GAME Plan Progress So Far

It has been about a month since the creation of my GAME plan, and so far, the plan is going well.  For the most part the plan has provided some definite benefits to my instruction, so I have no plans for major revisions of the plan, but there are a few areas that could be changed.

There were a few times when my GAME plan caused me a good deal of stress.  I had no idea how comfortable I had gotten doing things the same way, and this plan was definitely making me try new things.  One major point of contention for my students was the rotation of classes between traditional instruction and instruction incorporating technology.  As mentioned in a previous entry.  My school simply does not have the technology resources to allow me to use technology as much as my plan originally called for.  The solution was to rotate: one block would incorporate technology, the other wouldn’t.  With each lesson, the blocks would rotate.  This provided me with a base group to compare the results of incorporating technology with as well as keeping me from completely monopolizing the computer lab.  Although this seemed like a good solution, the students who were not incorporating technology into their learning were disappointed and often noticeably less engaged.

One future problem I am anticipating is using a new technology, or technology tool, each month.  In the short term, this seems quite achievable.  Looking down the road in the long term though, I have to wonder if I will be able to continue to find a new technology strategy each month.  I have discussed this with my vice principal, who is supporting and monitoring me on this GAME plan, and we have decided that for right now the plan will remain the same.  In the future though, the plan may need to be altered to use technology in a new way each month.  In this way, I could use Voicethread for example, which I have already used, as long as I am using it in a different way than I have before.  This change will allow for continuing to use strategies that prove to be especially effective instead of simply abandoning it because it has already been used.

One strategy I wanted to insure that I could continue to use was social networking.  Social networking has proven to be an effective means of gathering information, sharing information and ideas, and authentic publication of student work.  It has also proven to be an extremely effective strategy to raise student engagement.  I will continue to look for social networking tools and strategies that I have not used before but will also have the freedom to reuse strategies that have been effective.

1 + 1 = 1

One plus one equals one.  It surprised the heck out of me too.  Most of the time the answer is two, but in this case one problem plus another problem equaled one solution.  The problems were with my GAME plan.  Specifically the problems were with the logistics of achieving my goal (implementing at least one new technology tool or strategy to my teaching per month) and the evaluation of effectiveness of carrying out this goal.  In a weird way each problem turned out to be a solution to the other problem.

The first problem became apparent pretty quickly.  Because our school has about 550 students and only 65 computers, the computer lab and lap-top cart are in pretty high demand.  As soon as I made my goal, I began to wonder if I would upset other teachers by using our technology resources more than my share.  It didn’t take long to find out.  Last week we were out of school all week due to a snow storm, and our entire school’s technology resource schedule has been thrown into chaos as a result.  My vice principal and I sat down and looked at the demands for the technology resources we have and decided that it was not fair or realistic to think that I could schedule the computer lab or lap-top cart at least once a month for two blocks of students.  Something had to give.

The second problem had to do with the evaluation of the effectiveness of my plan.  I am teaching a new grade and new subject area, so I have nothing to compare current student results with.  How was I to know whether the use of technology had increased my students understanding of the information being taught?  Measurable results are part of the goal.  If I altered the established curriculum, I should be able to measure and show any improvements.  The fact that my school does not have the technology resources we would like actually provided a solution to this problem.

It may not be fair or realistic to expect that I could reserve our technology resources for two blocks of students per month, but after looking at the schedule, it is possible to reserve the resources for one block of students per month.  One block will receive the standard instruction while the other block will be participating in my GAME plan of including one new technology tool or strategy per month.  The blocks will alternate each month so both groups get equal time with new technology tools and strategies.  This plan has the added benefit of providing a base group for comparison.  Because both groups will be learning about the same information but will be taught in different ways, the new technology tools and strategies can be compared to the traditional instruction to measure its effectiveness. 

To be honest, I have never been a fan of the saying, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.  In this case though, it fits.

The First Steps of the GAME Plan

In an effort to make change my GAME plan from a plan to a reality, I have already acquired an important resource.  That resource is my vice principal and her assistance and enthusiasm.   To be honest, she misses the classroom, so she is pretty excited about participating in the planning of this plan.  Unfortunately, the acquisition of the second resource, hardware, has momentarily stumped me.  Right now, our school is conducting school-wide MAPs (measure of academic progress) testing.  As students take this test on the computer, our one computer lab will be unavailable for the next three weeks.  As soon as this is done, the 8^th grade social studies classes will have the computer lab for a minimum of two weeks to finish up their classroom based assessments or CBAs which are a state-mandated assessment.  Since the computer lab is unavailable for the next month to a month and a half, it is not surprising that our one lap-top cart is in pretty high demand during this time period.  While having our computers booked to this extent is somewhat unusual, it is not at all unusual for there to only be limited availability.  Scheduling the computer lab around testing and other teacher’s projects is possibly going to be one of the biggest challenges of my GAME plan.  Quite simply, it will be difficult to incorporate technology into my lessons on a regular basis when there is such limited technology availability at my school.  It won’t be impossible, just challenging.

Other sources I will have to use are my colleagues.  I need ideas, lots and lots of ideas.  Simply trying to come up with technology strategies that I have never tried before and implementing at least one a month is somewhat intimidating.  Beyond that, the strategy has to fit with what I am teaching at that time.  I am new to my school’s seventh grade team and therefore, did not participate in the development of our current curriculum.  Everything is new to me, and although I have some leeway, I am expected to be teaching the same skills at approximately the same time as the other seventh grade teachers.  Because different technology strategies work better with different subject areas, the more ideas or strategies I have the better.  So, with this in mind, our next history chapter is on the Oregon Trail.  If anyone has ideas for incorporating technology with this subject area, I would love to hear about them.  As I said before; the more ideas the better.

My GAME plan

During a conversation that took place a couple of days ago, several of my students were stunned and amazed to learn that although I already had a job, and I really wasn’t required to keep taking college classes, I was still taking classes and continuing my education anyway.  I tried to explain that I didn’t plan to ever stop learning, but I think they thought I was simply feeding them a line that teachers have to use.  Of course the entire conversation started because during a break several of them saw me going over the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) NETS-T (National Education Teaching Standards- for Teachers) and asked what I was doing.  To be honest, what I was doing was trying to get a jump on my homework.  I needed to identify two indicators in the NETS-T that I felt I needed improvement in and set goals for achieving that improvement as part of my personal GAME plan.

            For those who are not familiar with the personal GAME plan, it is a kind of action plan for self directed learning created by Katherine Cennamo, John Ross, and Peggy Ertmer (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer 2009) which consists of setting a goal, action to meet that goal, monitoring the progress of meeting the goal, and evaluating whether or not the goal was achieved and extending the learning to new situations.  For my GAME plan, I wanted to achieve some growth in the second NETS-T standard, “Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments” and the fifth NETS-T standard, “Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership”.  Choosing the goal of developing and implementing more digital-age learning experiences into my classroom instruction was an easy one.  As Marc Prensky puts it, “compared to students’ technology-infused lives outside of school, the traditional classroom is a somber place” (Prensky, 2008).  My classroom has been too “traditional”.  Although I have been exposed to some great tools and strategies in my studies at Walden University, I find that I am forgetting some of them simply because I am not using them.  Like most people, I have a use it or lose it memory when it comes to new learning.  I would like to say that the entire reason I have not implemented the digital-age strategies I have learned is because we have very limited digital-age resources at my school.  Although it is true that we have very limited resources, it is also true that another reason that I haven’t used these strategies as much as I should is because of my personal comfort level, or lack thereof, with new technologies.  I integrate technology more than many of my colleagues at my school, but I could, and should, be doing more.

            In an effort to integrate technology more often and to meet my GAME plan goals, the action I will take will be to integrate lessons which involve technologies, or strategies that involve technology, that are new to me at least once every other month.  That might not sound like very often, but it must be kept in mind that I plan on integrating technology more often than once every other month; what is being discussed here is technologies that I have never used before.  For example, I have never designed, or had my students design, a web page.  This seems like a good place to start.  As far as monitoring my progress goes, I have a great partner in my former teaching partner and current vice principal.  She has been thrilled that I am pursuing strategies to integrate more technology in my classroom and has always been very supportive whenever I am trying to stretch myself and try new things.  She can also help with the evaluation of the effectiveness of these new strategies.  She has already agreed to observe me on the days when I am trying some of the new strategies.  This has added some unexpected benefits.  I am great at setting goals, but sometimes I am not so great at following through and achieving goals.  Although my vice principal will be very supportive in this endeavor, it is also now an official expectation that I will be inviting her to my classroom to observe the integration of new technology lessons into my instruction. 

            So far, I like my GAME plan.  The only intimidating part is insuring that I can find a new strategy for integrating technology and make sure it fits with what I am teaching every other month

References:

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

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved January 10, 2012 from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

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