Fearless by Max Lucado

Life is filled with fear. However, in his book Fearless, author Max Lucado helps people deal with fear in a biblical way. He points out the difference between fear of God and fear of this world. He uses Scripture and stories of everyday people to offer encouragement and comfort in a fear-filled life. He reminds us that God wants us to be people of courage, and He provides the tools for us to live out that courage. Lucado walks the reader through thirteen areas in which life tries to rob us of our courage and happiness, areas in which most of us struggle to let go of our fear. Then he reminds us that Christ can take away those fears, because He is in charge of the ending. Lucado writes in a style that makes it easy to understand and relate to. His writing flows through stories and examples, and he fills the reader with encouragement to live the way God intends: fearless.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Week 8 Reflection

During this course, I have worked on developing a GAME plan to increase my effectiveness in the classroom. One area in which I wanted to work on improving was in the area of professional learning communities. I want to collaborate with others in the field of education and continue to be informed about developments in technology. I want someone to hold me accountable for increasing my knowledge and applying it in my classroom.

As part of my GAME plan, I have joined several online communities to blog and share information. I also have asked several staff members to help hold me accountable within my district. Several staff members have begun blogging and reading together to increase collaboration within the district. I also have several staff members who have agreed to meet with me periodically so we can share information with each other and problem solve areas in our classrooms. I will continue with these communities.

I also wanted to increase the reflection that my students do in regard to their own work. I feel I have begun to collect different methods of reflection and would like to continue to do so. It is important that students think about their work and the work of others.

As a result of this course, I will continue to include technology in my classroom. I have set up Google accounts for all of my students and would like to add RSS feeds to their accounts, using some of the updates as required readings. I would also like to incorporate digital storytelling into my literature units in order to help students share what they learn. Digital storytelling has many benefits within my language arts classroom.

Overall, I have found the GAME plan effective and will continue to use it with my students.

Week 7: GAME plan

Throughout the past several weeks, I have thought about and evaluated my own GAME plan for increasing my knowledge and understanding of the technology standards for teachers. These standards are important because they are necessary skills and knowledge for the future success of our students. Students will need these skills in order to be competitive in the future economy.
To that end, I have been working toward my GAME plan: setting goals, taking action, monitoring my work, and extending it. As I consider implementing these standards in my classroom for my students, I see the value in using the GAME plan with them as well.
There are many ways to incorporate this type of plan with students, and as teachers we should be continually setting goals with our students and working through the parts of the GAME plan. In particular, I want my students to be familiar with the technology goals and 21st century skills that will be necessary for their future success.
To begin, I would like to have my students work in groups to evaluate the standards. Over the course of the semester, I would like them to break down each standard into student-friendly language and discuss what they mean and what they look like in the real world. I would also like them to consider the advantages to having these types of skills.
As they work, I would like students to develop their own GAME plan to prioritize the standards and begin to work toward mastery of them. Throughout the semester, I will ask my students to set goals to incorporate these standards into their work in the classroom. As they set their goals, I will have them keep reflective journals to see what their goals are and how they are working toward them. Periodically, we will review their journals together in our conferences. I will ask them to list specific steps they need to take to work toward their goal, and they will reflect in their journals how they are progressing to their goal. Our conferences and their journals will allow them to monitor their progress. Each time we meet, I will ask how they are progressing and if their goals need changed or amended to reflect new skills or information. As they achieve their goals, I will ask them how they can extend the knowledge and skills they have gained.
At the end of the semester, I would like students to blog about their reflections and the achievements they have had due to following their GAME plan to learn and incorporate the standards into their classwork, as well as where they will go from here in regard to their GAME plans.

Week 6

As I continue to work toward meeting the goals of my GAME plan, I have begun collecting reflection tools and inquiring of others how they have students reflect upon their learning. I have continued to add to my portfolio of ideas for reflection. In addition to exit cards, I have found several other ideas I will try within the next semester. One idea is to have students write down goals for learning at the beginning of the unit or lesson. They can list their goals on post-it notes and then we can hang them in the room somewhere. After the lesson, we can verbally reflect whether or not we feel those goals have been met. Another idea is to set students up with accountability pen pals. Students would be paired up with one another and would blog or write back and forth to discuss what they have learned, what they are learning, and what they need to continue to work on. I feel I have discovered some great resources to help with this goal.

I am continuing to work on developing my professional growth and leadership. The first week of blogging with colleagues has been successful. However, I have not had much success in finding other teachers who are willing to hold me accountable within my teaching practices. Another option I am going to try is video taping some of my lessons and asking others to view them to critique my teaching style. I would like to have some feedback on ways to improve. I am also continuing my search for other PLC options.

I am not yet sure I am ready to pursue other goals as of yet. However, I would like to begin to incorporate more problem-based learning in my classroom, which ties in with the NETS standard of engaging students in real-world issues and problems with digital media and resources. In this regard, I will begin by refreshing my knowledge on wikis and planning for several PBL opportunities.

Week 5

I am continuing to adapt my GAME plan as I need to in order to progress. First of all, I have been working on reflection tools for my students. I have found several surveys that students can fill out regarding their work and have asked for fellow staff members to look at them and give me their input. I have also asked other colleagues how they help students reflect upon their growth. One colleague suggesting having students create short recordings. She suggested they record their goals at the beginning of a project, paper, or activity, and then record their thoughts after completion. I like this idea and feel I can incorporate it easily into my classroom, as my students all know how to use Voice Thread and create podcasts. In this case, my actions have led to some success in finding reflection tools that will work in my classroom. I would still like to learn how to help students reflect on smaller tasks within the classroom, such as daily lessons. I want to find resources to help students see what they learn on a daily basis. I have used exit cards in the past and would like to continue to add to that idea.

Secondly, I have been working on being accountable by finding a PLC. To date, I have had 5 staff members inquire about the book I am studying and blogging about. 5 does not seem like a large number, but it has only been about a week, and I work with a staff of about 40, so I am encouraged. I put information in each staff member's mailbox in regard to the PLC, and I think that has helped to spread the word. We begin blogging at the end of this week on the first chapter, and so I think I will find the conversation encouraging and it will help me find new ideas for the classroom. In addition to this online PLC, I would like to find 1-2 staff members who would be willing to hold me accountable in my professional learning. I am going to begin to inquire to see if anyone would be interested in meeting periodically to share ideas and concerns in order to help one another.

I am encouraged by the steps I have taken to meet my GAME plan, and I will continue to work toward its success.

EDUC 6713 week four

The first objective of my GAME plan was to help students become more reflective thinkers. I began by creating a blog that would allow them a place to reflect on their learning and knowledge, and they would be able to comment on one another's posts. As I continue to develop my GAME plan, I know that students will need guidance on how to do this. Therefore, I have begun to compile a list of resources to help students with their reflections. I have begun gathering as many different types of reflective tools as I can, and have started thinking about when they should be used with students. For example, I can post open-ended questions on the blog, such as what did you learn? How do you know? What obstacles did you run into? What helped in your learning? I can also provide students with rubrics and have them grade their own projects and assessments to see how they feel about the knowledge they've gained. However, I am worried about using the same types of reflection tools repeatedly and losing the value of them as students become accustomed to them. Therefore, I will continue to search for helpful tools and try to continue to come up with innovative ways for students to assess their learning and reflect on it.

My second goal dealt with becoming more involved in my profession, such as keeping up with news about education, particularly in technology. I also wanted to gain more interaction with peers. I have subscribed to several rss feeds to gain information and also to several blogs and online journals. Another step I have taken is to talk with my superintendent in regard to PLCs. Our district does not mandate learning communities, but he is in favor of the concept. Therefore, he has agreed to let me pilot an online community based on gaining knowledge and sharing. He has purchased a set of books for the staff to read. This is voluntary right now, but I hope it will grow. The superintendent has allowed me to set up a blog for staff where we can discuss the book we are reading and how it applies within our classrooms. He has requested that I update it weekly, noting important information from the book we are reading and helping to head up the discussion. I think this is a great opportunity for my district to share ideas and begin communicating on a higher level. I hope it will lead to further PLCs. I will continue to look for new books we can share in this format, and hope that anyone who has suggestions in this area will share them.

Within the next few weeks, I hope to add to my portfolio of reflective resources and see more participation within my district in the new PLC blog.

Ginger

EDUC6713 week3

Last week, I developed a GAME plan to help me implement some of the technology standards into my classroom. One area I wanted to develop was promoting student reflection. To do this, I wanted to establish a classroom blog where students could reflect upon items from class and their own work and then "discuss" this with one another. I want them to have accountability and take ownership of their work. This week, I established the blog and I will introduce the concepts to students in the coming weeks. As I move forward, I will need to look for some reflective tools I can use to help students see what areas they need to analyze within their own work, and ways they can reflect upon what is being done in the classroom. I will search the Internet and ask colleagues for advice on what types of tools would be most effective.

Secondly, I wanted to focus on evaluating and reflecting on current research and professional practice. I want to be aware of what information is out there, learn to implement new technologies into my classroom, and then reflect and evaluate the work I am doing within my classroom. This will take many steps and resources to accomplish, yet this type of evaluation and reflection will never cease in a classroom. First of all, because there are no PLCs in my district, I need to locate one that I can be a part of. I have done some online searching and have joined two learning groups through my diingo account. I have joined elearning 2.0 and Google in education. However, I have not yet had much opportunity to read the majority of the articles. I do, though, have the ability to comment on things I am doing in my classroom to ask for advice or to reflect upon the outcomes. I can use these sites to read for new information and hold myself accountable for trying new ideas. I would also like to look for and subscribe to educational magazines that deal with new technology. My next step will be to search for these and subscribe. Finally, I am using my personal blog as a reflection tool and will continue to do so.

These beginning steps will help me implement these new standards in my classroom. As I look at what I am doing and need to do, this will change and need updated as well.

References:

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf on November 10, 2009.