Monitoring my GAME Plan

I can say that I have taken baby steps to carry out my GAME plan. For example, I started a class discussion board as a test run. I only did this with two groups of students (grade 7) and we only tried it out for one topic, but I think it was important to do this to become familiarized with the process. I realized through this how much work it is to moderate student comments/posts.

I also already have a website, which includes a lot of the information that I would like to include on my blog to keep students AND parents in the know. I think I will have to find out how many of my parents/students actually view the website to stay abreast of happenings in the classroom.

Finally, I have recently participated in a professional development opportunity to try to promote technology. As part of a recent state mandate, I have volunteered to be part of my school's professional development committee. The people I am working with on this committee and I will use data collected to determine next year's professional development plan for our staff. We will be working on this throughout the next couple of months. I will be trying to provide more technology opportunities for my colleagues, if possible.

I do not plan on modifying my plan, as I still feel the goals I have set are worthy and attainable!

Carrying out my GAME plan

To carry out my GAME plan effectively, I will need a site to host my blog. My district has already setup wordpress for everyone if we would like to use that. I think it would be a good place to start as our technology department would be able to provide support if I run into problems. I would also need information on effective uses of classroom blogs. Perhaps someone has done a research study on this already? It would certainly be beneficial for me to read up on this, or even talk to colleagues who already have blogs implemented and see what strategies they use. Video would be another great way for me to achieve my goals- I could find video tutorials on making a classroom blog, uses for a blog, or videos on the topics that I would like to attend workshops for. I have already explored the blogs of some other colleagues to see what types of things they are doing with them. I am going to try to also contact district supervisors to see if they could recommend blogs of teachers in the district who I may not know.

My GAME plan

The first standard that I do not feel completely confident in is, “3b. collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation”. In order to improve how I feel about this standard, I think I would like to experiment with a class blog. Because I have several different levels (Italian 5, 6, 7, and 8), I think I would start small and practice with just one level until I become more comfortable. The blog would include things like a class calendar to show upcoming assignments, links to websites for practice, a question of the day that relates to the topic we are studying, and maybe a cultural fact of the day, etc. Although I already have a site, I think a blog would allow for students to communicate with each other and collaborate more. My only concern with a blog is that I would have to moderate comments, and it would take up a lot of time to do so with over 100 students. I would also include a link to student grades on the blog. Parents and students could use it to check overall averages, missing assignments, etc. I would monitor my progress by the participation in the class blog. Over time, if the percentage of students who participate in the blog increases, I would think that the blog is a successful one, assisting in improving student success. In order to extend my learning, I would like to spend some time on other classroom blogs to find more ideas or ways to improve the one I create.

Next, I know I need work with the standard, “5a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.” My goals to strengthen this indicator include attending more workshops or professional development opportunities where I can share ideas with colleagues on implementation of technology. I can request release time from my administrators, or suggest topics for them to teach us about during professional development days in-district. Once I attend these meetings, I will make it a goal to implement one new thing learned in my own classes. After implementing these new strategies, I will observe how effective they are with my students, and adjust/modify my lesson from there.