As I monitor my progress for my GAME plan, I am feeling a little frustrated and overwhelmed. To begin, the colleagues I have reached out to for support have yet to return emails or calls. I can understand this, in part, as we are closing on the end of a semester and everyone is finishing projects and grading before report cards go out.
In that sense, I am feeling overwhelmed as the goals I designed were meant to be instituted as soon as possible. However, I am finding that this may not be the case. As far as the collaborative site, I have found one that I feel will fit my needs. However, as my students finish their current project, time restraints tell me I will not be able to implement it for art postings and critiques at this time. The online art critiques and reflections will have to wait for the next project. In that sense, I am trying to fashion the next project so that it will be more conducive to online conversations before, during, and after production.
I have made a little progress in terms of developing a class site. I am now organizing the information I would like to see on my class site in the form of a concept map. This step has allowed me to start collecting media to post when the time comes. For instance, I will have a page for demonstration videos. So this past week when I gave a demonstration, I had a student record it with my camera. I have pasted that video onto my map. I have also started to scan my weekly bellwork so that it can be posted for both students and parents to see. Finally, I have started to organize photographs of student work, past and present, so that I can make a gallery of student work. However, I am still looking for a website generator that is easy for me to use and is used by someone that can provide assistance when needed. As of yet, I have not heard back from my colleagues that have their own sites. Through conversations on this blog, I have had several recommended that I will investigate, WordPress, Weebly, and Schoolnote to name a few.
I think my personal timeline is the main modification needed for this plan. As with all things exciting, I wanted to create and implement both the collaborative site and the class site right away. However, I really want these tools to be something I will continue to use and maintain so I am taking my time in investigating the proper resources and setup. I have to be reasonable in my goal for execution if I want it done well. Therefore, I may have to extend the class site to going public (to my students) until next year. I’d like to take Spring Break and summer vacation to research it correctly and polish it.
One thing I have learned is that my students are hungry to use these types of tools in their classrooms. As I questioned students about blogging and other classroom sties with the intention of integrating them into our art room, they were excited to share ideas and opinions. Their enthusiasm will be a huge motivator to keep pushing to completion.
Hello Mrs. Jones,
ReplyDeleteIf your feel the integration of technology into your classroom is challenging enough, than you are certainly going to have hurdles to overcome with colleague involvement. I guess part of the reason is like you mentioned. Each teacher is going about the school year with a certain rhythm that they are probably hesitant to change. You may need to sell them on the idea or demonstrate with a group how your project idea can be infused into their existing lesson plans. You are taking the right approach in being flexible with your project timeline because in the end your students will hopefully reap the benefits of your ideas.
Good luck and push on.