Monitoring Your GAME Plan Progress

Through my research and collaboration with my colleagues my GAME I have been able to find a great deal of research to incorporate into my action plan.   I feel that my action is currently on track and at this current state I do not need to alter it.  I have been finding a great deal of resources that I can use to enhance my GAME Plan progress. 

I am currently working on a project with my students that they are incorporating technology as their presentation method.  The students are able to choose a location of their choice to compare to a Eukaryotic cell.  The students in my class were given the option to choose a multimedia presentation method of their interest.  In my class several students choose to create a Prezi presentation that they able to work on in class and also collaborate with each other at home as well.  In class I set time aside for students to work together to brainstorm and create their analogy.  In addition, I also provided students with two class periods to work on their projects in class however, any additional time would need to be worked on at home.  This assignment is incorporating real-world context to engage students to use higher order thinking skills (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).  Students need to incorporate higher order thinking skills to create an analogy of their place of interest to the cell.  This activity I used to incorporate into my lessons but students would create a poster as opposed to a multimedia presentation.  I have noticed in the past that many of my students would complain that they could not draw and often would print out pictures of their location.   However, this year students were excited to be able to incorporate technology because they would be able to incorporate images of their choice and did not need to worry about their drawing abilities. 

I am beginning to review my next unit on Homeostasis and Cellular Transport.  I have begun to research and discuss with colleague effectives formative and summative assessments for my next unit.  My colleagues and I are working on creating and interactive webquest for students as a formative assignment.  Students often have difficulties visualizing how molecules more in the air and how water moves within the cell.  The webquest we are creating will allow students to look up animations and formulate explanations to explain the animation.  I am also researching information to creating an effective webquest.  I have begun to review webquests I have found online to looks for effective questioning skills to increase higher order thinking skills. 

I personally love learning knew ways to incorporate technology to enhance student learning.  I do not want to create lessons that are only using technology for the sake of using it.  However, I want to stimulate and captivate the attention of my students.  I have noticed that they are disinterest and unengaged when a lesson is dull and boring.  I have currently felt that my research has given me insight for new ideas to incorporate into my lesson.  In addition, my research has also given insight to the creations of new teaching methods that I can incorporate into my teaching.  The new questions I have are new effective learning strategies only suppose to be incorporated in the classroom or at home as well.   In addition, as always am always interested in learning new information that can be incorporated into my lesson. 

I am really excited to incorporate the knowledge I gain from my GAME plan into my lesson.  Like any learning experience my GAME plan requires trial and error to enhance and improve lessons.  I also look forward to the suggestions and inputs that my Walden colleagues incorporate for my own personal knowledge growth.

Reference:

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.