Continuing my GAME Plan

As I continue to develop my GAME plan, it is important that I take some things into account to make sure I am on a path toward success. First, I must decide what resources I will need to carry out my goal of improving Standard 1d and Standard 5b of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National Education Standards for Teacher (NETS-T) (2008). For Standard 1d, I am going to communicate and collaborate with two ELL teachers that I have worked with in the past. Our discussions will occur monthly throughout the entire school year to improve our implementation of technology within our classrooms. For this goal, we will be communicating via e-mail and/or FaceTime. Therefore, I will need access to a computer or cellphone that has the capability to communicate through those means. I will also need a journal to write notes and reflect upon the information we discuss and the technology tools we utilize in our classrooms. For Standard 5b, I am going to help develop the technology skills of my colleagues by sharing technology tools monthly in our Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings. The resources I will need for this are a computer with internet access and whatever technology tool I plan on sharing with my colleagues.    

Another necessary component to making my plan work is to determine if I need any additional information as the process begins. The only information that I can think of that would be beneficial at this point would be what technology tools both the ELL teachers I will be working with and my colleagues have used in the past. Knowing this would help me to be able to share and discuss new tools that have not been incorporated previously. This would make the process much more effective because we would not waste our time on technology tools that are already well known.

I have already been able to take some small steps for the implementation of my GAME plan. For my ELL collaboration, I have contacted the two teachers, and we have set up a schedule for communicating during the first semester of this upcoming school year. We will begin our correspondence the first week of each month that school is in session. We will proceed to talk throughout that week to discuss technology tools, their possible applications within our classrooms, and how each tool worked after we have incorporated them. Each new tool will be utilized at some point during the next three weeks of each month if possible. This process will continue throughout the entire school year, unless we determine that an adjustment needs to be made. For my goal to help others develop their technology skills, I have planned out a schedule of tools that I would like to share with my colleagues during the first couple months of school. I am going to first introduce VoiceThread because I feel that it can be hugely effective in both English content classes and Foreign Language classes. Next, I will demonstrate how I have used blogs in my ELL classroom. From there I will continue to present a new tool monthly. I am excited to see how my classroom and the classrooms of others will be impacted throughout the school year as a result of my GAME plan. I am hoping for greater student progress because technology allows teachers to reach all students (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009).

References

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

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Integrating technology across the content areas: Meeting students' needs with technology, part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.