GAME Plan

As I read over the ISTE NETS • T, I find a few areas in which I would like to feel more confident in, but the first would be 3c, under "Model Digital Age Work and Learning - Communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital media formats" The second is 4d in the category of "Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility - Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools" (International Society for Technology in Education., 2008).

Starting at this new school, I feel I have so much to do and learn, but what I really need to do is to focus on one or two areas and get them under my belt, before I tackle more. Selecting 3c expresses my Goal for better communication. After conferencing with parents this week, I find they are not hearing about what goes on in the computer lab, so I need to finds ways to convey technology activities. I also want to find better ways to keep my students informed of classwork and expectations. My second Goal is to engage my students with others from other parts of the US and the world. I remember one of our classmates from our last class, had her students share their thoughts on a book with others from another country that were reading the same book. I would love to start with a project like that!

To take Action, I will create a blog to communicate the events of the week with parents. Within this blog I hope to be able to create a gallery of student work. I hope keeping the blog suffices for communication and that updating once a cycle does not an enormous amount of time. The second Action I will take is to reach out to others to find collaboration opportunities; whether it is through e-Pals or another connection, I plan on getting one of my classes online this year.

To Monitor my progress with the blog I will monitor the page views and subscribers. I know I will hear from parents if there have any difficulty with the blog, but I hope through continual updates, parents will feel well informed. If necessary, I may need to re-send the link to the log periodically. For my second goal, when I get my students up and running with another group, I will Monitor their engagement through postings and or time spent on the site, blog, or what ever the communication device may be. I will also check in with students to inquire as to the engagement of the students with which they are expected to communicate and collaborate.

To Evaluate both, I will continually monitor the activity, enthusiasm, and engagement of all participants. I may not be able to gauge the enthusiasm of the parents, but though monitoring, I hope to get a feel for the blog's success. As I Evaluate the success of both, I will ponder whether I need to modify my goals or learning strategies and if I need to alter my plans for the future (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009)?



References

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. D., & Ertmer, P. A. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: a standards-based approach. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T).  Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers