GAME Plan

It has become increasingly important for teachers to gain a greater understanding of technology and what it can mean for our students. There are many different ways in which technology can be used in a classroom but it takes a teacher who understands how to use this technology with each group of students to be successful. There are two areas of the NETS-T that I wish improve on, one being to promote student reflection using collaborative tools and the second being to design relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools (ISTE, 2008).

A GAME plan will help me achieve these standards (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer 2009). My goal is to promote student reflection using collaborative tools. The action I will need to take to achieve this goal will be to practice using wikispaces. I will need to know this site with great detail to be able to answer any questions students will have. Another action to complete this goal will be to design a structure in which to evaluate these collaborative efforts. I will also need to explore other teacher websites for ideas and to learn the lessons they have learned already. Lastly I would need to work closely with my tech department. In order to monitor my progress I will keep my own learning log on what I have learned or found difficult (Shellard & Protheroe, 2004). To evaluate my progress I will need to be able to set up a wiki with everything student will need to complete this standard and project.

Designing relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools is the next standard I have set a goal in (ISTE, 2008). My goal is to see students create their own Today in History podcast. The first action I will take to complete this goal will be to become more familiar with creating a podcast. I already feel comfortable with the IPod itself, however the sites and creation of podcasts are still new to me. I will need to learn from fellow teachers, students and friends who already podcast from one on one interactions. Another action that will be need to accomplish this goal will be to build a collection of sites that students can use to find what has happened in history today. Two sites come to mind right away one being the history channel which already does a today in history, which will be our model, but I would also use news sites. I want students to not only use historical events but events from today they feel are historic events nationally, statewide, locally or personally. I will monitor my progress by creating my own today in history podcasts. To evaluate my progress I will reflect on all the podcast I have done hopefully seeing a steady improvement in the podcasts themselves. These podcasts will then become a second model for students to use when creating their own.

If I can master these two technologies I feel that my classroom for next year will change dramatically. Accomplishing these two goals will allow students to share much more about themselves and to connect to content like never before.

Kevin Kleespies

ISTE, Initials. (2008). The Iste national educational technology standards (nets•t) and performance indicators for teachers. Retrieved from iste@iste.org, www.iste.org.

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.

Shellard, E. & Protheroe, N. (2004). Writing across the curriculum to increase student learning in middle and high school. Arlington, VA: Educational Research Service.