Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Monitoring My Game Plan

          So far I have only been able to work on one of my topics for my game plan which is “to design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.”  (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008)  I have found various lessons from the smart board exchange website.  There are numerous lessons that have interactive games built right in the lessons and lots with real world pictures and applications.  I have also used the ideas of my colleagues and started searching in Pinterest.  I have two books on order that deal with Algebra and Geometry and real world applications.  I am excited to receive them and see what they have to offer.  I also just recently came across a website, Web 2.0:  Cool Tools For Schools.  I have not had too much of a chance to go through all the links but I know this will be a great resource and plan to investigate it this current week. 
            As far as my second topic, “participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.”  (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008), I will not be able to start collaborating with my PLC’s until school starts.  However, I am definitely looking forward to finding out and sharing my own ideas with my colleagues. 

I have definitely learned that there are a lot of resources out there that are able to help educators incorporate technology related projects, lessons and real world applications into our classroom.  It just takes some time to actually search and be able to research the links and websites.  “It’s amazing how much a learning environment can change when technology is added to the mix!”  (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009)  This is what I am really looking forward to in my classroom along with watching my students use this technology.  
References
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers
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.
Cooltoolsforschools - Collaborative Tools. (n.d.). Cooltoolsforschools - Collaborative Tools. Retrieved July 23, 2013, from http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Collaborative Tools
SMART Technologies ULC. (2012).  SMART Exchange.  Retrieved July 21, 2013 from, http://exchange.smarttech.com

4 comments:

  1. Nichole,
    Thanks for sharing those web resources. It looks like the "smart board exchange" has many great templates for all different types of occasions with a myriad of review game templates (SMART Technologies, ULC, 2012). I also liked some of the tools on the "Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools." Many of the tools available on that site would be great tools for students to use as they create products for projects (Cooltoolsforschools, n.d.). I had a couple groups of students make comic strips for products last year, and I saw a number of comic strip generators that I can recommend to future classes if they choose to go that direction with their presentations. There are many other great tools on this site that I will certainly be checking out this school year. I also just recently created a Pinterest account to find ideas and resources for lessons. I have only done a precursory search and came up with mostly ideas for elementary math. Have you had much luck so far with Pinterest? Thanks again for sharing!
    Ben
    Cooltoolsforschools - Collaborative Tools. (n.d.). Cooltoolsforschools - Collaborative tools. Retrieved July 23, 2013, from http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Collaborative Tools
    SMART Technologies ULC. (2012). SMART Exchange. Retrieved July 26, 2013 from http://exchange.smarttech.com

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  2. I have only found some things with Pinterest. I have found classroom decoration ideas, which is not part of my game plan but are always nice to see other options, and images that I can cut and paste into my smartboard presentations. I definitely like the Web 2.0 website the best.

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  3. Nicole,
    Like you I feel that because it is summer we are limited in doing a lot of things regarding technology in the classroom. We can research information, but with my classroom I am also limited with smart boards, computers and technology. I will go on some websites and see all this information and I get a bit jealous because I don't have the resources available in my classroom. sounds like you have things under control though. Best of luck!
    Amanda Wallace

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  4. Nicole-
    You’ve got good resources. Smart Exchange is one of my favorites. Thanks for sharing the Cooltoolsforschools, it looks like an awesome site as well. It’s surprising how much can be found on Pinterest. Many of my colleagues get great ideas from that site.

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