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