Monitoring my GAME Plan

My first goal in my GAME plan was to implement more authentic, real-world experiences for my students. What I had in mind was using more online materials; WebQuests, simulations, and interactive reference sites. I have found some resources that I have found helpful. The unit that I am currently on in my world history sections is World War I. The British Broadcasting company, along with PBS, seem to have great websites set up for World War I that offer simulations and interactive sections. I have found a few WebQuests that I like thus far; I am even using one this week in class as a sort of trial run. My government and economics class has been somewhat harder to find online resources because of the nature of the way our course is designed. Some of the materials that I have found online have been extremely in-depth, much more that we cover in my class. I have been trying to focus more on finding ideas for authentic, more hands-on type learning instead. This has been a slow process.

So far, I think that I would need to modify my plan and focus mainly on one class instead of both. I decided this week that I wanted to try and implement my first goal in my World History classes and forgo the Government and Economics class. My evaluation method was through student surveys and also by verbal interactions. As my students are scheduled to start their first WebQuest tomorrow, we will see what the feedback is. Most seemed excited today in class when I was quickly giving them something to look forward to as class was ending. The biggest portion of my learning curve regarding the WebQuest idea for more authentic instruction is that they will probably most definitely need to be modified to fit my class schedule and my group of students. I do not know if it is feasible to use a WebQuest that is already in place. My biggest question would be if there is a website that allows me to create my own WebQuest that is user-friendly. I can always retype a WebQuest and put it on my webpage that I have modified, but I figured that it would be easier to make one online. My other question is how I am going to grade a group-based WebQuest. I have a plan in place for this current one, I will find out if it works. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas on how to grade a group project?

My second goal in my GAME plan was to create a collaborative learning environment to promote cultural understanding and digital citizenship. I have actually been pretty active in this goal and have a collaborative wikispace set up with a classroom in Hungary. Check it out and tell me what you think: www.hungary-us-history.wikispaces.com. We are still planning how we are going to put this all together as this is both of our first times, but so far, it has been a decent experience. My students in one of my classes will begin working on the first section of the wikispace – The French Revolution – beginning Monday. I will have to let you know how that goes with the collaboration in Hungary.

So far, I have not needed to modify this goal of my GAME plan, but time will tell. Depending on how well the first section goes will depend on how many questions I end up with. My biggest issue is fitting this wikispace into my class time. The classroom in Hungary is currently on the French Revolution; I covered it three weeks ago as it was my first unit. The classroom in Hungary also only has 10 students. My world history classes are four classrooms of 10 (I know, great numbers, but that is the way our at-risk program is set up). So I decided to let each section complete a section at a time. For example, my best section will go first to see how it goes and I will have the opportunity to change anything I see after they begin. My second group will complete the next section on Europe in the 1800’s, and so on. I have learned that it is extremely difficult to communicate with another classroom teacher from another continent and that it could take days for an answer. But, overall, it has been a good experience. I will let you know how it goes once we get started.