Evaluation of GAME Plan progress

 Through my actions, I have found a great tool to support my students. I have found that with a full description of the technology and possible charges that may apply the parents of my students can give permission for their students to receive text reminders about assignments. One of the stipulations placed on the technology was that I had to keep copies of any reminders that have been sent. This data gathering is to ensure that my use of the technology can be examined if any issues should arise. My students have a short vocabulary assignment to complete on several nights during the week. Monday night my students had an assignment and the class homework completion rate on Tuesday was 68%. Tuesday night my students had a similar assignment and were sent a text message reminder at 7:25pm. The class homework completion rate on Wednesday was 83%! I would like to examine this reminder system over a more extended amount of time to see if the effectiveness changes. The GAME plan inspired me to find something that had a positive effect on my classroom and my students. I will me rewarding myself with a pedicure sometime very soon! The quest for a new technology project begins! I have decided to reduce the number of new tools I implement a month to just one because I found that I really like to focus on one thing and become very familiar with features and usages. One other adjustment I will make it to investigate the alternative usages of the technology tools I implement in the classroom.

Monitoring Your GAME Plan Progress

After taking some good advice from my classmates, I am re-investigating course texts from this class, previous classes, and my undergrad course work. These texts are providing me with an almost overwhelming amount of technology ideas I would like to try in my classroom. I have found that with an increasing bank of ideas that I need a way to organize what I am finding. I have devoted a notebook to my GAME plan. In the notebook I jot down ideas and a brief description so that I can refer back to it later. I will also include if I know of a location to find information/resources. When I have more free time at my disposal I plan to explore and possibly reduce/refine many of my new ideas.

For this month, I plan to look into software that sends reminder messages to students. While my initial goal was to implement 2 new devices/programs/technologies into my classroom, I am finding this undertaking to be rather time consuming. As well as programs, I am looking into district policy and formulating a permission letter. This undertaking is worthy of an ample amount of time because I feel this could be very beneficial to my students and their parents. If you implement something similar to this in your classroom I am curious to know the logistics involved!

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

I will need a variety of resources to carry out my GAME plan. The first steps I need to take has been to find reading materials/places that offer ideas and suggestions on the use of technology in the classroom. It is imperative that I find resources that match the courses and grade levels I teach. I foresee that I may need to subscribe to an educational technology magazine and also hope to find learning communities online. I will also need to develop a method for cataloging my findings and reflections each month.  

I have to admit that I have started to look for learning communities and other resources and am having a little difficulty finding what I need. Unfortunately, a lot of the information is tailored to a lower grade level elementary classroom. I have found many good resources for the primary classroom, but am struggling to find information that applies to a middle school setting. Also, because I know that I will need additional motivation to keep up to date on my goals, I am finding an additional personal incentive I can earn when I have completed my goal at the end of each month.

My Goals

I have selected the following two indicators to strengthen my confidence and proficiency with.  The first indicator is to engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.  The second indicator I have selected to focus on is to design and adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.  In order to achieve my goals, I will continue to research and read about technology usages in the classroom.  Every month, I will attempt to incorporate two new technology resources into my lessons and planning.  My goal will also be to allow my students to interact with my new resource in addition to myself.  At the end of each month, I will set a calendar alert that includes the following questions, three of which were suggested by the course text: 1. Have I met my learning goals, 2. should I modify my goals or my learning strategies, 3. what will I do differently in the future, and 4. How effective and useful was my new technologies, and 5. How will I use this resource in the future.