PUTTING MY GAME FACE ON.............

As I sit and think about what two areas I will consider to concentrate on in my game plan, I had to consider what areas will better benefit me and most of all my students. According to Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer (2009) the GAME plan is a four step guide to help teachers and their students become better self-directed learner. The GAME plan requires you to think about and take steps to direct your learning process, specifically while learning about technology and how to integrate it into your curriculum. This week Peggy Ertmer, (DVD, 2009) encourages us as teachers to make sure you have knowledge, confidence, true beliefs and a supportive culture. While sitting and thinking, I do believe strongly that I have all of these areas surrounding me. As I think about all of these important things, all of the knowledge I continue to gain, it will help me as an educator to better prepare my students for the 21st century. I went and visited the ISTE website and have identified two NETS-T standards that I would like to see myself grow in. The two standards are:

1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity: Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.

2. 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.

The Game Plan:

GOAL #1: I will set up a Blog spot for my students to collaborate and communicate with each other on assignments and projects in Science, Math and Writing. Students will be given their own E-pal account where they can communicate at school as well as at home about assignments, homework, problems, questions, etc. Students will also be exposed to the use of Voice Thread with their assignments, Skype with another class about their assignments, and students will participate in the Technology forum offered at our local college.

GOAL #2: When I set up each account for the students, the accounts will be set up where it has constant student monitoring. I will need to monitor each account in order to make sure students are displaying the proper etiquette for using the Internet. It is also my responsibility to make sure students are displaying proper legal and ethical behavior while using collaboration on the Internet. I will also make sure the students see daily comments from me where I am displaying proper behavior for our school accounts.

ACTION FOR #1: I will make the plans to go ahead and set up each account for the students and issue necessary materials to my principal and system technology department. Students will be given their passwords and log ins. Students will be given a set of rules and regulations for using the Internet at school and school accounts at home. The blog and skype accounts will be set up as well. The rules and regulations will also include teacher/student ethical behavior when using the Internet. Lastly, I will issue any paperwork to parents and/or guardians to sign for the student's participation in their classwork via the Internet.

ACTION FOR #2: Is to prepare lessons for the students that will help them to understand how to use the accounts, blog spaces and the skype account. The plans for the skype account is for the students to use as whole group. We will also discuss rules and regulations, and proper legal and ethical behavior during these lessons. As the leader of the group, I will continue to do my professional learning with my colleagues via our Ning website drawing suggestions and ideas from various topics that we carry on. Once lessons are complete we will use our classroom laptops to practice how to use the accounts and students will be allowed to send the teacher a message at that time. This allows the teacher to know who knows how to use the accounts and who needs further instruction.

MONITORING FOR #1: I will keep a classroom portfolio of all student work that will be printed from the Internet and all work that is done by the students using paper and pencil. Teacher will also be responsible for printing off student emails and keeping them in the portfolio as well.

MONITORING FOR #2: I will keep in touch with parents via emails (those that have them), letters and phone calls as we move towards such a great experience in the students learning. I will also keep my principal informed of our progress as well via email. Lastly, I will make sure all work in the portfolio is kept up to date just in case I have a parent conference or my principal would like to view it.

EVALUATION FOR #1: I will continue to update our portfolio for presentation at our local technology conference to be held at the University in May. I will continue to communicate with the students on how we can better improve our communication with each other and make changes in our portfolio as needed.

EVALUATION FOR #2: I will continue to communicate with my colleagues on our Ning website for suggestions and ideas. I will probably consider putting some type of form on their maybe a survey or poll to gather information from them to help our communication in the classroom. Lastly, I will develop a team that will help me evaluate our portfolio before we make our presentation at the Technology Conference at the University in May.

References:

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

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.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Program three. Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology, Part 1 Motion picture. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.

Any suggestions to my plan are greatly appreciated!
Thanks a lot,
Amy