Course Reflection:Integrating Technology Across Content Areas

At the beginning of this course, I made a GAME plan to collaborate both with two other ELL teachers that work at a different schools and with my colleagues at the school in which I work. The collaboration is focused on incorporating technology in the classroom. Throughout the past seven weeks, I have begun to take steps toward completing this GAME plan. In my last post, I discussed that I had been contacting the ELL teachers and my colleagues via e-mail to get the collaboration process started. The e-mails have been working great with the ELL teachers. We have already set up a plan of action and dates that we will communicate each month for the first semester. With school now starting, I am excited to begin using some of the ideas we have already discussed. For the collaboration with my colleagues, our first PLC will be this upcoming week. During our meeting, I plan to introduce VoiceThread. I absolutely love using VoiceThread, and I hope others will find it useful and beneficial in their classrooms as well.

Even though my GAME plan is still in its beginning phases, I still feel that I have grown as an educator as a result of my plan. The simple process of setting up collaboration is a great step for me. In the past, I have not participated in as many collaborative activities with colleagues as I would like to. I have learned that others are eager to learn and share their experiences and knowledge as well but may have been unsure of where to begin to find others to collaborate with just like I was. It is exciting to begin a new school year with new ideas and strategies for incorporating technology into my content lessons. I truly feel that it will have a positive impact on my students. Because my GAME plan is still just beginning to take action, I do not feel like I need to make any adjustments as of now. As I collaborate more with the ELL teachers and my colleagues, I may find that I need to make changes to my plan, and I will do so accordingly.

The GAME plan would be an excellent tool for me to use with my ELL students. At the beginning of each semester, we do goal setting. I can now use the GAME plan format to help that goal setting to be more effective.

As a result of taking this course, I have many new ideas that I will bring to my classroom related to technology. I have already planned two problem-based learning activities that I will incorporate. I have always included project-based learning but not problem-based learning in the past. I am excited about problem-based learning because my students will have the ability to learn the content while improving their higher-order thinking skills, collaboration skills, the ability to monitor learning, and so much more (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009b). I have also learned some new ideas for methods of including digital storytelling. I am looking forward to having students create a digital story that shares their country of origin and a bit about their culture. I work with students from all over the world. It will be really fun to learn about their cultural backgrounds firsthand, and I know that they will be excited to share this information as well. I will also use digital storytelling in other ways because it will help my ELL students to improve oral communication and writing skills while learning 21^st century skills as well (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009a).

Overall, I have gained a lot of great information from this class. I feel more confident with my ability to incorporate technology effectively throughout this school year, and I am looking forward to seeing how that impacts my students.

 

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009a). Integrating technology across the content areas: Spotlight on technology: Digital storytelling, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009b). Integrating technology across the content areas: Spotlight on technology: Problem-based learning, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.