Monitoring my GAME Plan Progress

            As I continue to work on the two goals I set at the beginning of this course, it is imperative that I constantly monitor my progress and make adjustments accordingly. Cennamo (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009) has made the point that the process of working towards a goal is in constant circulation as one makes a goal, regulates and evaluates the progress, and makes adjustments as needed to continue in a forward direction towards the goal. As a reminder, the first goal I created was to seek out professional learning opportunities on a consistent basis to enrich my learning of various technologies. My second goal is to then incorporate one new technology into my curriculum once a quarter.

         In terms of finding the information I need to address my goals, I have been making progress. I met with the district-wide technology committee last week to discuss uses for various technologies in the classroom, and received some great suggestions. Some examples of technology I learned more about from my colleagues in the meeting include Moodle and Animoto. I am hoping to integrate Animoto into a project over the next couple of months to work towards my second goal of integrating a new technology into my classroom each quarter.

         While I feel that I am well on my way to achieving my second goal, my first goal may hit a snag, as the opportunities to meet with other colleagues to discuss technology is limited. The district-wide technology committee will not be meeting again until sometime second semester, and other colleagues within my building already feel bogged down by other required meetings, making it difficult to add one more meeting to the schedule. While I feel that I have plenty of online resources to aid in my quest for knowledge about technology in the classroom, I appreciate time to discuss technology with people in my own building. Stephenwvu (2011) made the suggestion in a prior blog post of mine that setting up an online collaboration tool to discuss these issues with my colleagues may be helpful. I could not agree more with this idea, as it would allow for me to interact with other teachers in my building on a more consistent basis.

While going through this process, I have already learned that technology can offer a wide variety of tools and resources that other tools cannot offer. November (2008) argues by using some of the technology available to schools, students and teachers get an option of doing different things, rather than doing things differently. By reading the blogs I have been following, I am learning about new web resources and tools I can utilize in my classroom that will give students a more hands-on experience with their learning that other paper-and-pencil activities cannot do. I have also learned that because of this knowledge, I need to utilize technology for other aspects of my goal. Besides just reading blogs, perhaps starting one with the colleagues in my school or district would provide an easier way to gain information and practice using the technology.

            Because of the progress I am making, I do not feel that I need to modify my action plan at this time. In terms of questions I still have, I am wondering if anyone has some examples of projects or skills they focus on while using the technology, Animoto. I am also curious as to what technological resource would be the most useful and accessible for online collaboration? I feel that the resource must be easy to use so that colleagues are more inclined to use it as a discussion tool.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Chapter   6, “Expanding the Boundaries: Blogs, RSS, Podcasts, and Wikis”

Stephenwvu (2011, November 20). Re: Carrying out my game plan. [Blog message].         Retrieved from:   http://lmackley.blogspot.com/2011/11/carrying-out-my-game-          plan.html

Carrying out my GAME Plan

               Part of carrying out my GAME plan to address ISTE indicators that I need to make improvement on is identifying resources and information I will need to achieve these goals. My first goal is seeking out professional learning opportunities on a consistent basis to enrich my learning of various technologies. My second goal is to then incorporate one new technology into my curriculum once a quarter. I needed to evaluate what steps I have already taken to work towards these goals, as well as assess what resources or information I still need to move forward.

            At this point, I have spoken to my principal about receiving a magazine through the district that explores technology use in the classroom. I have also joined the district-wide technology committee that addresses technology uses and needs in the district, which meets twice a school year. Nieto (2003) argues that teachers must speak with fellow colleagues about important issues to gain a new perspective on a topic, as well as gain fresh ideas or strategies. In meeting with teachers across the district, I hope to not only learn more about new technology and various uses, but play a role in deciding what other types of technology would benefit my district. Finally, I have began my own search for interesting blogs or web resources that are updated on a frequent basis, in hopes that I may gain more technology insight from them. Here are a few: http://karenogen.blogspot.com and http://theconnectedclassroom.wikispaces.com/.  

            In order to meet both of these goals, I still need to speak with other colleagues at my school to identify blogs and other resources they may use to learn more about technology that would be beneficial to my students and me. Ertmer (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009) asserts that in order for teachers to provide enriching learning experiences for students with technology, a teacher must be confident to use the technology and believe that using technology is beneficial to students’ learning. By speaking with other teachers and fellow graduate school colleagues about technology they have used, or where I could find useful information to learn more about the topic, I will gain a greater sense of confidence to use technology in the classroom in the most meaningful way.

            To address both goals thoroughly, I will need to practice using the technologies to learn about their uses. While I will research information and speak with colleagues to learn valid information, ultimately, I will need to practice using them myself to feel confident enough to use them in the classroom. As Richardson (2010) argues, teachers must practice using these new technologies so that they are capable and confident enough to have students learn from them as well.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the

           content areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

 Nieto, S. (2003). What keeps teachers going? New York: Teachers College Press.

 Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for                      

         classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

              

My Personal GAME Plan

            In order to best prepare students for the future workplace, it is essential for teachers to reflect on their current instructional methods and strategies and pursue professional growth opportunities to strengthen weak areas whenever possible. An area of education that is becoming essential to students’ future success is the use of technology. Prensky (2008) argues that integrating the use of technology into the curriculum keeps students motivated and more engaged in academic material. Because of this, I have created a GAME plan to address two technology indicators from the National Education Technology Standards that I struggle to incorporate into my every day third grade curriculum.

            An area that I struggle to pursue on a consistent basis is collaborating with local and global learning communities to explore other forms of technology for student learning (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008). Outside of this graduate program, I find it challenging to locate and participate in other sources of professional learning communities. DuFour (2004) notes that professional learning communities can strengthen not only teacher’s understanding of material, but also student achievement and growth, as the group works together to improve education. My first goal then, is to seek out professional learning opportunities on a consistent basis that will enrich my understanding of technology for student learning. In order to achieve this goal, I plan on following at least two blogs by fellow educators that discuss the use of technology in the classroom. I will also begin meeting with my fellow grade level teachers once a month to discuss ways in which new technology can be used in upcoming curriculum.

            Another area of my teaching that could use strengthening is the understanding and inclusion of emerging technologies into the everyday curriculum (ISTE, 2008). While I feel that I incorporate technology into much of what I teach, I tend to fall back on the same forms of technology. Ertmer (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009) argues that in order for teachers to successfully integrate technology into the classroom, they must have a genuine knowledge of new technologies and the confidence to use them with students. Because of this, my second goal is to incorporate at least one new type of technology into my curriculum once a quarter. In order to achieve this goal, I will need to meet with other teachers in the district to learn about new ways of using certain technologies at least four times throughout the school year. I will also need to research new uses for technology using web resources and other books. 

            Part of taking action on a set goal is to provide opportunities to monitor and evaluate progress (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). The way I will monitor and evaluate whether or not I am meeting my two goals is to keep track in a journal the number of times I meet with coworkers to discuss technology and read the web resources I am utilizing for information. A key part of the evaluation portion then, will be to further reflect on the effectiveness of the meetings with coworkers. Cennamo et al (2009) mention that the key to proper evaluation is to reflect beyond the basic description of events, and evaluate the effectiveness and connections made from the events. I will also note in the journal whether or not the information I am reading about through blogs and the other web resources is useful in my classroom. By keeping the journal, I can visually track how often I am exploring topics related to technology, and how I am using the information I receive.

Does anyone have any suggestions for blogs or other web resources I could research to strengthen my knowledge of different technologies?

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.

Dufour, R. (2004). What is a Professional Learning Community. Educational Leadership, 61,6-11.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from      http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Prensky, M. (2008). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40–45.