A Reflection: The GAME Doesn't Stop Here

During the last eight weeks of learning experiences in the EDUC 6713: Integrating Technology across the Content Areas course, I have gained a wealth of new knowledge that I am confident will enhance my strengths as a classroom teacher, while also benefiting my students as content learners and technology users. At the beginning of the course, I established goals I wanted to focus on to increase the integration of technology in my instruction. To provide structure in my quest to achieve these goals, I created a GAME plan (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009) in which I articulated my goals, developed an action plan for achieving them, and then monitored and evaluated my progress. My goals, which were to implement technology-based assessments and to establish a collaborative relationship with another classroom to foster my students’ cultural and global awareness (National Education Standards for Teachers, 2008), were powerful enough that I know they would make a difference for my students, but also focused enough through the development of my GAME plan that I knew they would be approachable. By setting a strong action plan, engaging in learning during the course, and using the information I obtained to revise my plan as needed, I am confident that the GAME plan I developed and followed throughout this class will having a transforming impact on my classes once the new school year begins.

By following my GAME plan (Cennamo et al., 2009) during the last eight weeks, I learned many things. Not only have I become aware of the technology knowledge, skills, and attitudes I should possess as a twenty-first century teacher, but I have also learned how to successfully chart a course for myself so that I can successfully become more proficient in these areas. As I have stated previously in my blog posts, perhaps the most powerful concept I will be taking away from the GAME plan process is that integrating technology in my classroom to the maximum extent possible does not happen overnight. I have learned that I am a person who gets incredibly enthused about the new things I learn, but then when trying to implement them all at once, I become overwhelmed and go back to my traditional methods. The GAME plan process has taught me to start small with one or two goals at a time and follow them through completely. My students will benefit from the successful implementation of technology through my achievement with those goals, and then with time more goals can established. Therefore, as the new school year approaches my mindset regarding technology use in my instructional practice will be to remember that quality is more important than quantity. By setting one or two goals for myself, even if I implement them during each nine week period, I can achieve up to eight new goals by the end of the school year. I cannot help but be excited by those possibilities!

Focusing on the immediate future in my classroom, the work I have put in to my GAME plan (Cennamo et al., 2009) will definitely pay off once the school year begins. I have already been using some of my down time this summer to work on taking the assessments I already have and devising ways that I can integrate technology into them for the benefit of my students. Furthermore, I am moving along in the process with a fellow reading/language arts teacher to develop our collaborative blog. We will be studying the novel The Giver at the same time in our classes, and we are currently developing interactive activities that our classes can do together on the blog. I have a strong feeling that this is going to be an amazing journey for myself and for my students. I know that there will be obstacles to overcome and revisions to be made, but that is part of the beauty of the monitoring and evaluation steps of the GAME plan process.

I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to learn so much during my time in this course. Even more so, I am excited to see the positive impacts this knowledge will have on my students during the upcoming year!

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. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/
2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf