Developing my personal GAME plan

After reviewing the National Education Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers website, I realized that I am more proficient than I thought I was in using technology. This Master’s course has really helped me think about technology and its importance in the classroom. Because of the previous courses for my degree, I feel that I do well with modeling digital-age work and learning, promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility and engaging in professional growth and leadership. I feel I do well with meeting these standards, but I still need to work on the first standard, facilitating and inspiring students learning and creativity and the second standard, designing and developing digital-age learning experiences and assessments. In order to work on these two standards, I will be using the GAME plan, as illustrated by Cennamo, Ross and Ertmer (2009) 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).

GOALS:

The two performance standards I need to work on are:
1. 1(B) engaging students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources and

2. 2(C) promoting student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.

ACTION:

1. In order to take action for my first goal of engaging students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources, Cennamo et al. (2009) suggest that I need to “determine steps [I] can take to meet [my] goal within a reasonable timeline” (p. 10). In order to become proficient in my first goal, I will need to decide what technology tools I feel will be of best use in my classroom. I have three different ideas: interactive whiteboard, NET books and websites. I will need to talk with my principal about getting an interactive whiteboard, my school is in the process of getting NET books and I will need to see what websites would be of best use with world language students.
2. For my second goal of promoting student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning and creative processes, I will first need to be able to identify the ways in which my students learn best, in order to creative lessons in which I will get the best student reflection. An example of this is if I find that my students learn best visually, I can have students create mind maps or concept maps using digital tools, and then have them reflect based upon the visual tool they created. In order to determine how my students learn best, I will conduct a survey (either using surveymonkey or finding a survey online which will help students find out their different learning styles). After reviewing the results, I can tailor my lessons to best fit their needs.

MONITORING:

As I work on these goals by taking action, I will need to take a step back and look at how my planning is going. As I take action to achieve my learning goals, I will need to “monitor whether [I am] making sufficient progress toward [my] goals and reflect on whether the strategies [I] have chosen are working” (Cennamo, et al., 2009, p. 4). I will ask myself these questions before going forward:
• Are my goals being met?
• Do I need to modify my actions?
• Do I need to do more research to meet my goals?
.

EVALUATING:

During evaluation, I will reflect on what went well and what I did to change something, so when I look back, I will remember the process I went through to be successful. According to Cennamo, et al. (2009), the most important question I need to consider is “whether [I] was successful in meeting [my] goals (p. 5). I can then ask myself what I would do differently in the future.

As for my students, as I work on my two goals, they will undoubtedly be involved in the process, so I will also have my students give me feedback as to what they thought worked and what did not work, and how I can work to better meet my goals.


References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaning

classroom use: A standards-based approach (Laureate Education custom edition.

Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.