Second Update: My GAME Plan

Up to this point, I have learned a little and gained a little in achieving my GAME goals.  The fist thing I will say that I have learned and also have had affirmed, is that I am very pressed for time when it comes to implementing something this big into my teaching.  On paper everything looked so easy and tangible, but in reality it requires a lot of time and effort.  I am definitely willing to put forth the effort, but I cannot create more time.  As a result I took some of my classmates' advice and decided to start out small.  My first step towards creating more self-directed learning in my class took place yesterday once students finished their quiz.  Now there was not technology involved, but hey, it was a starting point.  What I had students to was take the next section's note packed and read trough the chapter and fill them out on their own.  It was a fairly easy chapter and all of my students have the prior knowledge necessary successfully learn the material on their own.  My biggest fear was not having students put in a serious effort to learn the material on their own, because they knew we would be discussing it as a class the next day.  My plan was partially successful, because one class took this opportunity in stride and had not problems learning the material and had very few questions when we discussed this the next day.  As for my other class, they did not have too many questions either, but this was because a lot of them opted to do nothing.  This was my biggest fear to begin with, because I know my students well and what they expect.  They expect that their teacher will always explain things to them no matter what, so why should they put any effort in learning it on their own.  This is not the case for all of my student in this particular class, but it is or the majority.  I guess I could have taught them a hard lesson and said that they just need to know it and that they would have to catch up on their own if they did not do anything, but the teacher in me says that it is my duty to make sure I attempt to show them how to do things at least once. 

So I did not make any major progress on this goal, but I feel as if I took a step in the right direction.  It gives me a starting point, and it lets my students know that this is likely to happen again in the future.  My next step is to try this type of self-directed learning a few more times, and then hopefully take it to the computer lab.  Although, this again brings up a new challenge, because I know how quickly students can lose focus when they are on the Internet.  In order to help prevent unnecessary surfing on the Internet, I will try to make sure I am constantly circulating the computer lab just to let students know that we are they to get work done, not play around on the computer.  Once this standard has been established, it is my hope that my students will then know what is expected of them when we go to the computer lab. 

As far as my second goal of creating, well actually updating my existing, classroom website, I have yet to find time to make any progress on that goal.  I know that it is an online component and that I can access if from any place that has a computer and Internet connection, but I am so swamped with school work and graduate homework that it gets prioritized pretty low.  However, just like my first goal, I am hoping to take my first small step soon, which would consist of uploading class notes to my website and updating the class calendar.  Again, I have all the resources necessary for this goal in place, but like the majority of my colleagues, I do not have the time to invest in it at the moment. 

Until the next update!