New GOALS

This week as I continue on my GAME plan, I started searching for ways to take my classroom to a more global environment for collaboration. I am designing a problem-based lesson for my class centered on my community’s need for a recycling facility. I know this is an issue in other small towns, so I wanted to find a way to collaborate. While exploring I found Thinkquest.org. This site provides a teacher-created web page for me to start my project. Students can log in and use the site like a wiki, posting information they uncover and collaborating together to create solutions. Also, I can open this project up to other teachers who use ThinkQuest. Hopefully we can get another school on board and join forces. I am unable to use all aspects of the web site until my administrator grants them permission, so once again my GOAL is blocked by summer. We will see how this one goes…

Meanwhile, I am still working on my NETS goal to “model digital-age work and learning”. I am building a wiki through a learning community with my peers at Walden. This experience is helping me get more familiar with the process and I am pretty sure I will be able to create the poetry wiki with my students. I have set up the basic site. Now I think I will get in touch with some former students through Facebook and see if they want to help me get it started. There is nothing like getting kids on-board to create interest in a project like this one.

For the future, I have begun working on NET 1. “Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity “. This standard asks that teachers “engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources” (ISTE, 2010). I am working on this goal as I play around with the ThinkQuest site, and am excited about finding new ways to apply problem-based learning to my lessons. Has anyone had any experience with the ThinkQuest site? Until I get my administrator to approve it, there are quite a few areas of the site that I can’t access. I wonder if the program is going to be as easy to use as it sounds?

Thanks for following my progress!
Kris