Personal GAME Plan

After looking over the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) site, I feel pretty comfortable with the 5 standards listed. I do my best to incorporate technology into my lessons daily when relevant. If we happen to be working on a skill and I cannot find any worthwhile websites or online activities, I will usually just create my own activity to use. However, I have found that the majority of skills have corresponding technology activities. I create many of my own digital lessons and assessments for my students to participate in. I try to model digital-age work and learning by introducing the students to the different programs available for them to use on the computer. I do my best to promote digital citizenship and responsibility by discussing with my students the correct way to use the Internet, and also how to cite sources used in different projects. I feel that by completing my Master's degree online, I am engaging in professional growth and leadership.

These 5 standards also contain different indicators. It is here that I looked for the two areas that I would like to strengthen my confidence in. The first is: 2.c. customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. I am constantly modifying and customizing learning activities for the students in my inclusion class. However, this year, the majority of the modifying was done on work completed on paper to be turned in. I might modify the pages in a homework packet or the number and types of questions on a test. This year, we have received Promethean boards in our classroom. I would like to use this wonderful tool to modify my lessons where I integrate technology. I would like to incorporate more of a range of information in order to reach all my levels of learning in one presentation. Currently, my technology lessons are usually geared to my lowest students so that they can participate. This usually leaves the higher level students bored. Hopefully, I can work to solve this problem.

The second indicator I would like to strengthen is: 4.d. develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools. As of now, I do not collaborate at all with students or colleagues in other countries or cultures. We discuss various cultures in class, but it would be great if they could learn about this information first hand from someone who actually lives in that area and is immersed in the culture. I thought about this also in our last class when talking about the EPals online pen pals.

To set up my GAME plan, I will probably need to concentrate on each area separately since they deal with different topics. My goal is to be more confident in these two areas by the end of next school year. Hopefully working on these throughout the year will help to accomplish this task. I will try to plan different activities that deal with these two when possible. For the differentiation of lessons, I can try to plan 1 a week. For the area of working with colleagues of other cultures, I can try to plan a unit ahead of time and gather all the information I will need on collaborating so that it will all be ready to go when the time comes. I can also try to attend professional development or talk with other teachers in my building to try and improve these areas.

I will be able to monitor my progress by keeping a folder online for the various lessons I create that will meet the varying levels of my students. This way I will be able to refer back to them and see which ones were successful and which were not. I will be able to tell what to do the next time to improve. To monitor improved collaboration I can e-mail back and forth with an educator from another country/ culture. I can keep track of these e-mails and save lesson plans and ideas in a file to use during the unit.

To evaluate and extend my learning I will ask myself if I have met my goal. I will reflect on my plans to see if there is anything that should be modified. I will decide if there is anything I will need to do differently in the future. I will be able to tell if I am reaching all of my learners through my lessons by looking at their engagement and participation in the lessons. I should be able to tell at the end of a lesson whether I was successful in reaching my goal or not. For collaboration, I will consider myself successful if I am able to connect with another educator to introduce and explain a different culture to my students. This way they will be able to compare and contrast various cultures. I will also be extending my own learning of cultures through this task.