Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Continuing GAME Plan Progress

           I have stated my GAME plan to improve my teaching and some of the steps that I was already able to make towards reaching my goals.  As of last week, I was starting to make progress towards my professional growth goal.  I found different ways to communicate with other teachers to help build ideas of technology integration within my classroom.  This week I wanted to start making more progress towards my goal of teaching students to cite their resources properly.
I completed a search for ideas and tips for citing resources for elementary students.  I found a “Ready Reference” webpage on Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators.  It has a lot of different resources listed on the page, but it also had different expectations and guides for bibliographies for grades 1 through 6 (Schrock, 1995).  This site also has a lot of links to help with fair use and copyrighting.  This is a great resource to use when starting to teach students about different aspects of research.
I am on the Educational Technology Steering Committee within my county.  I was thinking about ways to share resources teachers have found and use within the county.  I talked with one of the technology coordinators about creating some sort of wiki or resource to compile all of the technology resources we like to use and any direction sheets that have been created to go along with them.  After talking to this coordinator, she brought it up to other members of the committee and we are in the process of creating a Livebinder (www.livebinders.com) with resources for elementary, middle and high school that can be used throughout the county.  I am excited about this initiative and I think that it could really help teachers of all comfort levels incorporate technology into their instruction.  I feel like I am making great progress towards my goals currently and seem to be right on track.

References

Livebinders (www.livebinders.com)

Schrock, K. (1995). Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators.

6 comments:

  1. Melissa,

    It sounds like you are extremely motivated. Not only is your GAME Plan fabulous, but your plans are clearly effective and you have created plans that are attainable. I love Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators website. She has a lot of useful resources for teachers.

    I have never heard of livebinders.com. My GAME Plan goal related to professional development is very similar to your goal. I am going to check out this website to see if it would be a useful tool for me in educating colleagues about technology that is available as well as ideas regarding seamless technology integration.

    Thank you the great update! Good post!

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    1. Hannah,

      I am happy that I can be of some help. I feel that there are so many resources available that could help you to share technology resources. My first thought is alway a wiki just because it is something that can be fairly easy and multiple people can contribute. When we started talking about using livebinders, it is another great option. I like to use livebinders with my students because then they have the resources there for them and they only have to navigate through the different tabs. Thanks for your response, and you will have to let me know what you think about livebinders when you get to check it out.

      Melissa

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  2. Melissa,

    I am so interested in finding out the tools you are using to teach kids how to cite properly. It is definitely a complex concept, especially for younger children, although so important to the successful use of technology.

    I had also never heard of that website, livebinders.com, but after visiting it and exploring it for a little while I found it to be such a great resource. I am not surprised that you find it helpful. It is a great tool that I plan on using in the future.

    I look forward to see how your great GAME plan turns out. Keep up the good work!

    Nicole

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    1. Nicole,

      I liked the Kathy Schrock page mostly because it gave some basic, and reasonable, expectations for a variety of grade levels. I think that knowing what to expect of my students when they are citing resources is a big part of my personal difficulty of teaching them. It is nice to have a resource that I can refer back to and possibly find the answers to my questions all in the same spot.

      I am also glad that you liked livebinders. It is pretty user-friendly and fairly easy to use with both students and adults. Thank you so much for your response.

      Melissa

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  3. Melissa:

    I would like to know the link you mentioned about. I am really intrigued about it. As a teacher with little experience I have, I am looking for all the resources I could have available, especially about teaching the students to cite resources properly. This is kind of new for me because when I was a student, and during my short experience I have not seen teachers making emphasis on this particular matter.

    I am really impressed with the initiative you took about sharing resources among teachers in your county. This is a great way of encouraging those who are still reluctant about using technology in their classrooms. Most of them do not realize that they do not have to be tech savvy to begin integrating technology. Please, if you are available to, share that live binder with us for future reference.

    Your GAME plan is going excellently. I am learning with you as much as you are in this process. Great job!

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    1. Naida,

      Honestly, any additional information I can find on teaching students how to cite information is very helpful. It is important for students to learn how to do these things and make them aware of their responsibilities no matter what their age. That is why I am so excited about finding the Kathy Schrock page. There is so much information on that website along with guidelines, and I still have not even looked through all of the resources that are on there! It is nice to have more information that you expected rather than less.

      As soon as we get the website started and rolling, I will try to get the livebinder URL out for everyone to use. I am so glad you are learning with me. I think it makes the experience so much richer when we can meet our own goals while learning from other people as they meet theirs. Good luck and thank you for your response!

      Melissa

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