My GAME Plan Reflection

In one of our first media segments Caitlin Thompson (2009) said, “It’s important to realize that the technology enriches the system, but it’s not my daily goal.”  When reflecting on the past eight weeks and my GAME plan, this statement has been on my mind.  Before developing my GAME plan, I have to say that I was bordering on being a teacher who used technology only when necessary.  Throughout this course and developing my own GAME plan, I have learned how important Thompson’s statement really is.  It was my goal to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in two technology standards that are a part of the National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T, 2007).  The indicators are:

2b: develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.   

3b: collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.   

In physical education our main challenge is time.  We are under strict activity guidelines so integrating technology can be a challenge.  However, throughout this course, I have learned to manage my lesson plans so that I can offer problem based learning experiences including technology integration.  My GAME plan was specific to our fitness assessments and major physical education events, but I also found that incorporating online collaboration as well as other digital tools as an enhancement to various units was not as difficult as I thought it would be. These tools greatly enrich my gymnastics unit.  Recently, our district has conformed to the guideline that every student has 60 minutes of physical education per week.  We will start a new schedule March 1, 2015 to accommodate this change.  Currently we see each student for 50 minutes per week.  Although the increase is only ten minutes per class, this is time that we can use for technology management as needed.    

In our PE classes we mostly use formative assessments.  When teaching a skill, my colleague and I are constantly “on our feet” providing feedback, modifying, reteaching, and making adjustments as necessary.  However, I have previously not utilized rubrics and other assessment tools as effectively as I have learned to do throughout this course.  I look forward to further progressing and providing my students with technology enhanced learning experiences. 

References: 

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009).  Integrating technology across the content areas: Enriching content area learning experiences with technology, part 2. Baltimore, MD: Author. 

International Society for Technology (2007).  ISTE Standards for Students. Retrieved from

 http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_iste_standards-s_pdf.pdf

 

 

 

 

Monitoring My GAME Plan

The last couple of weeks have been busy since we have kicked off our Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser and continue fitness assessments along with starting a gymnastics unit.  Since we administer the fitness assessments twice per year, we incorporate some of the testing with other units.  In monitoring my GAME plan, I feel that I am making progress at a slower pace than I would like to, but honestly I need to use that as one of the insights that I have gained from this experience.  Sometimes, I get apprehensive when we are not moving through a unit as quickly as I would like, and I am sure that the students sense this.  I realized that I have a lot going on within my GAME plan and everything can certainly be accomplished, but with time. 

As far as resources, we have most technological resources right in our building.  Our computer lab instructors, technology integration specialist, and media specialist (librarian) are all willing to assist in any way.  I have set up a Volunteerspot account for our field day activities which will not be until May, but planning for this event takes a lot of time.  Our Jump Rope for Heart activities are underway.  We have class jump rope competitions and we have started those.  We have a scheduled Jump Rope day when each grade level, during their related arts time (music, pe, art, computer) will go to the basketball courts to participate in jump rope activities to celebrate Jump Rope for Heart.  We allow all students to participate, not just the ones who raise money.  This is when we will collect the names of the students who will receive a certificate then we can have the selected students create those.  I have learned that we can access and print more reports from Fitstats than I originally thought we could. 

At this point, I do not feel that I need to modify my plan and have not had any new questions.  I will be glad to take any suggestions or answer any questions.

 

 

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

Last week I posted a GAME plan to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in technology standard indicator 2b. developing technology rich learning environments for my students and 3b. collaborating with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.  Now, the next step of reviewing the GAME plan and asking questions such as:

*What resources are needed to carry out the plan (media segments, reading, experts, or colleagues)?

*What additional information is needed?

*What steps have been taken so far?

The resources needed to carry out my GAME plan for indicator 2b consist of access to Fitstatsweb.com and Google Docs through class set of iPads checked out from the Learning Commons and laptops in the computer lab. The resources needed for the actual fitness assessment include stopwatches, pull-up bar, sit and reach box. The resources needed for indicator 3b are laptop with Google Plus account, Google Docs, and Google Drive.  I will also access the Volunteerspot website using a laptop or iPad.  Publisher will be another resource accessed through the computer lab or regular classroom laptops.

The additional information needed at this time for both goals is to access the computer lab schedule, determine the amount of time needed, and sign up.  I will also need to collaborate with classroom teachers and computer lab instructors to find out if the students have already been instructed on how to use Microsoft Publisher.  If they have not, I will need to find out if that is a task that the computer lab instructors can carry out or if I need to schedule a time to do so in the computer lab.

The steps that I have taken so far:

*Completion of first round of fitness assessments.

*Setting up class rosters on the Fitstats website.

*Signing up for Volunteerspot account.

*Signed up for Google Plus account and requesting and accepting colleagues as friends.

My GAME Plan

In my current Walden class, Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas, we are learning about the GAME plan which is a strategy that is recommended to guide self-directed learning (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). The steps included in the GAME plan are setting goals, taking action, monitoring progress to achievement, evaluating achievement, and extending learning.  I am developing my own GAME plan to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in two technology standards indicators that are a part of the National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T).  

The first indicator that I have chosen is 2b: develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.  We administer fitness assessments in our PE classes twice per year and have previously recorded their scores on our attendance roster.  The goal is to teach and demonstrate how to use technology tools such as Fitstats and Google Docs so that my students can monitor their own process and progress.  They will have access to technology through iPads in the gym, computer lab, and the regular classroom. Hopefully they will become more motivated to set fitness goals, research ways to improve, and manage their progress.  I will be able to monitor progress and help them evaluate their progress through access to these programs.  Collaborating with the computer lab instructors and classroom teachers will be imperative to extending the learning experiences.

The second indicator I intend to work on is 3b: collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.  To improve in this area, I will utilize our district wide communication tool through Google which offers collaboration tools such as the groups (google plus), google docs, and google drive.  All of the PE teachers in our district utilize our google plus accounts to collaborate and share ideas with each other.  I plan to be more involved with sharing ideas through this collaboration tool. Each year we participate in Jump Rope for Heart and Field Day activities.  This year, I plan to use the online tool Volunteerspot to assist in getting information to the parents as well as an online volunteer organization tool.  I will model utilization of these technology tools to my students by allowing the fifth graders to assist in monitoring the Volunteerspot and organizing Field Day activities.  We also have jump rope competitions during Jump Rope for Heart and I will allow my fifth grade class to assist in organizing and printing certificates for this event using an online certificate maker or Microsoft Publisher.  Once we have completed the activities, my colleague will evaluate the achievement and develop goals for the next year’s events.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use.  Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.