Week 4: Monitoring My GAME Plan
January 25, 2012
I believe that I have made good progress with my GAME Plan. I spoke with colleagues, tried the strategy of having students assign themselves jobs within a group, and learned alongside my students, a new piece of technology that will be very useful in lab.
So far I have found all the information and resources I need towards accomplishing my goal. I spoke with our librarian and she actually showed me how to use Prezi’s, so the students can use them in my class when we do presentations. By playing around and looking at examples of Prezi’s , I could see that this could be a great tool for my visual learners.
To prepare for my second goal which was to alter my lessons to best meet the needs of my students, I had the students do a simple genetics activity where they taped the names of genes on a coin and then tossed it 50 times and recorded the results of which genes came up the most. I had the groups assign jobs which included, coin tosser, number recorder, and a person to create a graph. This simple activity allowed me to observe the students in their group to see how they worked together and which jobs they assigned to each other.
A small modification that I needed to make was a matter of just changing a few group members around. A few issues arose and some groups really were not working well together and it was becoming a real problem and distraction. I made notes of this and will make sure that those students are not grouped together anymore. Students need to learn how to support each other in their group and not get caught up in drama (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).
I realized also that I need to give the groups a job list where they sign their names and write down a small description of their job. This will ensure that all work is “most equitable and productive” and that “no individual takes a dominant role” (Cennamo, Ross,& Ertmer, 2009, p. 90). The other groups worked very well together and I noticed that the artistic students chose to graph the data and made very nice graphs. The kinesthetic learners chose to toss the coin. The next and final step to my plan is to have the students carry out a lab investigation with their lab group. This investigation will have a variety of different activities where students can showcase their abilities.
After this activity I moved on to start accomplishing my first goal which was to work together with my students to learn new technology. For this lab I wanted to learn how to use the Vernier CO2 Gas Sensor. I went into the lab with just a basic plan, but not knowing how to use the gas sensor. Once we were in the lab I handed the students the CO2 sensor, a handout of the directions for calibration, and the lab handout with the procedure and some background information. I then gave the students all the materials to complete the lab and had them start. I explained to the students that I never used this technology and I want to learn together. I then challenged them to properly calibrate the sensor and then start the lab set up. Throughout this whole process I was walking from group to group and asking them questions about what they were doing. After visiting about 3 groups I knew how to calibrate the sensor. I even learned from a few groups how to properly handle and store the sensor. As students completed the lab I noticed that many of them were choosing to learn the equipment by trial and error. Students would do something with the sensor to see how it worked. For example, students started breathing on the sensor to see how the CO2 levels changed. I let the students do this, but monitored that they were on task and not just fooling around. They were actually interested in the results. Other groups were reading the directions very carefully and following the steps exactly, which is perfectly fine. By the end of the lab I learned how to calibrate the sensor and how to use it in the lab. Although this seems like a simple task, I know I can trust my students to work with this technology and we can move on to more complex labs and technology.
A question that has arisen is how I can teach students to work together as a group even if you do not get along with each other. This question arose from the incident I mentioned above. This one group did not get along at all and were fighting and arguing. I want the students to learn that you may work with something that you may not like but you need to overcome your differences and work through it. Cennamo, Ross, and Ertmer (2009) mentioned that teachers should “model effective problem-solving strategies and conflict resolution skills (p. 91). I usually try to do this, but I feel that my students need more practice. Any suggestions?
Kayla Shandra
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.