Developing a Personal GAME Plan

When viewing the indicators for performance using the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T), I have chosen to focus on two for personal improvement as I complete my tenth year of teaching. The first of which is to facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity (NETS-T, 2009) particularly through the use of collaborative tools for reflection. To accomplish this, I intend to use the VoiceThread application to comment on screencasts created by both myself and my students. In this way, we can also solicit conversation from others around the globe. At first, we will use the technology within the classroom so I can monitor student use and make suggestions as to how the programs work. Eventually, this type of activity will be carried on both inside and outside school time. The idea behind this use of technology is to provide more access to class discussion and perspective. In this way, "students [will be] challenged to think more deeply about the topic at hand" (Cennamo, Ross, Ertmer, 2009). To evaluate this progress, I will compare notes with other teachers in this program to see how their uses of this or similar technology are working. No matter I do, it's important to remember that there is always another person ready to network with the same area as well (Davis, 2009b).

A second area I would like to improve my skills in is to "engage in professional growth and leadership" (NETS-T, 2009). I would like to start this process by using networking software such as SchoolRack or Ning, Blogger, etc. to communicate with other teachers and generate ideas for useful technology integration in the classroom. One way I have already started this process is through the completion of this program. Ertmer (2009a) mentions that students need "confidence" when working with technology in the classroom, but teachers need it as well. While many new technologies have been presented to me to use throughout these courses, I will choose to use only a few of these in my teaching so I can present a high level of quality for my students and others to view. In this way, I can choose how to present material and still receive training in new teaching tools and grow in my leadership potential. This, hopefully, will lead to more students placing me and my instruction into their "quality world" (Glasser, 1998) which will, in turn, spur them to improve their knowledge base and create more meaningful projects for themselves and others.

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

Glasser, W. (1998). Choice theory: A new psychology of personal freedom. New York: Harper and Row.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009a). Program three. Enriching content area learning experiences with technology, part 1 [Motion picture]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore: Ertmer, P.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009b). Program four. Enriching content area learning experiences with technology, part 2 [Motion picture]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore: Davis, V.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf on November 10, 2009.