Continuing GAME Plan Progress

           I have stated my GAME plan to improve my teaching and some of the steps that I was already able to make towards reaching my goals.  As of last week, I was starting to make progress towards my professional growth goal.  I found different ways to communicate with other teachers to help build ideas of technology integration within my classroom.  This week I wanted to start making more progress towards my goal of teaching students to cite their resources properly.

I completed a search for ideas and tips for citing resources for elementary students.  I found a “Ready Reference” webpage on Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators.  It has a lot of different resources listed on the page, but it also had different expectations and guides for bibliographies for grades 1 through 6 (Schrock, 1995).  This site also has a lot of links to help with fair use and copyrighting.  This is a great resource to use when starting to teach students about different aspects of research.

I am on the Educational Technology Steering Committee within my county.  I was thinking about ways to share resources teachers have found and use within the county.  I talked with one of the technology coordinators about creating some sort of wiki or resource to compile all of the technology resources we like to use and any direction sheets that have been created to go along with them.  After talking to this coordinator, she brought it up to other members of the committee and we are in the process of creating a Livebinder (www.livebinders.com) with resources for elementary, middle and high school that can be used throughout the county.  I am excited about this initiative and I think that it could really help teachers of all comfort levels incorporate technology into their instruction.  I feel like I am making great progress towards my goals currently and seem to be right on track.

References

Livebinders (www.livebinders.com)

Schrock, K. (1995). Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators.

Retrieved July 18, 2012, from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/.

Progress on My GAME Plan

          I’ve stated my GAME plan to improve my teaching.  There are a number of things that I still need to be able to accomplish my goals.  The biggest thing necessary to accomplish my goals is to join and create several professional learning networks (PLNs).  I want to create a PLN within my school and my district.  Then I planned on joining a PLN on the bigger scale.

I am still working on what technology tool would specifically help build a PLN at the school and district level.  I am thinking that using Diigo or Delicious might be an easy way to share resources and still add notes.  There are other options as well, such as using Twitter, blogs or Google Docs.  I am still figuring out which tool would be the best use to use for these PLNs.  I will continue to research these tools further to be able to determine which tool will apply best to the use that I have in mind.

While I am still working on the more local PLNs, I started to search other PLNs at the larger scale.  I have joined The Educator’s PLN (http://edupln.ning.com) as well as Twitter (https://twitter.com/).  The Educator’s PLN has thousands of teachers online that have discussions, share ideas, resources, anything you can image.  I am still exploring the site because there are so many things included.  Also, I learned that every Tuesday on Twitter there is an #edchat on a specific topic at 12pm and at 7pm eastern time.  I am still learning about Twitter, but it is so interesting to have so many educators “get together” to have such valuable discussions.  I thinking I am starting to make some progress towards part of my GAME plan, but I still have a long way to go.

References

The Educator’s PLN (http://edupln.ning.com)
Twitter (https://twitter.com/)

My GAME Plans

            As an educator in the 21^st century, it is our duty to teach our students how to become self-directed learners.  They need to be able to be flexible, motivated and creative thinkers (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).  One way to teach them how to become self-directed learners, they can follow a GAME plan.  This is where they can think about their goals, what actions they will take to meet their goals, how they will monitor their progress and how they can extend and evaluate what they have learned (Cennamo et al., 2009).
            It is also necessary for teachers to be self-directed learners that set goals for themselves.  It is just as easy for use to follow the same GAME plan as the students do.  I have looked at the International Society for Technology in Education’s National Education Technology Standards for Teachers (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008) and chosen two standards that I would like to broaden my knowledge and experience with.  I have included my GAME plan for each of those standards below.

GAME Plan 1: NETS-T: #4: Promote & Model Digital Citizenship & Responsibility

Set Goals
Learn more about teaching “safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2008).

Take Action

Explore professional learning networks (PLNs) and complete searches for tips and ways to teach my students how to cite their resources.

Monitor

Track and try different options and ideas.  Record effectiveness of each option or idea.

Evaluate & Extend

Work with peers to talk about what I have found and what other teachers do.  Continue to research if necessary.

GAME Plan 2: NETS-T: #5: Engage in Professional Growth & Leadership
Set Goals
Learn more about how other teachers are using technology and incorporating it into their daily instruction.  Learn more about technology tools that other teachers commonly use and find student-friendly.

Take Action

Try to create a group within the school I teach where teachers can share ways they incorporate technology into their classroom.  Try to create a PLN within the district to share ways other teachers use technology in their classroom.  Collaborate with other teachers online through PLNs on tips to incorporate technology and student-friendly tools.

Monitor

Learn how to use new tools and incorporate ideas discussed with colleagues within my instruction to see how my students interact with these new tools. 

Evaluate & Extend

Continue to use tools that students interact well with and discontinue tools that are too difficult for my tudents.  Continue to work with other teachers and try to attend technology conferences whenever possible.

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.

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