The GAME goes on...

My identified goal is for my students to work more independently in their collaborative group setting. My group of students is a challenge is say the least. They have varied personalities and they all live in the same neighborhood, so they tire of one another very quickly. A quick bit of history for this group…the classroom seating arrangement has changed more times than I can remember. The students seem to love me, but they treat one another like a brother and a sister would as they parent each other, which can make for a tumultuous seven hours each day as each homeroom teacher is responsible for all subjects and the students do not leave the classroom; you can only listen to the same voice for so long before everyone gets tired.  The collaboration of my GAME plan and this week I enacted strategies in hopes of success.

The Goal for this group was, quite simply, for each group member to be able to stay in “their” group and not to have to move with their desk to another location. This worked for three of the four days (holiday on Monday).

This Action was accomplished, in my opinion, through a lot of movement and minimal extended periods of being seated in the form of circuit movement. The students were divided into four groups and each group was able to use the computers, learning games, small group with me, and activity on Promethean board.  Each day the students moved about. We do this three times a day when teaching math, reading, and spelling. Some of the students that have difficulty were able to remain in their newly assigned group. The use of added technology, games, and added instruction from me, hopefully will prove to be the magic that is needed to manage my classroom.

I continually Monitor each student as we have many behavior issues that require constant redirection and praise for good decisions.

Evaluation is individual with each student and each lesson is an extension of the previous exercise. In my classroom the climate can change in a moment. Continuous data collected, regardless of how formal, is useful data and “helps to better identify needs for individuals” and this is the reason we all do what we do each day.

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.