Monitoring Your GAME Plan Progress

After we have set goals for ourselves and begin to put our GAME plan into action, we must monitor and evaluate our progress toward obtaining those goals. Just like we want our students to assess their learning throughout a lesson, we must assess our goals in order to know where we are going and how we are going to get there (Laureate Education, Inc, 2010).

As the school year is coming to an end, I am realizing how difficult it is to take my lessons and begin to find ways to integrate technology into them. This is definitely a project that I will want to really dive into over the summer and at the beginning of the school year. I have been successful at finding some resources to help me along the way. Technology integration is definitely something that requires advance planning in order to reserve resources and be sure I know how to operate the device before setting my students on it (even though they probably know more than I do!). I have found that it is also important to have a back up plan just in case that particular digital tool does not want to cooperate that day! The nice thing about that is I already have the general lesson planned so that can be my back up if the technology is not working out for me. One lesson that I have already transformed and implemented with my students involved having them respond to their novel prompts through a classroom blog that I set up instead of writing or typing them and only submitting them to me. This easy transition has allowed my students to collaborate more with each other and leave really constructive feedback. They have really impressed me with this and it took virtually nothing for me to set up the blog!

I have also done some research in terms of technology conferences that are going to be offered next year that I would like to attend. I found one that is really interesting to me called The Teaching Professor Technology Conference http://www.teachingprofessor.com/conferences/technology-conference-2013. It is a little distance away and costs more than the usual conference so I will have to broach it with my headmaster before the year is over so we can work to see if there is money in the budget for me to attend. I would really like our technology teacher to be able to attend as well so we can collaborate and bring back great ideas for our faculty for next year!

At this point, I do not feel that I need to revise my plan, but I will definitely need to continue to monitor my progress especially as I put into action more throughout the summer and beginning of next year. One thing that I need to always remember when embarking on this GAME plan is that "technology should only be used when it facilitates learning, and not simply as a novelty" (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 146). I do not need to transform every lesson, but only where it deems appropriate and where it will enhance my lessons for my students.


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. 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Assessing Student Learning with Technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Carrying Out Your Game Plan

In order to continue with my GAME plan, I must look into the variety of technology tools that I have available at my disposal. "Digital tools can help you customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources" (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 109). When we incorporate technology into our lesson plans, we are hitting upon all learning styles so that we may reach and teach all students.

In order to begin to carry out my first goal of my GAME plan, I knew I could use the help of our technology specialist at the school. I sat down with her to discuss the different technologies we have at the school and we talked about ways to use them in my current unit on a novel that we are reading, Across Five Aprils. She discussed ways for my students to use a web tool called "Toondoo" to create comic scenes representing main events in the story. She also showed me how my students could create concept maps for each of the characters to help them remember the different traits of each as we read since there are several throughout the book. Another avenue I would like to seek out is the help of my other English colleagues to talk about ways we can enhance our units to incorporate other classes so that we open up a wide range of collaboration between the grades.

I may need to wait to carry out the second goal of my GAME plan until the next school year begins considering we only have 9 class days left in this year. I have started to research different conference offerings for next year around my area and have also talked to our technology specialist about having her join me as well. I find it is always best to have someone else go with you to a conference because you can come away with different insights and ideas to share with the rest of our school. I have made a tentative plan with her to meet several times next year so that she can help me work on incorporating technology into my units throughout the year as well as ways we can share our learning with the rest of the school so that we hopefully start a trend with technology integration within our school.

Our population of students all have special needs and I think would really benefit from digital tools being incorporated into their classrooms so that all learning styles are being met. I think we may see many of their "disabilities" become their "abilities".

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.

Developing Your Personal Game Plan

Just as our students need to continue to learn new content everyday, we too as educators need to do the same. The GAME plan “requires you to think about and take steps to direct your learning process, specifically while learning about technology and how to integrate it into the curriculum” (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p. 3). Overall, I have always felt very comfortable with technology since I grew up in the beginnings of the technology era. With that being said, I still feel like I have a lot of work to do with many of my lessons to integrate technology and make my lessons more interesting and engaging for my students as much as possible.

While looking at the National Education Standards for Teachers in regards to technology, there were two areas that I would like to work on in order to provide my students with the best possible education. One goal that I have for myself is in working with the Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments standard (NEST-T, 2008). I would like to take enhance my lessons and my students’ learning experiences through the use of digital tools and resources. The second goal that I have for myself is in working with the Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership standard (NEST-T, 2008). I would like to attend more technology conferences and learn about the new technologies that continue to arise and ways that I can incorporate it into my classroom. With that, I would also like to start presenting my findings during our share sessions at school so that my colleagues can be informed as well.

In order to achieve these goals, I must have a plan of action in place. I can begin designing and developing digital age learning experiences for my students by taking a look at my lessons one at a time and collaborating with my colleagues to enhance lessons and eventually units. This could take a lot of time and effort on my part, but if I work on it little by little, I would have several lessons that have been improved through the use of technology. I can also begin looking into local conferences around my county as well as online videoconferences to continue learning about the latest technologies that will enhance my lessons. I need to talk to my head master ahead of time, to schedule a share session twice year to provide information to my colleagues as well.

Once I have set my plan into action, it is important to always monitor whether I am making progress on these goals and find ways that I would need to improve if I am not finding the information that I need. It is important to be sure that I am not centering my lessons around the technology, but that I am using it to enhance my lessons. My first goal can be a large one to tackle so I need to be specific in how many lessons a semester I plan on evaluating.

As with any lesson, I must evaluate and reflect on my progress to be sure goals have been met and how I can change things for the future to correct any problems. The best way for me to do this is through my students’ reactions and knowledge learned from lessons that I have enhanced. Even asking feedback from them would give me an idea of what I can improve upon next time. Continuing to be a life-long learner myself will help me create more active and engaging for my students and keep my lessons current. Technology is a great tool that we can use to help bring our students to a better understanding of the skills that we present to them on a daily basis.

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  

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology: Part 2. Baltimore, MD: Author.