Week 8: Reflection

During this course I developed a GAME plan that helped me focus on accomplishing goals towards expanding my technological abilities. While I still don’t feel I’ve completely accomplished my goals, I do feel I have made some progress towards them. These goals are very time consuming, and in the world of education, time is always the enemy. Therefore, I do need more time to reach my goals. However, in my work towards reaching my goals, I have learned a lot about myself and my coworkers.

One thing I learned is that we do not have a lot of technology available at our school. The technology we do have available is also difficult to get your hands on because of the high demand. I have also learned that my co-workers are very diverse in their technological abilities. I have also learned that sometimes I underestimate my students and their abilities. When I tried new technology activities they surprised me. I was prepared for the worst, however they picked up on the instructions and assignment better than I expected. There were still problems and glitches; however, for the most part I was pleasantly surprised.

The biggest immediate adjustment I will make is implementing more technology into my classroom. As I stated, I was pleasantly surprised by how well my students did with the technology I have implemented so far and therefore, I will continue to use more technology. I will also continue to challenge my students by increasing the independence of the work and the degree of difficultly of the assignment.

Week 7: Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

I will have students proceed similar to how we developed our GAME plan. I will have students visit the NETS-S site and read the standards (http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007.aspx). However, I will provide them with a little more direction and guidance. I will instruct them to set a goal for strengthening their confidence and proficiency in only one indicator rather than two. After they have chosen the one indicator they want to strengthen, I will have them develop their personal GAME plan. When developing their plan, I will encourage them to keep in mind projects they will have to complete in school and how they can use these projects to reach their goal. If they are unaware of what project or assignments they will have to complete in a given school year, I will direct them to their teachers to find out what types of assignments they will be completing. With these assignments in mind, students can develop a plan that will help them to reach their goal. They will need to explain the actions they will take to achieve their goals, how they will monitor their progress and how they will evaluate, modify or extend their learning. They will be encouraged to choose a goal that is attainable and that can be reached within that given school year. If possible, collaboration throughout the grade levels may make it possible for students to begin a GAME plan in their freshmen year of high school. Each year they could reach their goal and then the next year they could create a new GAME plan with a new goal. This would allow them to reach at least four of the six indicators. To further the process and if possible, students could potentially begin their GAME plan in their 7th grade year, and essentially reach their goal to become confident and proficient in all six areas.

Week 6: Revising My GAME Plan

So far, I have learning that I need to give my students a little more benefit of the doubt. I think I am nervous to try new things and as I am implementing new ideas, they are surprising me in their ability. For instance, I am begun (slowly) working towards meeting my GAME plan by testing out their tech-abilities. I have sent them assignments through email & the districts message center. I have required them to go to our online textbook to complete assignments and activities and then asked that they submit their assignment through email. As I stated, I was very nervous at first and was prepared for many questions and frustration… however most of the frustration came with the math content rather than the technology aspect.

I am still not satisfied that I have fulfilled my GAME plan, therefore, I will continue working on my current goals. As I’ve stated before, my GAME plan will most likely be a continuous process throughout my educational career. Once one goal is met, by that time another one will have come up.

To extend what I have learned so far and improve learning, I will continue to branch out of the norm, even if it is slowly but surely. For instance, instead of asking that students submit a written document, next time maybe I will give them a choice of submitting a written document, presentation, video or audio file. Sometimes I get discouraged when I watch the video resources for this course, because these classrooms that are being highlighted are at such a high level that I feel very defeated. However, I have to remind myself that that is my ultimate goal and it will not necessarily happen over night.