Reflection

            As I look back over my GAME plan and the steps it took to complete the process I am surprised at how much of this process I already did without realizing it. Most teachers have some sort of goal that they set for themselves every single day, what the GAME plan allows you to do is vocalize that goal and envision steps to accomplish said goal. What I did learn from completing my GAME plan was how important the monitoring phase of the plan is (Laureate Education Inc., 2010b). Without the monitoring stage it is impossible to know how close to reaching your goal you are, and what steps you still need to take to get there.

            The impact this will have on my instruction is that I will utilize the GAME plan for my goals, as well as have my students write their own goals in this manner. Once I and my students verbalize our goals and create a plan to reach those goals they become more tangible, thus making it more likely that we will reach our goals. At the beginning of the next school year I plan on spend time in class to directly teach my students how to use the GAME plan strategy, and then implement it for every student based assignment that we complete throughout the year.

            Looking at my original plan, the only revision that I would make would be to complete this plan earlier in the year. My plan was to create an environment that was student-centered and technology driven. If I create this environment earlier in the school year then my students will have adequate practice with completing self- directed learning experiences, allowing me to create more in-depth learning experiences later in the year. Rather than focusing on the process I will be able to focus on the content.

            Another aspect that creating an environment that is more students centered and self - directed would be that I could implement more problem-based learning as well as more social learning. By spending the time early in the year instructing my students how to set and reach goals, I will be able to create assignments that focus on a problem for them to solve independently rather than being spoon fed the information (Laureate Education Inc., 2010a). In addition, by having my students create good goals I will be able to utilize nontraditional means of evaluating my students performance, such as utilizing social networking sites such as wikis and blogs (Laureate Education Inc., 2010c).

            By ensuring that my students can create valid achievable goals I will provide an environment where my students can successfully complete self-directed learning tasks. The more self- directed my students are the more likely they are to buy into the content and make deeper connections with the material. The basis of any self –directed learning though is creating goals and working to achieve them, so through the use of the GAME plan model I will be moving my class in the right direction.  

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010a). Program eight: Spotlight on technology: Problem based learning, part 1 [Video webcast]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Ertmer, P. 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010b). Program one: Promoting self-directed learning with technology [Video webcast]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Cennamo, K. 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010c). Program ten: Spotlight on technology: Social networking and online collaboration, part 1 [Video webcast]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Davis, V. 

GAME Plan Action Plan

            As I progress through my GAME Plan, I find that the information and resources I need to complete my task is not much different from what I needed initially for these lessons. I need very little adjustment to my lesson to effectively have my students complete student based projects for each lesson. So far I have only adjusted one unit, but I have started to look at the next unit. One area that I do need to adjust is my assessments since my original assessments were not focused on the students completing an individual project. The assessment needs to match the skills and knowledge I expect my students to demonstrate in their projects (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009).

            So far I do not need to adjust my action plan because one student based project per unit appears to be just right as far as the amount of work and time available. As I progress through this GAME Plan next year I may need to adjust my plan because I may not have enough time to complete a student based project every unit, but for now it seems like replacing several assignments with a comprehensive assignment is taking the same amount of time. It also appears like the students are learning the material as effectively, if not more effectively than they have in the past.

            What I have learned so far from this experience is that the majority of the students seem to enjoy project based assignments and they also seem to like having choices. It appears like the majority of the students are more engaged with each lesson, and that they are still learning the same content. It also appears that the students are making connections with the content in a way that they can apply the information to other courses and aspects outside of class. The new questions that have arisen thus far are how I will ensure for each unit that the students have the appropriate prior knowledge to be as effective as they have been for this unit? This unit is relatively straight forward and was very easily converted to a student based project, what will I do for the more abstract units that I still must teach?  

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.

Continuing GAME Plan

               To continue with my GAME plan, the first thing I need to do is figure out what activity fits with each unit. My plan is to incorporate an interactive activity for my students with each unit, so I need to decide what that activity will be. Since my goal is very broad, I will have to look at each unit individually to decide the best course of action. I think one tool that I will probably use frequently will be the use of wikis and blogs for my students to compile their information and then communicate with each other about their different projects. To use blogs and wikis, I will need to ensure that my students have consistent access to computers during the duration of their independent project. I will also need to take time to learn more of the features of wikis and blogs because if I do not know how to use the technology then it will be impossible for me to instruct my students how to effectively use it (Laureate Education Inc., 2010).

                The additional information I will need to meet my goal is to determine exactly what options fit for each unit. I cannot determine the best course of action for my students until I begin the unit with them and determine what aspects they understand and what aspects they need more assistance with. Once I have some background information about my student’s performance, I then need to find out information about my student’s preferences so that I can offer them relevant choices.  

                The steps that I have taken already to begin meeting my goal are to implement a project-based assignment for the material we are currently covering. Since we are near the end of the year, I thought it might be interesting for the students to complete an assignment where they discover what types of jobs are available to them with a chemistry degree, or careers where chemistry is involved somehow. The students had the option to choose which career they want to research and also had the option of the way they would present the material. To give the students guidelines, I provided a rubric and will grade them accordingly. This is probably one of the easier units I will have as far as providing my students with choice, and freedom to discover the information they are interested in because the topic is so broad and requires very little background knowledge to be successful.

                With more practice my students and I will become more comfortable with the freedom these projects will provide. Any new technique takes time to work out the kinks, so the sooner I get started the more I will learn.

               

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Program six: Meeting students’ needs with technology, part 2 [Video webcast]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Ross, J. 

GAME PLAN

            If the goal of education is to prepare our students for their post education lives then it is our responsibility to ensure that our students have the competencies and skills they need to succeed. An avenue to ensure that they have these skills is to incorporate the ISTE National Technology Standards (2013). The first step in ensuring that our students meet these standards is to become familiar with the standards ourselves and begin implementing the standards as soon as possible. An excellent method for meeting my goals of incorporating the NETS-T is to create a GAME plan (Laureate Education Inc., 2010).

            The first step in creating my GAME plan is to set goals to meet. My goal will be to ensure that I provide my students with more opportunities to meet standards 2.a, which is to design relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital learning tools to enhance creative thinking and to meet standard 2.b which is to develop a technology rich learning environment that allows students to follow their own curiosities and set their own goals (ISTE, 2013). The reason that I want to focus on these specific standards is because I think that for a student to develop critical thinking skills and become life- long learners that it is essential for them to develop their own goals, and the learning experiences that they develop these goals for should be authentic.

            To meet these goals my actions will be to ensure that at least once every unit I provide my students with choices for them to follow their own curiosities in their learning. I will support this by providing the students with a list of options initially and then as we progress I will allow the students to create their own goals. In this same process, I will ensure that these choices the students have are opportunities for authentic, real – world learning. The technology aspect of this is that the students will use computers and other forms of technology to pursue their interests and compile the material they will need to accomplish their own goals.

            To monitor my progress, I will read my personal reflective journal after every unit to ensure that I provided at least one opportunity for my students to pursue their own interests. I keep a journal about all of the lessons that I complete so that I can reflect on what went well and what needs adjusted for next year. My journal will be a very useful way to monitor my progress because it will not require me to do any more work than I already am, and it is more reliable than just attempting to use my memory.

            To evaluate if I was successful I will check my progress midway through the year and then again at the end of the year. My mid- year evaluation will allow me to make any adjustments that I need to in order to ensure that I will successfully meet my goal. My evaluation will consist of reading my reflective journal and determining if I have successfully provided my students with the opportunities to have choice and real experiences for every unit.

References

ISTE (2013). National Education Technology Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2. 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Program one: Promoting self-directed learning with technology [Video webcast]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Cennamo, K.