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.