out your game plan

Resources:
One of the biggest pieces to executing my game plan will be access to computers next year.  This year it has been difficult getting the tools that I want to use when I want to use them.  The computer labs in our school are constantly full between classes utilizing them and students testing on them.  In the fall I plan on mapping out time in the library for each of our units to ensure access.  Also each team has four netbooks for student use.  This year I have not taken advantage of these as I did not always know how best to use four netbooks with a class of 30 students.  Next year I will make sure I have access at least once a week and devlope stations that students can rotate through to achieve the goals that I want my students to.
Additional information:
I need to obtain more information on how to obtain more technology in my class.  I know that teachers in my school have utilized our district technology coordinator to receive more technology.  I need to be in contact with her and also keep my eye out for possible grant opportunities.
Actions:
This week I have spent some time examining the capabilities of edmod.  I continue to be amazed at some of the capabilities this program has.  This week I spent some time reading the help page on the edmodo website to learn more about the capabilities of the program.  There are a few interesting things that I would like to highlight. First being that parents can be issued a specific key that allows them to access the edmodo page but only allows them to see what their student sees and only interact with me.  Another really cool feature is the ability to create assignments that students submit online.  I know that currently I have student email things to me and it can become quite a pain finding them when I get around to grading them.  I have also gone a head and started to set up my own personal edmodo page.  I have even convinced some of my teammates to look into using the program next year for their classes.  One really cool feature we discovered was that assignments for different groups will show up together on one students calender.  I feel like I have made a good start and will continue to search out video tutorials and fellow teachers who are using edmodo so I can get a better grasp of how specifically I want to use the site in my class next year.  I am really excited about this because I will give me a venue to provide students the choices of media and contexts to learn about our curriculum which a key aspect of using the Universal Design for Learning (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 123)

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.

Personal Game Plan

While reviewing the NETS for Teachers two of the standards really seem to align to some goals I have for my classroom next year.  They were Standard 2 Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments and Standard 3 Model Digital-Age Work and Learning.  The two specific sub-standards that plan on focusing on are, design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity and communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats (International Society for Technology in education. 2008).

Goals:
Use edmodo to deliver content to students utilizing videos, websites.
Use edmodo to improve communication with both students and parents.

Actions:
The first step to delivering content to students and improving communication with parents is to create an edmodo page.  The next step that my teammates and I plan to do next fall is sign parents and students up for edmodo at our back to school night.  To deliver content to students I plan on using edmodo to list the daily objectives, agenda, and homework.  I will also use edmodo to share usefull links to videos, tutorials, practice websites and assign some tasks.  To improve communication I will use the email and text feature to remind students and their parents about upcoming due dates, big projects, and provide feedback on assignments submitted through edmodo.

Monitor:
To monitor my progress I will need to see if I am not overwhelmed with updating edmodo daily.  I will also need to monitor the use of edmodo by students and parents to help determine if it is worth while using.  Observe if students seem more engaged in class activities using edmodo.  Observe if parents are more involved in communicating about their child's progress.

Evaluate and Extend:
I will collect data on the rate of assignment turn in and overall grades to see if edmodo is helping to improve upon these two categories.  Determine if more class activities and assignments can be incorporated into edmodo.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx