There are two ISTE standards that jump out at me when I look at them and they are:
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS
4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices.
What I will do to make sure that I utilize the second standard is to make sure that I use the technology that is available to me and my students. It is easy for me to fall into the same trap of following the same lesson plans from years past and using the same books and videos as resources, but there is so much more available for me to make class more interesting and for my students to interact with so that they can understand Spanish in new ways. My goal to do this is to have my students go on a virtual field trip or complete a WebQuest every quarter so that class instruction is fresh and different.
The next thing that I want to make sure that my students understand that all of the materials and things that I or they use belong to someone and that they need to give credit to the people who created the resources that are used. My goal is to cite everything that I use in my lessons if the ideas are not mine. I also will cite pictures and works that I have created if I use them in a WebQuest so that students understand that things found on the web have a creator and that person is the owner of that “digital property.” I want them to understand that it is okay for them to use other people’s ideas, but they need to give credit to the people who came up with those ideas.
I will monitor my progress by making sure that I keep my personal responsibility to give credit to owners of intellectual property. It may not seem like stealing, but it is and I have to be honest to myself since I am to be a role model for all of my students. The other way for me to monitor my plan is to make sure my students know of my plan and hold me to giving them a digital project each quarter.
My learning and growth will be continuous, because technology is continually evolving. The computer that I am using to write this is less than a year old, but it is already almost obsolete compared to the computers available in my local stores. I will be able to evaluate my learning by looking at the products that my students produce during their digital projects, but I know that I will find better and faster ways to make sure they are learning and I am learning with them.
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4 comments:
Equipped for the Job
It seems that you have a great GAME plan in mind for how to incorporate as much technology as possible into your curriculum. But as you've noted, it's just as important to keep up with the latest in technology tools available. When I began teaching, I purchased a PC laptop that soon died within two years. For the next year or two, my school purchased DELL laptops for teachers on our campus. These laptops proved to be good workhorses, but eventually, they too began slowing down. Fortunately my school's computer lab was budgeted to allow our students access to the latest PC desktops. Ironically, the computer lab teacher's desktop was an Apple. We discussed why two different platforms one day -- which ultimately convinced me to purchase an Apple MacBook Pro. It's ideal for everything I want to model in the classroom, and it's faster than any PC I've worked in the past. So far, this laptop (what I'm using now to write this response) is going on three years old, and it's doing just fine.
I agree with everything else you've noted in your blog. Again, just as you've noted, it's important to be up-to-date -- if not more so -- than your students when it comes to technology.
Great blog for thought!
I agree that it is extremely easy to fall into a routine in the classroom. Using the same resources and books year after year will cause anyone to fall into a "trap" as you put it. This year I was not given a book to use with my English class. At first I was freaked out because I had no guidelines to use with my kids throughout the school year. I am glad to say this has been my most productive school year in six years of teaching. I create lessons and activities based solely on my student's writing rather than teaching a lesson because it is the next chapter. All content is first introduced via technology. For example: when introducing parts of speech, I used Youtube and my projector to show my students the Grammar Rocks videos. The kids loved it and were happy to not be learning from an old, overused textbook. Good luck with incorporating more technology! It has completely changed my outlook on teaching!
Richard,
Its funny that my district is almost the opposite of yours in that it has PC's for the teachers and Imac's for the students. The Imac's are the for the younger students and then in high school the students have new PC's that are much better than what is provided to the teacher. I have had the same laptop for four years now and it works great (I will admit its the second one of the same type, since my dogs broke the LCD screen on my other one and they gave me a new laptop of the same model). Thanks for the response
Anthony
Cristina,
Thanks for the idea of using YouTube. I did a quick search and have found a lot of different skits from Spain that I can use to show my students interaction between students their own age in a different country.
Anthony
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