As I reflect on the GAME plan I developed during this course, I have mixed feelings. On the positive side, I feel that the process of developing my personal GAME plan and the format of the plan was extremely beneficial. The structure that this plan provided helped me to stay focus and maintain that focus. Using the plan, I was able to progress towards the goals I had set for becoming proficient in specific areas of the ISTE NETS. The GAME plan not only allowed me to set these goals, but have set actions that I could take to to achieve them and also to monitor my progress. Monitoring has always been an issue for me because my time is so stretched. Finally, I liked the fact that I was able to adjust my plan according to my learning and the acquisition of new information and the realization of new needs.

On the negative side, I feel that I was not able to truly utilize the GAME and reap all of its’ benefits because I did not develop this plan until the end of the school year. The end of the school year presents so many time challenges for me and as such, I do not feel I was able to devote as much time as I could or should have to my GAME. Yet, the beauty of the plan and its’ format is that I can continue with it throughout the summer as well as into next year in order to meet the goals I had set for myself.

I do feel that there are several things that I have learned from the process as well as my actual GAME that will aid me in my daily instruction. The first is that it is extremely important to set aside time throughout the week for my own professional development. Of all of the goals and actions that I set in my GAME plan, the one thing that gave me the most insight and knowledge into new technologies and how to use them in the class was just taking time in the week and searching the Internet or articles for information on how others utilize technologies in their classroom or just reading about emerging technologies. I feel, as an educator, we become so involved in the day to day tasks in our profession that we forget that we must take time for our own professional, as well as personal, needs so we can continue to stay at the top of our profession and truly give our students the best. As a result, I have sectioned off time three days a week on my calendar for next year that just allows me time to “discover” by researching and exploring various web resources and publications that I have subscribed to.

Another change that I have made as a result of the knowledge and understanding that I have gained from my GAME plan is that I will truly examine any technologies that I use in my classroom in order to determine its’ worth for my students. I want to use technologies that will benefit my students as well as enhance their educational experience. What I want to avoid is using technology just to use it and then reducing its overall effectiveness in assisting as well as motivating students. For example, an electronic whiteboard can be an amazing tool in the classroom, but it can also become a mere hi-tech expensive replacement for a chalkboard.

Overall, I would say that my experience with the GAME plan was a good one. I plan to use the format of the GAME plan to help me with my professional development throughout the school year. I also intend to introduce it to my colleagues in order for them to use in their own professional development. I will also experiment with using it to assist student with setting goals that they want to achieve throughout the school year.

GAME Plan with my students

I have thought quite a bit as to how I could use the GAME plan process with my students in order to help them develop proficiency in the ISTE NETS as well as using the process to help my students in other aspects of their education. The first thing I would need to do is to simplify the process for my students. Since I teach 4th grade, I feel the GAME would be a bit cumbersome to the students. Instead, I would have them focus on 1 or 2 goals at a time. One of these goals would be related to developing proficiency to the ISTE NETS and the other on improving an area in Language Arts. I would also, initially, have to guide the students in making their goals. Most of my students would have goals such as I want to use the Internet more or I want to play video games more often on the Internet. Yet, I think that if I am able to guide them through the initial setting of goals for their GAME plan, they will be able to emulate that in the future.

Other modifications I would need to make would be for their actions, monitoring and evaluating of their process and progress. For their actions, I would have to give them specific things that they will need to do in order to accomplish their goals. At this grade level, my students do not have enough insight and knowledge of the resources that surround them to be able to know what actions they need to take to achieve their goals. However, if I give them 1 or 2 actions to take, they could then come up with an action or two on their own based off of the ones I have given them. I would also need to provide a way for the students to monitor their GAME as well as a way for me to monitor their plans. It is unrealistic to expect my students to do this consistently by themselves. Are they capable, yes, but will my students actually do it...no. So if it is important to me, I must give them a way to monitor their progress and some accountability. Finally the evaluation process. Everyone of my students will say that they were successful in their GAME plan regardless if they had ever contributed anything towards accomplishing it or not. Therefore I would need to guide them in a way to honesty evaluate their experience and be truthful in why or why they did not accomplish their goals. From this we could then discuss what could be done differently next time.

As i write this post, what I actually see is that having GAME plans at the elementary level is going to require allot of modifying on part to help my students be successful. I would love any additional ideas that may make this an easier task for myself.

Disappointment

I am a bit disappointed in my progress so far with my GAME Plan. The past few weeks I have made steady, if not slow progress. However, this past week I have struck a wall. There has been so much going on at my school for the end of the school year and preparing for next year, I have let some of my progress fall by the wayside.

I have decided that I need to continue with my GAME Plan, but extend it and try to apply the new knowledge I gain to my plans for next year instead of this year. Since I am currently out of the classroom in my school, I do not always see a regular class. Since it is the end of the year, I have been swamped with non-classroom tasks to complete. This means I have not been able to apply anything that I have gained so far. Thus, my revised plan is to stay the course with my plan, but since I will be a classroom teacher next year I can apply what I have learned to those plans and that class.

I have really failed at my time management for this year. I have underestimated how many tasks I would be assigned by my administrator at the end of the year. Next year, I need to be willing to say “no” more often. Not to just say “no”, but instead to say it so I can take time to concentrate on my professional development to improve my craft. It is difficult for me because I tend to take on many administrative tasks because I try to be a voice for my colleagues. Therefore, I rarely say no when my input or services are requested.

I would like to ask my Walden Community for insight. How can I balance my time to be involved in the decision-making at my school, but still make time for my own professional needs?

Evaluating My GAME Plan..so far…

As I look at my GAME plan so far, I feel that the actions I have taken so far to meet my goals have been effective, with limitations. They have been effective in that I am learning about more technology and its’ applications to education constantly through the resources I have subscribed to and obtained. The magazine(s) I have subscribed to have been the least helpful. I took the advice of many of you and canceled my subscription to one. The second magazine has given me some interesting ideas, but I maintain that what these publications publish it somewhat dated. The PD community and collaboration with my peers has been the most effective. I have had incredible conversations and idea exchanged with the educators in my building as well as on the web. Besides this collaboration, the time I have set aside just to search the web and look for new resources has been very effective. The wealth of information out there is simply amazing, when you have the time to seek it out.

Yet, not everything has gone according to plan. Time constraints have been slowly increasing and I find that I have less and less time to spend with my colleagues and to explore the web for resources. In addition, as the end of the school year comes about, stress has become another hindrance that has made following my GAME plan very difficult.

Even with the challenges so far, I have been able to take some items back to the classroom with me. I plan for next year, to utilize CPS systems more often in the classroom to access students with selected response questions. I have also requested several iPod nano’s with video cameras in order to allow my students to use film making as a means of assessment in my classroom. So many teachers have expressed how this way of accessing students has opened their minds to more creativity and higher order thinking rather than just paper and pencil exams. These are just a few of the things that I have gleaned thus far.

I still have much to learn. The two main things that have become new priorities for m are how to effectively manage my students and their use of all of this technology? The second question that has become very important to me is how do I reconcile these new and creative ways to access and teach my students with the very traditional approach of our state standardized tests? The latter is extremely haunting to me as I do not want to ill prepare my students for their tests and disadvantage them.

On a side note, I definitely feel that this was the wrong time of year to begin my GAME plan due to the entire end of school year chaos. Yet, I want to continue with it and I believe that much of my growth from my GAME plan will occur over the summer as I have time and begin to prepare for next school year.

Thanks for reading…