Reflection

My GAME plan was developed to enable me to respond more effectively to student lack of self-confidence about the use of technology, and to their resistance to work collaboratively with anyne except their best friends; to increase my level of engagement with peers who either want to know more about how to use technology in their classrooms, or who have information to share with me; and to engage parents more directly in classroom projects as participants, rather than as bystanders or peopele who micromanage their children by doing their work for them.

In the first area, I was able to encourage students who had never used GarageBand before to try it, however I left options such as using Powerpoint and delivering a face-to-face presentation or using Voice Thread open. Most students were able to successfully complete projects, however there was one class that remained highly resistant, and with whom I had more difficulty. I resolved this problem by assigning peer mentors who had already completed projects to assist them with the technology. In this sense they were exposed to collaborative learning as a necessary approach. The problem with this class was that probably the project was too overwhelming in the sense that they were unused to research projects, so they had the double burden of learning how to conduct research as well as learning ew technological skills.

I have contributed to the technological conversation in my department by introducing peers to blogging, to converting printable documents into documents that can be completed online, and by showing them how to use Google Docs and programs like Wordle, which students really enjoy. In addition, I presented a workshop at a district symposium on innovative ideas, was able to overcome technical difficulties, and showed teachers a simple blog site called Kidblog (kidblog.org).

In terms of parent involvement, the research project my students were working on was about their respective cultures; some students turned in amazingly detailed work about their family heritage; one boy filmed his mother making arepas, a Colombian snack. Since i love to travel, I allowed some of my students to use photographs I took in Rome and Costa Rica. One of my Italian students is interested in theater, so I suggested that she do a project on Commedia dell'Arte; it turned out that her mother years ago had dome some wonderful drawings of all the principal characters, which I scanned for her Voice Thread project. For the next phase of our yearlong autobiographical project, a couple of parents have already committed to communicating with our class via Skype about the work they do. What i have learned through this course is that flexibility and adaptability are key to going beyond the limits imposed by walls, and allowing the imagination rein.

In terms of immediate adjustments to my instructional practice, I am creating a wiki with my 7th graders about a book they are reading. We began by brainstorming questions they have about the book, and i am assigning research and blog discussions based on their questions. Throughout the course I have been steadily applying new information to classroom instruction, and I have learned much from reading the blogs and wiki pages of my peers. My ELL students have been using Inspiration to plan their writing prompts; I can see that having the visual in front of them really helps them to organize their thoughts.

This has been a very enjoyable and informative course, and I am sure that information I have learned here will follow me throughout my professional career.