Going forward with the GAME plan

One of the biggest challenges I face in incorporating technology in the classroom is the time in the instructional sequence calendar and having the time to plan lesson that involve technology. I feel that I have gained a lot of valuable skills and tools in this class that will allow me to overcome these restrictions on technology. In my GAME plan that I initially created I discussed that I will be using technology more in my classroom by implementing at least one new form of technology from each class. While it is summer, which has delayed my implantation of new teaching technologies, I am using my time this summer to begin planning some lessons and/or units for next year. I am planning to use more differentiated instruction in my class next year and I would really like to focus on using technology increase involvement and increasing literacy skills in my classroom. I think that by incorporating Voice Thread and blogging I will be able to meet the needs of all the students in my classroom.

I have enjoyed the creating of a unit plan during this course as this is something that I can take and put into place in my classroom in the fall. I really enjoy that we created lessons that were in our curriculum area, that the lessons incorporated different technology skills, and that I will be able to implement the lessons in my classroom in the fall. I thought the process of using the wiki to provide feedback was an amazing idea. I know that I will be able to use that effectively in the classroom to provide more rapid feedback to students. I think that my students are going to be engaged at a higher level and gain a deeper understanding once they begin utilizing these forms of technology.

As I move forward beyond this class, I will remember the steps of developing and implementing a GAME plan. I think the most influential stage is the monitoring, because by monitoring I can determine if my students are achieving the objectives. So many objectives are required for students these days, teaching them skills to self assess their engagement will increase the level of student knowledge in the classroom. Next year, I am going to use blogging to respond to novels we read in my Social Studies class, additionally, I want to implement using wikis for sharing information in class. That way if students are working in groups, they can participate, collaborate, and contribute to the discussion whether they are physically in class or not. This contributes to the idea of having a "flat classroom" where there are not the traditional boundaries that restrict the classroom and learning. I can't wait to see what happens!

Getting Students in the Game

Students love technology! In fact, they are fascinated with most activities that involve technology. This is an important piece of knowledge that we can use as educators to help us engage students in the learning process. Part of this process should involve having students develop goals for themselve involving technology. Students need to desire to improve thier skills not just be told that the skiills are ncessary. I think the GAME plan would be very effective implemented with students. We have been setting goals at my class for the past year during the advisement lessons. At my school we have called these goals "SMART" goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time sensitive but I feel that these goals are very similar to the GAME plan steps.

I think that students will benefit greately from the Monitoring step of the GAME plan process. I would like to incorporate the technology skills that my students feel they need - this may take some independent learing on my part as many of my students are very skilled with different forms of technology. I will have studnets brainstorm a list of all the ways technology could be included in the lcassroom at the beginning of the year - using the Mimio and whiteboard. Students will record the list in thier Interactive Student Notebook (ISN) and will highlight in three colors - One - Technology they feel they are masters of, Two - Technology that they are somewhat familiar with and Three - Technology that they have never heard of before. This will allow me to differentate the learning and provide the skills and instructions on how to use technology, as I will be able to provide instruction for those who need it (like with Voice Thread) but not to those who know more about the capabliites than I am familiar with. Infact I might even incorporate those who feel that they are masters working with students who need assistance.

I am really looking forward to this higher level of integration in my classroom. I think by incorporating the technology all year and my students will advance thier skills on the different standards of the NETS-T. I think my students will really enjoy it as well and will be highly engaged.

Moving on

I am working on taking what I learned in my workshop last week to incorporate the technology resources that I will have next year. The Mimio interactive board is an amazing resource because the students will have the ability to interact not only with the board but also with the slate (similar to an interwrite tablet). I am working on developing units for the first nine weeks of instruction next year. I am also researching wikis and the use of wikis versus blog to allow my students to collabrate in and out of class.

I am still working on ensuring that I am achiving my previous goals. I could add that I will be working on collaborating more with the others at my school - however, that will be a lot easier as the new year begins in August.
So I guess I am in a holding pattern of planning lessons and ensuring that the materials for the fall are prepared so that I can fully implement the ideas in my classroom.

I think I am taking the steps that I need to acheive my goals. While the summer is delaying my implementation of the programs, I don't know if I would have as much time for research and planning if it wasn't summer - so I will continue moving on and making progress towards my goals.

Putting the pieces together

Today I have attended one of the best workshops/trainings as far as real applications in the classroom. Today's focus was on diversity in the classroom and meeting the mutliple intelligences of the students in the classroom. One of the best aspects of the class was that the training was led by two outstanding educators at my school. They have a highly functioning classroom where they are experiencing a high level of academic success and they integrate technology into all aspects of the curriculum. They team teach and are excellent at supporting learning in the classroom, one key aspect in their classroom is the love of teaching - it is clear in their discussions. Did I mention that they teach students who haven't been successful in the past on our state test and usually only experience limited success.

I am working on developing a differentiated instruction unit as an aspect of this class so I feel that I am making some progress towards my GAME plan. It is a really neat environment because we are able to collaborate and share ideas for appealing to the different learning styles in the classroom. Clearly I am not able to meet all styles in every lesson but as I plan a unit I can incorporate different aspects in different lessons in that unit. Additionally, tomorrow we are going to learn how to use a Mimio (which is a type of portable smart board) and Interwrite tablet. So that would fit the second aspect of incorporating more technology into my classroom. I am really looking forward to tomorrow so that I can continue this process. One of the best aspects of this time to plan is that school and postplanning is over so there isn't the same stresses and time constraints that are in place during the school year.