Developing MY Personal GAME Plan:

The area I feel is the weakest for me personally is the “Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership” standard; more specifically the following two indicators represent areas where I need to focus energy and time:

1. “Participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning

2. Exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others (ISTE, 2008).”

My personal GAME plan consists of the following:

Goals:

Setting appropriate goals is important—making sure to set an attainable goal is vital so that I do not enter a state of frustration. I tend to set lofty goals and end up quitting before I reach them because they are simply unrealistic.

1. My goal is to broaden my knowledge and comfort level with both local and global learning communities available for educators. I have a sense of fear about them because they represent an unexplored area of technology.

2. My second goal is to become a more active member of my teaching team at school in the area of technology—more of a leader in the applications of technology in the classroom. I teach on a team with two language arts teachers, a math teacher, and a world studies teacher, and none of them are comfortable with using all of the technology available to us. I want to become more of a resource to them, and possible inspire them to complete some of their own explorations. It would be amazing to be able to share ideas with my colleagues.

Actions:

1. In order to achieve goals, I definitely need to take more initiative to explore and conquer some of the fear of the unknown that I am harboring. I need to just jump in and complete a test run—maybe with one class period to begin with at first. The learning communities and the opportunities available online seem like amazing learning experiences for students (and me)—I do not think I can get over the fear unless I make a commitment sooner rather than later.

2. I also plan on speaking to my team leader and asking if I can run a couple of meetings to both answer technology questions and share the ideas and methods I am currently implementing in my classroom. I know they have the desire to utilize the technology that is available—they simply do not feel comfortable using it because they do not understand it.

Monitor:

1. I will monitor my progress in a couple of ways. First, during my exploration of local and global learning communities, I will create an annotated list of resources (linked to my delicious account). The list will be used as a resource to ease my fears and increase my comfort level—So when I begin my experimental, test run I will have my list to return to in case I run into problems. The list provides me with a way to gage my own understanding of the material and application of this technology.

2. I will monitor my progress with my team through discussion and through my colleagues’ experiences with technology that I introduce to them.

Evaluate/Extend: I will evaluate my learning in much of the same way as a I plan on monitoring my learning—through discussion and the level of success my students and my colleagues’ students experience as a result of the implementation of the new technologies. The students definitely will act as the best gage of learning—if I can teach my students what I have learned, I know I understand what I was exploring.

Resource:

National Education Standards for Teachers (2008) located at http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf.