Tuesday, May 13, 2014

GAME Plan

In order to continue to increase my own knowledge and development, I have come up with a personal GAME plan. This plan is to help increase my own skill set in order to provide a better learning experience for my students.

My GAME plan is as follows:
1.      Set Goals
a.      I would like to find or develop multiple and varied formative and summative assessments that align with content and technology standards. This is ISTE-T standard 2d. While I currently use a few types of assessments to gauge student progress, I have found it difficult to vary my assessments for my computer classes. I would like to find new ways to assess students in a way that is more engaging to them. I will explore this goal throughout the rest of this school year.
b.      In order to improve my professional practice and model lifelong learning, I would like to participate in more local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning, which is ISTE-T standard 5a. This is something I have wanted to do for a while, but have not been able to make work. Attending conferences, webinars, and other learning opportunities is a great way to gather new ideas and collaborate with other educators. I would like to spend my summer exploring opportunities available and beginning to attend these learning events so I am ready to implement the new technology applications at the beginning of the next school year.

2.      Plan Actions
a.      I have set up a meeting with our technology director to discuss what types of assessment tools are available for our school. I have also become engaged in online research to find other ways to assess my students, and will speak with my PLC and other colleagues to help develop my list of tools.
b.      Working with my building principal, I have found a couple of potential conferences I can attend this June which are focused on technology in the classroom. I have also signed up for some webinars through Adobe, which should help in developing ideas for new and innovative projects in my graphic design class.

3.      Monitor Actions
a.      I will implement the assessment tools that I find and am introduced to in my classes. There will be a trial period for each of them while I determine if the assessment tool is appropriate for my classes or not. While this will be easily determined prior to use for some tools, others will need to be tested with students before any decisions are made.
b.      I will develop a portfolio of things that I learn at conferences and webinars. This portfolio will include a description of the technology application, along with a list of potential uses in each class that I teach.

4.      Evaluate Actions
a.      Evaluating the success of this goal will be in determining if the assessment tools were engaging and provided accurate information in regards to student progress and understanding. If I am not able to see these types of results of the assessment, I will need to try a different tool.
b.      While the development of this goal will be an ongoing process, I plan on sharing the portfolio with my PLC to determine the usefulness of the technology applications that I learn about. With the help of my PLC, I will be able to find the most appropriate uses for each application and even come up with other ideas that I had not previously discovered.

This is a basic draft of my GAME plan. While I put a timeframe on both of my goals, realistically they will both be ongoing as I aim to become a better and more innovative teacher. I am open to ideas and suggestions for how to improve this plan, especially in regards to the evaluation process.

References:
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 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

2 comments:

  1. Vicki,
    You have great goals, Vicki. Tacking varied and plentiful assessment is daunting. I am so impressed that you have already taken steps to enact your game plan. I hope you find the conferences useful.
    Do you have a 1 to 1 program at your school? If you do, you could use some quick polling tools to assess students and share assessment results/modify curriculum in real time. Promethean products have voters that allow students to provide instant assessment feedback, and the voters are awesome! Maybe you'll find a cell phone tool that can do the same thing.
    Faith Smith

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  2. Vicki,
    I like your goals. The understanding of assessments and how they effect your students moving forward is daunting task. The simple fact that you are pursuing this reflects your open mindedness and how your students are put first in your class room. The monitoring and evaluating actions have been well thought out and are measurable which is an important part of any plan. Very well done and good luck at your conference. With your attitude going in, it will be very successful and worth your time.
    Greg

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