Monitoring my GAME plan

For this weeks blog, I am supposed to look back at my GAME plan, and I am supposed to begin to look at the steps that I have began to take to reach my GAME plan. So far I have begun to make progress working with other colleagues in my department (social studies) to talk about the types of activities they are doing in class that involve critical thinking and problem solving, and I have been talking to them about what types of digital tools they are using in class.. From them, I have came up with some ideas of different types of lessons that I would like to do in my class. My colleagues have given me some great ideas for lessons on different topics that I teach. Many of these lessons are very creative and have a lot of differentiated instruction in them. The best part about the lessons, is the 21st century skills that are involved in the lessons. The one thing that many of these lessons lacked was the use of technology or newer digital tools. Some of these lessons involved power point, and they were great lessons, but I would like to use some other digital tools in my lessons. I currently use power points in my class and know how to do them pretty well, so I would like to work on some new tools I need to learn. So I have narrowed the tools that I would like to explore to learn more about and possibly integrate into my classroom next year. The first thing that I have began to look at is video conferencing and distance learning. This sounds like something that my students would be into, and it sounds like an activity that could be very productive for my class. But I really do not know anything about it, so I am beginning my research to see what I would have to do to do this in my class. I will also have to contact my technology department to see what I would have to do to get this done. Another tool that I would like to use in my classroom next year is a podcast. I am currently talking to another teacher who would like to use pod casts in their class next year. I am currently trying to learn the ins and the outs of making pod casts. I have had one class where I had to make a podcast, and had never done it before. I got it done, and thought that it would be great to use in class, but I was not confident in my abilities with it, and I was not confident that I could teach my students how to use it. I am exploring this right now. I would like to talk to teachers who have used these tools in their classrooms, and see if they have any advice for me when it comes to how to incorporate these tools into my classroom, and things I need to look out for when doing these activities.

I myself feel that I am in the right direction researching these topics. I do feel that I have to take the time to try and get the technology department in my school more involved. Also, our school is getting a technology grant, and some of the teachers are going on professional development to learn how to integrate new technologies into the classroom. I will have to talk with them on these topics, and see if they will work with me to come up with ideas for these lessons, and if they have any knowledge they would want to pass on to me about these tools.

Carrying out my GAME plan

This week when reviewing my GAME plan, I looked at the things that I have to do to carry out my GAME plan. I looked at the goals that I set out, and tried to look at the resources that I need to carry out my plan, looked at the information that I will need to carry out my plan, and I began to think about the things that I have begun to do already to carry out my GAME plan. I think that I will have to first do a good amount of research to learn how to use some new technologies in the classroom. I will first have to decide the tools that I will want to use in the classroom. Once I have decided the tools I want to use, I am going to have to search on the Internet to figure out how to use the tools, and I am going to have to look for ways to use this tool in a lesson. More importantly, I will have to talk to the technology department in our school to figure out how to use this in my class, and then I will talk to other colleagues for ideas on how to use this tool in the classroom. Once I figure out the tools that I will use in class and how to use them, I will then have to talk to other colleagues to brainstorm ideas of lessons where I could use these new tools. More importantly, I would want to talk to colleagues who have done some inquiry based projects where they used problem solving skills in the lesson. By doing this, I feel that I will come up with enough ideas to be able to develop a lesson that will get my students to use the 21st century skills that will help them in the future. I feel that I have had problems developing these types of lessons in the past because I have never seen these types of activities in the past. Many of my fellow colleagues have began to use these types of activities in their classes, and many of them can help me game plan the lesson, and many of them can show me things to look out for and make suggestions to make my lesson work in my classroom. This is the major thing that I have done for my GAME plan so far. I have some really good teachers in my building, and many of them have shared ideas with me, or some teachers in my department have let me use their lessons in my class, and from doing these, I have finally been able to get an idea of how to run some of these 21st century skills lesson, and I have gotten ideas of lessons I would like to do in the future. I would like to have other teachers sit in on one of these lessons, or team teach with a teacher on one of these lessons, so I can get some instant feedback and evaluations on the lesson and make the adaptations necessary to make this lesson a success.

When looking at the National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) I feel that I want to make improvements in the first two standards, Facilitate and Inspire Student learning and Creativity, and Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. I feel that I have a lot of knowledge in my subject matter, but I realize that I need to learn to use technology to advance my students learning. Once I do this, I will have to design and develop digital learning experiences. To be able to do this, I will have to do the research that is necessary to be able to incorporate these contemporary tools and resources to help improve my students learning of content knowledge. To do both of these, I must come up with my GAME plan to accomplish these goals. First I must set goals to accomplish both of these. I feel that I will be important for me to gain more knowledge of using contemporary tools in my classroom. So I feel that I must make a list of tools that I would like to possible use in my classroom, and then I must learn to use each of these tools. To do this I will do research on the Internet, and I will begin to work with the technology department in my school. This will help me learn to use these new tools in the classroom. Also, I am currently working with a football coach who I work with on a technology grant that we are getting at our school, and hopefully, this will help me learn the skills that I need to incorporate technology to make engaging lessons in the classroom. To monitor my progress, I would like to incorporate and use some technology in each one of my chapters that I teach. This is how I will monitor my use of these new technologies. This is where my evaluation will come from. I have learned in the past that I tried to incorporate some technology into my lessons, but I did not do enough research, and made some minor faults that hurt the lesson. I would never have thought of these problems had I not have done the activity. This is where I have made the most of my evaluations and improvements. This is where I hope to evaluate the work that I have done and come up with the adjustments that I need to to make improvements in my lessons. Once I learn these skills, I must then use my content knowledge skills and the new technology skills that I have learned to help student learning and creativity in face to face and virtual environments. To do this, I first must set the goal of incorporating these new activities and digital tools into my lessons, to help my students critical thinking and problems solving skills. To do this I will learn these knew skills and develop lessons to put them in place. To monitor this I will try to make at least one activity per chapter where I have an activity where my students do an inquiry based learning activity where they use problems solving skills in a real life situation. After this is done, I will evaluate the lessons and make the adaptations needed to the lessons to get my students to use the 21st century skills that will help them in the workforce in the future. These types of activities will help student motivation and hopefully it will keep my students actively engaged in lessons that will give them learning that they will remember forever.