Checking my progress..

1. For my goals for promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility, I have learned that for the most part I have not been an appropriate model for my students. I do encourage them to cite all of their sources when completing any project, but I do not do the same for when I use someone else’s work, such as for lesson or unit plans. As far as this goal goes, everything is going as planned. I am spending more time and effort citing sources and explaining to students the importance of giving credit.

2. Model Digital Age work and Learning - So far, I have learned that parents are extremely interested in seeing a blog about the day’s events or plans for my classes. However, not many of them like to leave comments. My goal is to encourage parents to share their comments on the blog, so other parents who may have the same questions can also get answers at the same time. One way I would definitely modify my plan is to notify parents at the beginning of the year or marking period when students switch into their classes. It’s difficult for parents to keep up with paperwork and actually pay attention to all the information going home at random times during the year. I feel that if it were to go home at the start of a class, then parents would be more likely to pay attention to a small detail such as this.

GAME Plans...

1. Promoting and M0deling Digital Citizenship and Responsibility -
This takes me back to my days in high school. Even though I love reading and writing and English, I absolutely hated citing my sources at the end of the essay. Even now, as an adult, I find it difficult to take the time to cite my sources. I understand the importance of citing the sources, and I also force my students to remember that they can't steal other people's ideas. In order to carry out my plans, I need to continuously keep up-to-date with information regarding plagiarism and documenting sources. Since I am teaching technology this year, it's very important for me to keep letting my students know that documenting sources does not just stay in the English classroom, so I will make sure to include lessons about this topic frequently. So far, when I give my assignments, I always set aside a section in my rubrics for grading the documented sources. It's important that students know that they are being held accountable for documenting the information that they find, so they understand the importance of digital citizenship.


2. Model Digital Age Work and Learning -
In order to get in touch with my students' parents via blog, I will have to build my foundation. I will have to organize my materials for the parents. Taking a suggestion from another classmate, I would prepare a busniess card that would provide all the necessary information for my blog. Parents would know the blog address and receive instructions on how to set up their own blog or how to repsond to the blog.

Before I expect parents to contribute, I have to see what their level of comfortability with technology is. As always, I will also have to be considerate of those parents who do not have computer/internet availability. For the most part, I am extremely well-versed in blogging, so learning how to blog/use a blog won't be necessary.

If blogging does not seem like the best option for communicating with parents digitally, I would also have to consider alternatives to this, hopefully finding a source of communication that will work best for the majority of my parents.

Get my head into the GAME ...

Throughout this course, I will be exploring technology and how it can fit into my classroom, providing a seamless integration between the content and technology. In the NETS-T standards for technology, I believe I can improve my approach on many of the standards, but there are two in particular that I need to become more comfortable with addressing with my students in my classroom.

1 - Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility - As an English teacher, I know the importance of citing information correctly and giving credit to author's when it is due, and in the middle school classroom, it is particularly important to stress the importance of being a responsible consumer of digital information. It is very easy to simply highlight and drag to copy information from the internet, and just teaching the consequences of plagiarism isn't enough. For this reason, I would like to model responsible use of digital materials for my students. When I use resources other than my own, I will continually give credit where it is due, and when students are researching or collecting and information, they will always be encouraged to cite sources (even pictures!). Lessons on the importance of being a responsible citizen will saturate units focusing on the collection of information. To monitor my progress, I will monitor and evaluate my progress through discussions with students on a regular basis. If they are aware and capable of voicing their throughts and opinions on these topics, then they are learning to be responsible and ethical digital citizens.

2 - Model Digital Age Work and Learning - For this standard, I would like to focus specifically on commicating relevant information and ideas effectively to students and parents and peers using a variety of digital age media and formats. Currently, the only way I communicate digitally with parents, students, and peers is through email. I would like to try to communicate with each of these groups in other, more sophisticated and interesting ways. My action will be to set up a blog or other online collaborative tool to use with parents. This will allow us to communicate with each other in a different setting while also including others in the conversation. To monitor this goal, I will make sure I am keeping up with the blog, updating it and participating in discussions with parents. To evaluate this goal, I will keep in touch with parents to see how effective the blog was and what I can do to make it more effective and better.