Continuing my GAME plan

Last week, I had the opportunity to set my personal GAME plan (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009) describing how I intend to become more proficient at implementing technology into my classroom. Now that I have learned more about technology’s possibilities in terms of flexibility for helping me to enable ALL of my students to reach their learning goals (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009), I am excited to review my GAME plan to examine how I am coming along in carrying it out.

As I described last week, my two main goals currently are to implement technology into my assessments, particularly in my culminating projects, and to utilize collaborative technologies such as blogging to help my students develop cultural awareness.

In analyzing my GAME plan, I know I must consider what resources I might need to carry my goals out. In terms of incorporating technology into my assessments, I will need to examine my content area standards and pacing guide to discover where I can build in culminating projects that utilize technology so that I can enhance my current unit plans. I do not think it is necessary to build my units from scratch, but it will be important for me to revise the units I teach by thinking with the end in mind. If I will be going from standardized test format assessments to culminating projects that involve the use of technology, I need to think with the end in mind as I teach my units. Therefore, it will be critical for me to utilize my standards, pacing guide, and current unit plans as I work to carry out this goal. It will also be beneficial for me to work with my fellow eighth grade reading/language arts teacher so that we can collaboratively build these assessments together so that they are cohesive. In terms of using technology to help my students build cultural awareness, I will need computer access to blogging software or websites. In addition, I will need to visit teacher forums or collaboration websites to find a classroom that is similar to mine in terms of grade level and content area, but that is unique enough from my own that we can work together to build global understandings.

At this time, as far as additional information that I need, I know it is important for me to continue building my background knowledge of the numerous digital technologies that are available so that I can teach my students about them and infuse them into my instruction. I can do this by continuing to read and gain hands-on practice as much as possible, in addition to reaching out to my colleagues for advice.

I am pleased to say that I have already been able to take steps already in terms of my first goal. Now that my school year is winding down (only 2 more days!), I have used this more relaxed pace that we are allowed now that our state testing is complete to start working with my students to consult them about what they know about digital technologies and to ascertain what their interests are in using technology in their learning. They have been invaluable resources for me, showing me what they know about creating movies, animations, and using various online resources to enhance the quality of podcasts. I thought I already had a good base of background knowledge, but my students have truly given me some excellent ideas that I have noted so that I can consider them as I work this summer to integrate technology more extensively into my assessments!

I look forward to continuing my quest to carry out my GAME plan. I welcome any suggestions from you all or advice about resources I might consult. Thanks for your help!

Amanda Bryant
8th grade reading/language arts

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). (2009). Meeting students’ needs with technology part 1. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore: Author