On we go with the adventure of making a GAME plan and working toward completion. I have continued to search for real-world activities that fit into my curriculum without too much or too little for my students. So far, I have learned that there are a lot of resources available, but the time that it takes to sort through, try out, and make usable the good sources is overwhelming and daunting. I have decided to take this on one piece at a time and devote thirty to forty-five minutes a week to finding and analyzing sources for upcoming units. That may be a lofty goal considering the time of the year that is upon us, but it is a start.
Based on NETS-T goals for teachers in the digital age, I am looking toward a goal that takes my current GAME plan of bringing real world problems to the classroom and connects it with building assessments to evaluate learning. As these new problem based learning situations are integrated, the assessments that are currently in place may not fit, or may need to be adjusted to evaluate the learning. This new goal will probably be slowly worked toward as each piece is added to the curriculum.
This process has been interesting for me on the other side of the fence as a student, but has just reiterated how important goal making is and how valuable of a tool it can be if used correctly. I am heading back to my classroom to have my students build goals for the new trimester that started today and organize a way for us to ensure that we look back often at the progress of these goals. I also would like to stick a flexibility piece into my students’ goals so they can adjust and grow with their goals.
-Melissa
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Melissa, I think you are smart to just chip away at your goal. You are still making progress in a forward direction and it is a process that takes time and effort. I have also found that the GAME Plan strategy can be effective with students. I have begun to introduce the idea in my classroom and at first they felt it was just extra work but as we have progressed and reflected many of them have found a lot of value in the process. I think I am jumping the gun here because next week's post we will talk more about this. Keep up the great work and just pick one small authentic problem to start with and then worry about the rest. I believe it is just going to take some experience before the overwhelmed feeling will begin to drift away.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your support, Karen. I think that the time of year has also contributed to that overwhelming feeling. I had my students set goals this week to relfect on over the trimester, but I will have to leave the reflecting to my long-term substitute as I head to maternity leave. I will have to check-in and see how it is working with them. My students were very interested in the fact that we had made goals in our class and set a plan of action. They were very into the process.
ReplyDeleteMelissa