Week 8 Reflection

As this class comes to an end, I am reflecting on my GAME plan. As the new year begins, I plan to continue focusing on Internet safety. As I mentioned before, each of my 8th grade students has access to a laptop for use at school and at home. While this provides great educational opportunities, it also presents a few problems. Our school has struggled during the process of making sure that each student has proof of insurance before taking their computer home. While this does not sound like much, the paperwork can be quite a hassle. Also, each teacher must check at the end of the school day to make sure that students without insurance have returned their computers to the cart. The reason we have to be so strict on this policy relates to the number of broken computers and parents who would not or could not pay to fix them. It is unfortunate that not all students can take their computers home. Because of this, the learning experience is extended for only a portion of our students.

Since many of our students are able to take their computers home, we do need to have a technology management plan in place for students who misuse the technology. We have had a few students loose computer privileges due to accessing inappropriate material or intimidating or bullying other students. This can be very difficult to monitor. For this reason, as teachers we must teach our students about internet safety and responsibility. This is a daunting task, one that I will continue to focus on with my students.

My GAME plan

I am grateful that I have the opportunity to teach at a technology magnet school. Last year was the first year that our 8th grade students had the benefit of participating in a one to one initiative. Our current 8th grade is also part of this initiative. Each student has access to their own laptop for use at school and at home. While this is a great opportunity for students, it requires teachers to make sure that students are safe when using their computers at home or at school. We have had a few instances where students have been the victims of online bullying or have made bad choices as to what they posted on the Internet or viewed on the Internet. Since there are filters at school, this has become a problem that occurs while students are outside the school walls. This course has helped me to set goals for protecting my students by teaching them some basic Internet safety strategies. In the past our school has offered a workshop for parents to learn about the dangers of the Internet. I think this is important, especially when it comes to middle school students. As the new year approaches, my goal is to continue with my GAME plan.

Revising My GAME Plan

Before winter break, I still plan on sharing the online resources I have found about Internet safety. I am currently looking at some additional resources based on the suggestions of my classmates. I strongly believe that middle school students need to be taught the importance of Internet safety. Each year we have encountered a few students who have made bad choices when it comes to social networking sites. In some cases, students have added inappropriate pictures to their MySpace or Facebook pages and then were upset when those pictures were posted or shared elsewhere. I have also heard of students actually meeting with people that they “met” online. This is such a dangerous situation. I am hoping that by sharing these resources, my middle school students will think twice before they make decisions about the use of social networking sites.

Since I teach United States history, my students conduct research throughout the year. One goal that my students are becoming quite comfortable with is research and information fluency. Even though we have been working on this goal all year, I am finding that some students need additional help in this area. Some of my learning disabled students seem to need the most help with locating organizing, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, and ethically using information from a variety of sources and media. These students still struggle with identifying reliable and valid information on the Internet. They also struggle with the concept of putting the information into their own words to avoid plagiarizing. I am continuing to work with small groups of students to help them find great resources and take notes on the main ideas. I feel that for some students this will be an ongoing struggle.

Evaluating My GAME Plan Progress

How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?

I still need to get approval from the administrators to use the videos in my classroom. I am hoping to show these short video clips before my students leave for winter break. I know that my students will be spending a great deal of time on their computers during their time off of school. I am hoping that after viewing these clips, my students will be more careful when using the Internet.


What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?

I have learned that there is a wealth of resources on the Internet to teach middle school students about Internet safety.


What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen? How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?

I am still working on my plan to have students be "experts" and help with troubleshooting issues. Today was a perfect example of the need for "experts" in my classes. Throughout the course of the day, students had trouble logging into the server, adding printers, opening Word documents in Pages, etc. Since every student has access to their own laptop during the school day, it can be quite overwhelming when technical difficulties arise. I would love it if a few students were trained by our district technology staff to support teachers in the classroom when these problems arise.

Following through with my GAME plan ...

I have been searching the Internet to locate some online resources to effectively teach Internet safety to my middle school students. I found this website http://www.mcps.org/admin/Technology/TRTWebpage/middle_school.htm It has several short videos on Internet safety all told from the perspective of teenagers. The first video I viewed was of a young girl telling her story of how she met a man in an online chat room and ran away with him. He was later put in jail. Another video described a situation where some mean girls convinced a classmate to tell them her best friend’s email password. These mean girls then sent embarrassing emails to other classmates from her email account. Several more videos caught my attention. They are engaging and I believe middle school students would relate well to them. I need to check with my principal to make sure that she approves the videos and lesson plans. Hopefully I will be able to share these with my students next quarter.

I do not feel the need to modify my action plan at this point. I was pleasantly surprised by the wealth of resources available online to teach middle school students about Internet safety. Also, I do not have any questions. I am just waiting for approval from our administration to continue with my GAME plan.

GAME plan

In order to carry out my GAME plan, I need to spend time researching available curriculum that focuses on Internet safety. Even though my students grumbled about participating in our school wide Internet safety activity, I think they all benefited. The activity that we participated in was good, but a little elementary for 8th grade students. I would like to find some resources and lessons that are geared toward middle school students. I would also like to invite a representative from the police department to speak to my students. Listening to an expert describe the potential dangers of the Internet will have a powerful impact on students.

In order to implement my “student expert” plan, I need to gather additional information on our district technology policies. I need to clarify whether students are allowed to troubleshoot different issues on another student’s computer. My goal is for these “student experts” to help troubleshoot problems when our technology support staff is not available. There are days when we spend a good deal of class time trying to troubleshoot some basic computer problems including trouble logging in, saving to the server, adding printers, updating software, etc. Also, I would need to find out who would be willing to train these “experts” and when the training would take place. It seems like a great idea, but I need to gather more information before I can implement it.

Currently I have not had the opportunity to put these plans into motion. In my classes I have continued to focus on helping my students to locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources. My students have been diligently conducting research to complete their Illinois History Fair papers and projects. To do this effectively, I have been guiding my students through the process of locating reliable and valid sources on the Internet as well as teaching them how to properly take notes to avoid plagiarism. This process is extremely important and time consuming.

ISTE Standards

After reviewing the ISTE Standards for Students, I realized that there are some areas that my students and I are doing a great job with. However, I also realized that there are some areas that definitely need improvement. One area that I consider to be a strength is #4 Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making. As a history teacher, I have been fortunate enough to purchase several of Tom Snyder’s Decisions, Decisions computer simulations. My students absolutely love using these in the classroom. Each simulation is based on a real world problem. To solve the problem, students must set priorities or goals and make informed decisions with the guidance of advisors. These simulations allow students to identify a problem, create a plan to solve the problem, collect and analyze information that can be used as possible solutions, and finally, discuss and debate with their classmates as to which choice should be made. These simulations encourage critical thinking skills and help middle school students gain confidence when it comes to forming their own opinions as well as discussing and debating with their classmates.

Another area that my students and I have experienced success is with # 3 Research and Information Fluency. Each year my 8th grade students participate in the Illinois History Fair. Every student writes a 5-7 page research paper on a topic relating to Illinois. To complete this project, students must conduct research. Using their laptops, students gather, evaluate, and use information on their topic. Once students finish writing their research paper, they either create a display board, podcast or iMovie. By the end of this project, students become quite comfortable locating and evaluating reliable information using the Internet.

One area that I feel needs improvement is # 5 Digital Citizenship. My students use their laptops nearly every day in my classroom. Many students are also allowed to take their computers home. While our school district has filters in place to protect students, this is obviously not the case once students leave school. Because of this, I need to spend more time working with my students on the importance of being safe on the Internet. Just last week, our school participated in a school wide Internet safety activity. We discussed the benefits and dangers of social networking sites. I found this to be very helpful to my middle school students.

Another area that I need to continue working on is #6 Technology Operations and Concepts. My students are very comfortable with technology but are not always the best at troubleshooting when problems arise. Our building does have a computer technician, but he is only here part time. It would be great if interested students were trained in troubleshooting so that when problems arise, we would have “experts” that could help other students.

In order to improve in these two areas, I plan on creating other activities that could be done school wide to promote Internet safety. I also intend to discuss legal and ethical issues that apply to Internet usage. Also, after talking with a co-worker this afternoon, we came up with a plan to train students who could act as technology troubleshooting “experts”. Our plan is for several students to voluntarily attend after school trainings as sixth graders. These students would then be able to serve as “experts” throughout their middle school career.