Carrying out my GAME Plan

Last week I started to develop my own GAME plan, as Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009) state, to help me “think about and take steps to direct [my] learning process, specifically while learning about technology and how to integrate it into the curriculum” (p. 3). My action plan discusses the two different goals I have: engaging students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources and promoting student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.

For my first goal, I will need to make sure that I will have access to Net Books and that they will always be available. I will have to reserve the tech cart well in advance, so in August I will start investigating what days I will need them, and I will reserve them on certain dates to make sure I will have them for the students. If something goes wrong and I am unable to have the Net Books, I will take my students to the computer lab for a backup plan. The computers will work just as well. In order to get an interactive whiteboard, I will need to talk with my principal directly and ask about getting one. I still have to do this, but I do not know if I should ask him now or wait until August when I go back to work during our in service days. As for websites, I am currently looking on the internet and bookmarking websites that are valuable for my students learning Spanish. I have them bookmarked on my delicious site, so I will not lose them.

For my second goal, in order to start my action plan, I stated that my students first need to know how they learn best, by determining their strengths and weaknesses. In order for them to know this, I will have them take an assessment online at: http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html. This website will help them see how they learn best. According to the results, I will also take a look and see what they say so I can plan the best way for my students to reflect using collaborative tools. One way of having my students reflect collaboratively is to have them create wiki’s as a group, giving them a concept or idea and they create a wiki to demonstrate their knowledge. I would use www.wikispaces.com for this activity. Another idea I have is to have students create their own mind maps using http://bubbl.us. This tool would show me how they see a concept or idea in their own mind, and they can reflect on it after using their mind map as a reference. Reflections could be on their own blogs, using www.blogger.com.

References:

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.