Reflection

The GAME plan is a self-directed learning method that requires a person to set goals, develop ways to take action to fulfill the goals, monitor the progress and steps it takes to achieve the goals and finally evaluate the overall process. The GAME plan I developed is focused on integrating a new technology into the classroom each month and learning the diverse needs of my students. I believe that I have done a good job working towards achieving the goals I have set for my GAME plan. However, I have realized that the goals I have set for myself are long-term, making my GAME plan a career-long endeavor.

I have never used a process like the GAME plan before, yet I have learned quite a bit from this experience. First and foremost, I believe that I have truly become aware of my learning styles. I always had a strong idea of how I learn and the ways in which I prefer to learn, but in school my teachers did not always cater to my learning needs. However, in self-directed learning, I am able to focus on my learning preferences making it easier for me to master the skills I need to properly integrate technology into the classroom. Because I had an opportunity to reflect on the importance of focusing my learning towards my needs, I have realized the impact I would have on my students if I did the same thing. Therefore, the goal I set to achieve, learning the diverse needs of my students, has become a major priority. I have since begun to implement a minimum of 4 learning styles into each of my lessons. The new technology I have been learning is making this process easy for me because most 21st century technology is already geared towards multiple learning styles. In addition, I am in the process of changing my classroom to reflect a more student-driven learning environment. As a social studies teacher, this course has opened my eyes to the vast amounts of possibilities and educational advantages students have when driving their own learning. I am confident that what I have learned from this course will lead to my students’ ability to become better learners and for that, I am eternally grateful.

Using the GAME Plan Process with Students

The National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS- S) are a series of standards that were developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to help teachers prepare students for the 21st century. In addition to establishing standards for students, the ISTE has also developed a series of standards to prepare teachers (NETS-T) for educating students in the 21st century. Over the past few weeks, I have been working towards developing and completing a GAME plan that is focused on setting and achieving goals based on the standards initiated by the ISTE.

An excellent way for students to become acquainted with the NETS-S standards is to develop a GAME plan of their own. The GAME plan will provide students with an opportunity to set meaningful goals while developing a structured plan that will help to achieve them. It will also help me teach students how to set goals for themselves. Goal setting is something that my students seldom do; therefore the GAME plan would enable me to teach my students that it is a process that can be fun and easy.

I believe that the best time to engage students in developing a GAME plan is in the beginning of the school year. Traditionally, the first day of school is dedicated to establishing rules, becoming acquainted with classmates and sometimes setting goals for the school year. Opening the first day of class with a proposal for all students to establish goals regarding their future might not sound very exciting and might be hard for some students to do. Unfortunately, some students live day to day and do not think too much about their future. However, opening the first day with a proposal for setting goals that allow students to engage in using innovative technology that will enhance their future, no matter what path they take, sounds exciting. In implementing the GAME plan students will develop proficiency in the NETS by turning basic learning into a life experience. The GAME plan allows for hands-on real-life learning that appeals to the realistic learning many students urn for.

Revising My GAME Plan

When I was monitoring my progress throughout my GAME plan, I was confidant that I was doing well and that I was going to have a fairly easy time achieving my goals. However, after I evaluated my progress, I realized the need to slightly revise my GAME plan by establishing an additional goal that will help me in organizing and pacing the time I spend learning resources. I find that it is necessary for me to limit how frequently I learn a new resource. The problem I am encountering is that I am learning a little about a few resources, rather than focusing on mastering one. As a result, I have been unable to apply any of these new resources in my instructional practice.

As I mentioned last week, the original goals I established for myself will be goals that I will continue to strive towards throughout my entire teaching career. It is important for me to continuously learn my students’ learning needs, while implementing meaningful resources that will reach diverse learners. I believe that the learning goals I have set for myself are challenging and I think it is necessary to master these goals before I go ahead and focus on setting newer goals. Focusing on too many goals at once may cause me to lose tract of my original GAME plan, something I am trying very hard not to do. One way I can extend my learning will be to increase my exposure to tutorials and how-to-tips pertaining to the resource. Sometimes small suggestions and tricks make a huge difference when learning something for the first time.

Overall, I believe that this experience has caused me to become a better self-directed life-long learner. I have used trial-and error methods of learning in the past, but as I found through this process, I need more than trial and error if I ever want technology to be an effective learning tool.

Evaluating my GAME Plan

Over the past few weeks, I have been working towards the goals I developed for my GAME plan. The GAME plan is a guide for teachers to follow for self-directed learning (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). The final step of the GAME plan is the evaluation process (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). Like all learning, self-directed learning should be also be evaluated. As I mentioned last week, technology is constantly evolving. However, after today I realized that the more technology evolves, the more I evolve. After work, an old colleague of mine came to my school and introduced me to some of the resources he learned while attending a technology conference in Rochester, NY. The resources blew my mind and made me realize that my GAME plan is going to be a life-long process. I witnessed a wind turbine rotate when I blew into the microphone of my computer. It was incredible and it was just a small preview of the technology General Electric (GE) is developing for the future. My PD session today, showed me that there are an infinite amount of possibilities when it comes integrating instructional technology in the classroom.

My goal is to learn and implement a new piece of technology every month. I believe that I have done a good job so far locating innovative resources to apply to my instructional practice, but I feel as if I am learning something new every week. Too many resources can sometimes be overwhelming. I do find myself jumping around and spending small bits of time trying to learn too many technology resources at once. I think it is because I get so excited about learning how each of them might enhance my students’ learning experience. As a result of this, I have decided to tackle one resource at a time by organizing a section of my online bookmarking site to house them in the order I found them. I will stick to my original plan and pick one each month and dedicate my time solely to learning and developing an activity that incorporates the new technology. I am also going to keep an online journal where I can keep notes and observations about the resource, almost like a database. Adjusting the organizational aspect of my plan will definitely help keep me on track and keep my goals alive.

I believe that my goals are going to always be what I strive to achieve and I am willing to work as long and as hard as it takes to be successful.

Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.