Reflection

In the past several weeks, I have reflected and analyzed my goals as a classroom teacher making note of some things that I want to improve on. Since the GAME assignment was assigned to us I have decided to take into serious consideration the impact that I have in using technology. One of my goals with this GAME plan has been to seek professional development opportunities to educate myself on how I can better apply this to my lessons. With teaching kindergarten I have to modify much of what I learn. This extra step seems overwhelming many times, but one thing that I am going to do is to have one goal per month to focus on. If I hit those goals little by little then I'm sure I'll feel a little more confident with using technology and find more ways to use it.

Most of the resources seemed pretty fascinating to me. I would love to try digital storytelling in my classroom. The good thing about the GAME plan is that it is a very structured and a thought provoking plan. This is a good thing for me since I like to overplan rather than not plan enough. Starting in January I will be attending some professional development sessions using technology in the classroom. I am very excited to collaborate with some teachers within my school district to learn about additional resources. I've also learned that online collaboration is a much easier concept than what I imagined it to be. My students become very excited about receiving emails from other schools. It allows for them to see a new perspectives. I would enjoy checking out other opportunities for social networking if my school were to allow it .

Using the GAME plan process with your students

The GAME plan process is a great tool to use not only in setting goals, but also figuring out how to manage this process in your classroom. Since I teach kindergarten, I find that it is more difficult for me to let my students complete projects independently. It is more of let me show you what to do. I oftentimes have to modify a great idea that I read about or hear about from other teachers to fit the profiles of my students. Even throughout this class I have often been puzzled with how to modify technology to fit my students' needs. Often I feel like I am doing most of the work and it all becomes too much. I think though that if I introduce bits of technology at a time then it won't seem so overwhelming.

My students are still learning about goals and how to set them. This is where I think the GAME plan is very beneficial. We usually set goals as a whole class and then sometimes reach those goals. If we do not, we try to discuss what happened as to why we didn't get there. I would prefer to start my GAME plan this way in trying one as a whole group. I feel that if I were to set up a GAME plan for each child individually then it would be too overwhelming to manage. I enjoy having one-on-one conversations with my students so conferencing with them would be a great way to find out more with the comfort level of the child or whether the child is learning anything.

I hope that as an educator I can participate in more professional development workshops and read more literature on the current technology.

Revising Your GAME Plan

What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?

I said it last week and I’m going to say it this week; I’ve learned that it is imperative to plan out how you can use that technology for your lessons. There are so many amazing resources out there to grab a hold of in order to learn something and share it with your students. I find that once I start a lesson, there is no time to think about what you need to do next; you just do it. By having your lesson already set in your mind and being prepared, you deliver more of an effective lesson.

What goals are you still working toward?

I am always working on my goals, and I think that I’ve established a technology-rich environment with resources that I have available to me and that are appropriate for kindergarten. My first goal: Develop a technology-enriched learning environment that enables all students to pursue individual curiosities and to become active participants in setting educational goals, managing learning, and assessing progress.

We are currently working on setting goals by talking about what a goal is and how do we go about working towards our goals.

My second goal: Engagement within a PLC to learn about what new technology is out there and to educate colleagues.

This goal is still being continued as well. I also consider Walden a PLC and am learning lots from all of my wonderful colleagues.

Based on the NETS-T, what new learning goals will you set for yourself?

A new goal that I would like to set for myself is to communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats. I think that parent communication is key to a child’s success. If I could communicate to parents about what we are doing in the classroom through wikis or blogs, then I think the amount of parent to teacher interaction would increase. More and more parents are getting involved with technology in order to keep up with their children.

What learning approaches will you try next time to improve your learning?

Next time I will try to ask more questions about technology. Sometimes I feel like my questions may be too juvenile.

Evaluating your GAME plan progress

How effective were your actions in helping you meet your goals?

My first goal: Develop a technology-enriched learning environment that enables all students to pursue individual curiosities and to become active participants in setting educational goals, managing learning, and assessing progress.

This goal is currently being enforced within my classroom. I am providing my students with technology in my lessons and also during the students’ center time. I’ve recently started using the “clickers” to where my students to can punch in their answer to a question. It’s an exciting task for the kindergartners.

My second goal: Engagement within a PLC to learn about what new technology is out there and to educate colleagues.

I have discussed with my principal about becoming involved with a PLC and she was excited about that prospect of forming a PLC team to discuss technology.

What have you learned so far that you can apply in your instructional practice?

I’ve learned that it is imperative to plan out how you can use that technology for your lessons. It’s so easy to just do the obvious with what we know, but thinking about how you can take your lessons a step further with technology really does help your students be engaged and helps with helping them make connections.

What do you still have to learn? What new questions have arisen?

I am still learning about new technology and ways to adapt it to my students’ needs. I think each classroom is different and there can be no right way to incorporate technology but incorporate it so that you know your students.

My question is how do I manage kindergartners with technology when it is only myself?

How will you adjust your plan to fit your current needs?

I like my plan where it is and it is working well for me right now. In the future I will have to adjust my plan by enriching my students. It will involve me creating a new classroom evaluation so I can determine where my students are and where they are heading

Monitoring your GAME Plan progress

Reviewing my GAME plan has been a good reflection on where I’ve been, where I am, and what I need to do to carry out this plan. I have two goals that involve learning more about how to use technology and how to carry out a conducive learning environment towards those goals.

Goal 1: Develop a technology-enriched learning environment that enables all students to pursue individual curiosities and to become active participants in setting educational goals, managing learning, and assessing progress.

Since I first came up with this goal I have evaluated my learning environment and consider it to be an environment that allows students plenty of opportunities to accomplish goals and for students to take part in learning through both direct and explicit instruction. I have tried to focus more on talking through goals with my students. They understand the concept of working towards a goal, but I am not comfortable in individualizing goals with kindergartners. I feel like in kindergarten it is not how much they have to do individually, but what have I taught and shown them how to do. Are there any books out there that are specifically written for educators in managing a learning environment using technology?

Goal 2: Engagement within a PLC to learn about what new technology is out there and to educate colleagues.

I have checked about professional workshops to attend about technology and the earliest one is in January. Until then, I am working with my Technology Representative at my school discussing various technology tools that are available for use.

I do not plan on modifying my plan because it is an ongoing reflection and one that is to develop over time. Since doing this plan I have learned that technology is something that should be well thought out and given much thought. It’s important for a teacher to not isolate him/herself and to involve other colleagues in this professional learning community. I’ve also learned that teachers should set their own goals as well. A new question that I have is, whether there are resources out there pertaining towards managing a learning environment with technology and how a teacher is able to evaluate whether learning is taking place with that technology?

Carrying Out my GAME Plan

My GAME plan involves two learning goals: to be able to engage myself in professional development towards learning more about technology, and to develop a technology rich learning environment for my students by them being active participants. I have had a chance to start my plan but I have realized that it is a continuous process that will take me some time.

I have started to talk with my kindergarten team about some ways that they use technology and right now they are using various websites to help reinforce those concepts discussed and allowing students practice using the mouse and keyboard. Our school website recently changed so our Instructional Technology Rep asked us if we wanted to post any websites for parents to use and we gathered all of the websites that we have used and posted them on our site. This allows teachers, parents, and students access to these sites for drill and practice. My Instructional Technology Rep has been out of her office because of a family emergency but I want to ask her about starting a Professional Learning Network at my school about technology.

I will continue to seek out any professional development workshops to help answer some of my questions about technology, but for the most part, I will consult with my colleagues on these issues.

My GAME plan

Because technology is changing at a rapid pace, I think it is important to not only have goals in mind of how you could improve your plan, but also how you can take actions towards those goals. Dr. Kathrine Cennamo discussed the situation about how it’s important to learn about your teaching when learning new technology (Laureate, 2009). I have a few performance indicators that I would like to improve on.

Standard: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Goal ~ My goal is to develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress within my classroom (http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf).

Actions ~ In order to achieve my goal I would need to evaluate my own classroom environment to see what changes I can make to what I currently apply in my own classroom. Once I identify what changes I want to make it would be to my benefit to find out from other colleagues what technology resources they do in their classrooms. By allowing these resources to be accessible to my students in a friendly manner, with lots of modeling on my part, students can choose to work at their own pace with the technology provided. We can talk about the parts of a computer and what each function allows us to do followed by how we can use this in our learning. With my kindergartners, goal setting is not an individual process but a process we accomplish together. I will verbally express what I hope that each child will learn with using the computer. With assessing my students, I can assess and have students assess themselves through summative assessments that I produce.

Monitor ~ I will monitor my progress through student participation and achievement. How well will my students be achieving their goals and will they master the concepts presented to them?

Evaluate ~ I will evaluate my actions in meeting my goals by gaining feedback from my students in their evaluation of the content presented. Did they enjoy the way that the lesson was presented? Did the students achieve their goals? If so, what can I do to help them extend that concept?

Standard: Engage in professional growth and leadership.

Goal ~ My goal is to become involved in a professional learning community about what new technology is out there and how to educate my colleagues about this technology.

Actions ~ In order to accomplish this goal I need to find professional learning community workshops to educate me about what the current technology available for educators are and how to become involved with online professional learning communities. I should also make my principal aware of my goal and asking her if I could facilitate some book studies on technology usage within the classroom.

Monitor ~ I will monitor my progress by evaluating how effective the workshops that I attended are and whether they fit my needs and whether I am reviewing skills that I already know or am learning something new. I should also go online and review some blogs on other teachers who use technology to see if I am on the right track or to get any new ideas.

Evaluate ~ I will evaluate my learning by asking whether I have learned something new that I could use with my students. If so, then by trying it and seeing that it works I will know that I succeeded.

Laureate Education Inc. (2009). “Enriching Learning Experiences with Technology.” Baltimore, MD: Laureate Education Inc.

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