My Professional GAME plan

Part of being a good teacher is reflecting on your work in the classroom and with your students while constantly revising your methods to become better. This specific post is for a graduate level class at Walden University entitled Integrating Technology into the Classroom. During the course of this class we will develop a personal GAME plan that will assist us as professionals when integrating technology fully into our classrooms in a realistic and authentic manner. I plan to establish goals to help integrate technology, take action on my goals, monitor my progress and finally evaluate whether my goals were achieved through my work.

The first step when developing a GAME plan is to set goals for what you want to obtain and where you want to be at the end of the process (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). These goals can focus on any part of a classroom where the teacher feels that change may be needed. To help establish these goals we first looked at the National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) and chose some of their benchmarks to focus our attention. For this particular class I will focus on standard number one Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity and standard number two Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments (National Education Standards for Teachers, 2008). The two standards I selected I feel are the strongest performance indicators and the most useful for developing technology use in my classroom. I want to create a classroom where technology is the norm rather than the exception and a place where students learn skills necessary for success in the future.

The second step when creating a personal GAME plan is to take action upon the goals you established (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). For this particular plan I feel I can implement many changes in my classroom without completely throwing out all of my current lessons and instructional methods. The simpler the changes the less possible issues there may be when implementing any questions into the classroom. I think when implementing many of the changes I will focus on first bring technology fully into my classroom and then allowing the students to work using the technology in the classroom.

The first action I will take is to allow for more opportunities to use technology in a realistic manner in my classroom (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). I have access to such tools as a computer, Smartboard, projector and television in my classroom and often use these tools for very basic methods of instruction. I would like to implement more methods of instruction by creating lessons that use more forms of technology into my classroom. To reach my goals I will try using virtual fieldtrips, WebQuests allowing the students to find information and also lessons that utilize and seek out information in the form of primary sources to help students understand the material (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). I have the technology at my disposal I only need to take advantage of what opportunities are available to help my students to succeed. I will also attempt to gain the support of my colleagues to maximize the benefits of the technology in the school. If one teacher uses technology successfully the students gain a great deal of knowledge, if more teachers use the same strategies the possibilities are endless.

The second action I will take is to model the technologies for my students. I will first learn how to use the technology that I will use in my classroom and this will help me to become better suited to guide my own classroom and students (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). To teach my students successfully I need learn how my technology will best allow my students to interact with the material and how I can best display content. I will then teach my students what I have found to be the “best practices” and allow them to be modified from that point. This is not a omni-directional path however, I plan to continue to learn from my students even after I have implemented the technology into my classroom.

Once I have provided the technology and opportunities for its use to my students I will use what we have learned to teach my content in a real world context. This is key in a global studies classroom as one of the greatest complaints is the lack of connection of the material to a students personal life. I plan to use technology to make a connection to each student’s lives allowing them to make the most of their education and to retain the information at a deeper level. I will rely on the Internet to bring the material directly to the classroom and even the students to the material. I feel that that when the students are immersed into the material I will have a better chance of reaching them and allowing the material to really sink in and truly be learned.

The three actions that I have suggested will allow me to integrate technology into my classroom while adapting my current lessons. This should increase the creativity and self-direction of my students while allowing a sense of realism to my content. Also, by utilizing more technology I can reach out to students with different learning styles and abilities creating an environment increasingly fair to all of my students (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). However, the last two steps of the GAME plan will help to ensure the actions were successful in teaching my students.

The third step in the GAME plan is to monitor your actions as they are taking place (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). In an effort to monitor my goals I will continuously examine my goals and check to make sure I am staying on task. At the end of each week I will look at my goals and compare them to my lessons to see what progress has been made. This will allow me to get back on track if I somehow strayed from my original goals.

The last step in the GAME plan is to examine the results and look to continue my development. This step allows you to examine what you did right and what changes you would make in the future (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). I plan to examine my results utilizing data via a student assessment before I utilize technology in my classroom and then after I have changed my instruction. I will look for changes after each new method is used to see what has been successful and what was not in my classroom. I will also interview the students informally to inquire about what they liked about the material and the use of technology in my lessons. This should provide solid data and also personal experiences to prove the success or failure of my game plan.

References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful
classroom use: A standards-based approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Program Three: Enriching
content area learning experiences with technology: part one.
Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Program Three: Enriching
content area learning experiences with technology: part two.
Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD
National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). (2008). retrieved November 9, 2010 from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf