GAME Plan Progress

One of the most important parts of a GAME plan is being able to accurately monitor and analyze your progress. So far for my first goal, demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations, I feel I am off to a good start. All this week, I have been facilitating a Lewis and Clark Webquest in which I have been able to show my students how to navigate through multiple pages, windows, and tabs. On top of that, they have been shown how to toggle back and forth between word processing and internet explorer programs. In addition, tomorrow I am showing them how to use the "print screen" function to capture an online image to complete their webquest. They have been doing a remarkable job with everything so I feel that my first goal is moving along at a nice pace.

My second goal (reflect and evaluate current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emergent digital tools and resources in support of student learning) is something that has to wait until after I am done with Walden, but in the meantime, I am currently gathering a list of reputable websites for future reference. As of right now, I plan on keeping both GAME plans as they are, but am still currently searching for websites that will help me with my second goal. Once again, anyone with suggestions for reputable educational technology websites please let me know. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

GAME Plan Action Planning

As I reflect on my GAME plan developed in my last post I need to get some information in order to begin planning my Actions. For my first Goal: To be able to teach a student how to use a blog or wiki. I first need to develop a list of blog and wiki sites that I can actively participate in to get improve my blogging and wiki-ing skills. I did some research and some good educational blogs are sites like Eduwonk, This Week in Education, and The Open Classroom. Wiki World has provided me with a number of Wiki project sites in which I can join to fine tune my Wiki skills throughout my GAME plan. Any suggestions for either type of site would be helpful.

As for my second Goal: To stay on top of the latest technological advances in education after graduating Walden University, I am currently compiling a list of reputable educational technology websites as to which I can visit after my tenure at Walden. Once again, any suggestions will prove to be extremely valuable to me. Thanks for helping me with my GAME plan!

NETS-T GAME Plan

As a teacher, not only is your job never done, but learning is continuous throughout your career. I have always considered myself as a pretty tech-savvy teacher and after looking of the National Educational Standards (NETS-T) and Performance Indicators for Teachers I feel pretty confident in my ability to meet a majority of those standards. There are a couple indicators that I know I want to improve on so I need to set my GAME Plan to continue my professional development as an educator.

NETS-T Indicator 3.a.: demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.
Now I know this sounds very contradicting to my last paragraph so let me clarify. I am a very tech savvy teacher to all the technologies available at our school because I use them all on a daily basis. The new web 2.0 technology that my school is not authorized to utilize yet due to "bandwidth" and "liability" restrictions are technologies that I would like to know more about.
Goal: To be able to teach a student how to use a blog or wiki
Action: Participate in at least one blog discussion per week and contribute to an online wiki project (suggestions welcome) at least once a month. This will help me become more familiar with the new technology and will make it easier to teach it to students.
Monitor: I will keep a outline of the different ways I utilize each online tool and any tricks I learn along the way. I will also teach some of my fellow teachers with blogging or wiki experience how to use one.
Evaluate: I will evaluate the teachers' performances and their ability to utilize a blog or wiki after my instruction. Once blogs and wikis are approved in my county I will do the same with my students.

NETS-T Indicator 5.c.: evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning. During my tenure at Walden University, this is something I am asked to do on a constant basis. When I have completed my masters, I want to promise myself to make sure I spend time learning about new technologies on my own time.
Goal: To stay on top of the latest technological advances in education after graduating Walden University.
Action: I will visit educational websites that discuss new technologies at least twice per month after graduating from Walden University. (suggestions for good websites to visit would be appreciated)
Monitor: Each new technology I discovery will be added to a categorized database according to its use across the curriculum.
Evaluate: I will visit the list quarterly to monitor the number of technological additions to each list. I will also evaluate my proficiency in the more popular new technologies.

Strengthening myself in these two indicated areas will allow me to truly be the tech-savvy teacher I need to be to make sure I equip my students with the necessary tools to be successful in the 21st century.