GAME Plan

My GAME Plan

I feel I really need to strengthen my confidence and proficiency with integrating technology into all content areas. I have set goals from the following two indicators from the National Education Standards for Teachers:
1. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. Teachers:
a. advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.
2. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit
leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources. Teachers:
a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning
c. evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning

According to Cennamo (2009), “self-directed learners plan, monitor, and evaluate their actions.” As I do this through the GAME plan, I realize I need to facilitate this process with my fourth graders. They need to be taught how to evaluate websites for their reliability and useful content, instead of depending on me to list websites that they can choose from on our local shares drive. They also need to be responsible with citing their sources. To be true 21st Century learners, they must develop these skills to use in all areas for their future.
Since technology is continuously changing and improving, I also need to continue to stay updated with new technology and evaluate it to support student learning. I feel staying modernized and becoming proficient with using the newest technology resources is my biggest struggle.

My actions to reach the goal for my first indicator are to demonstrate to my students how to evaluate websites. Utilizing the computer lab and portable lab, I will also require them to follow charts and rubrics to determine the reliability and content of a variety of websites and to cite any that they use in their final productions.
My actions to reach the goal for my second indicator is to utilize my peers, which Cennamo (2009) suggests and find people that will help funnel information. Through collaborative networking (Davis, 2009) and professional development courses, I will become more aware of new technology suggestions to enrich my students’ learning.

I will monitor and evaluate my students’ progress with becoming responsible digital citizenship by providing rubrics for them to follow, and I will observe and evaluate their chosen websites and citations.
I will monitor and evaluate my progress with improving my professional practice through using digital tools and resources by creating a portfolio that I can store and continually reflect upon my well-known and used technology resources, while adding new emerging tools and resources. By continuously networking and collaborating with other teachers, I will also stay updated with this goal.

Resources:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use. (M. Staudt, & M. Stranz, Eds.) Mason, OH, USA: Cengage Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009).Integrating technology across the content areas.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_ T_Standards