Monitoring my GAMEPlan progress!

After I established a set of goals for instituting technology into my teaching practice I needed to take some actions to fulfill those goals. Two of the main actions I chose to initiate in my classrooms were to increase the number of times my students visited the computer labs, and to encourage home use with the implementation of a class blog.

Concerning my first goal, I have definitely been able to increase the number of visits my students have made to the computer labs. The major obstacles I have met so far have occurred because I teach a subject (academically gifted) that our district feels is not as important as conducting standardized tests. The huge barrage of fall testing has disrupted the attendance of my classes and thrown off my calendar. I am also a traveling teacher, who is at a different elementary school each day of the week, which can also make it hard to schedule computer lab time. Despite this, I have made an effort to get my classes into the lab as much as possible.

My second goal was to set up a class blog and encourage my students to use it as much as possible. I have had mixed success in this endeavor. The main obstacle I have met with this goal is the socioeconomic discrepancy across my district. While I have 100 percent home access to the internet in some schools, it may be as low as 40 percent at other schools. This is a topic we have talked about repeatedly in this course, how do you adapt a lesson or classroom goal to accommodate differentiating students? I have had much difficulty finding a viable solution to this problem.

Despite these problems, I still believe I can implement the actions part of my GAME Plan and follow them up with productive monitoring and evaluation.

My GAME plan:

I have just reviewed the National Educational Technology Standards from the International Society for Technology in Education. and I am thinking about which of these standards I will be focusing on strengthening first. I really think my areas of weakness are "Digital Citizenship" and "Communication and Collaboration". I find them to be important but I have not dedicated as much time to them as I should have been doing. I think that having more digital interaction is critical for both of these areas.

Goals: I hope to increase the students' basic toolbox of basic skills in technology while also inspiring a sense of creativity and exploration in problem solving.

Action: I am going to make sure that my students have regular access to the computer labs and centers, as well as encourage home use of the computer through posted entries on my blog and eventually my students' glogs. Glogs.com/edu is like a private social networking system for students.

Monitering: I can monitor the students' understanding of the processes of digital literacy through my interactions with them on the Glog.

Evaluate: My students are keeping a notebook including a KWHL chart which outlines the research process for them and requires them to record references, processes, and thinking.
My main course of action for improving my students' proficiency in thinking critically and processing information in a complete and creative manner- is to "just do it". Get them started in the basics of technology with a sense of urgency while expanding their ability to analyze information. I am devoting time weekly for computer use, taking advantage of my computer lab access to the fullest.


Laureate Education Inc. (2009). “Enriching Learning Experiences with Technology.” Baltimore, MD: Laureate Education Inc.

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