My Final Thoughts

Setting goals, taking the necessary actions to meet those goals, monitoring the progress toward achieving those goals and evaluating whether the goals have been achieved which resulted in new learning that was extended to new situations, formed the basis of my GAME plan for the past six weeks (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). What was the purpose of such a plan? Simple. It was a plan that ensured that I took “steps to direct (my) learning process, specifically while learning about technology and how to integrate it into the curriculum” (p. 3). It facilitated three very important goals in my personal development: it allowed me to customize my approach to learning; it helped me to develop some additional ICT skills that will prove to be helpful in my future instructions and thirdly, reinforced my already strong foundation of bring a life-long learner (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009).

Consequently, I have gained quite a lot of knowledge as a result of creating my GAME plan, but my main take away from this course is knowing how to infuse technology in my daily instructional practice to meet the needs of my students while at the same time, meeting the standards or objectives of my subject curriculum. Being able to implement an effective lesson takes a lot of planning and thinking and this process is strategically met by the cognitive constructs of the GAME plan. The lesson plan template readily facilitates the whole process of learning-that of setting goals or objectives, putting action plans in place to satisfy those goals, monitoring the process and transferring the new knowledge learned to other areas of learning- and can be readily integrated into my present lesson plan format. Hence, this course has helped in changing how I will plan for my upcoming lessons in the fall semester.

Hence, I intend to adjust how I plan my lessons. Firstly, I intend to include the use of blogging and the wiki as my starter collaborative tools in my lessons. Secondly, I intend to integrate digital storytelling in my lessons, in addition to making DVDs, comic books and podcasts as other technological tools that my students need to use to facilitate their personal learning. Finally, as I strive to keep my skills up to date, so will I be better able to meet the needs of my students, not only for today, but also for the future (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009).


References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. , & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Mason, Ohio: Laureate Education, Inc.

GAME Plan: Students' Perspective

My past experience with using the GAME plan has allowed me to gain a lot of insight in to my own desire to learn how to integrate technology into my teaching practice. I do believe that, in this case, what has been good for the goose(that's me, the teacher) is also good for the gander (that's them, my students). I also believe that the applicatory quality of the GAME plan will exceed my limited expectations of its possibilities, achieving its potential in the academic lives of my students.

In my GAME plan, I have already highlighted the need for my students to set goals. As previously stated, I will continue to make this a feature of my classes. I shall use the goal setting exercise as the means by which to introduce my students to the concept of the GAME plan.

The second way in which I intend to use the GAME plan process is in the teaching of certain topics that will involve my students creating and using a personal blog or a group wiki. The purpose of the blog or wiki would be to encourage collaboration, communication, written as well as interpersonal, amongst my students. This would automatically impact how I plan my lessons; however, my school uses a specific lesson plan format to which I must abide. Nonetheless, my instructional planning for this aspect of their learning will mirror the GAME plan format to which they have been exposed.

The third and final manner in which I will use the plan with my students will be like a study strategy. Having been exposed to its elements, I shall encourage them to generate goals, actions, ways of monitoring and evaluating their understanding of the content and skills that they need to know in preparation for their final examination boards at the end of their academic tenure with the school.

In conclusion, I find that the GAME plan is quite moldable and can be fitted to suit the intents and purposes of any educational objective.


Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Chapter four. Technology-enriched learning environments. Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning

Checkpoint Three: Revision Time

For the past five to six weeks, I have learned quite a lot about my students as a result of having to modify my GAME plan. Vocationally, they are acutely aware of where they believe they will be, professionally, in the next five years. The use of the graphic organizers to help them set their goals is an aspect of my GAME plan that I will continue to use in all my lessons. Thus, my progress in this aspect of the GAME plan has been quite helpful. As it relates to my personal technological development, progress has been minimal. As the academic year approached its end, my timetable of events became swamped with preparation for several school functions and finals. I have resolved, therefore, to use my summer days to continue working towards my goal to design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments. I am yet to discover and plan effectively the integration of the school's available technologies into my lessons both for instruction and assessment. Likewise, I have yet to learn how to incorporate Excel in my class routine of learning and assessment as well as to increase my pedagogical repertoire by adopting and adding to my teaching routine a minimum of three new strategies from the web sites that I have bookmarked on interactive activities and on differentiation.

I am not setting any new learning goals, yet, from the list of technology standards in the NETS.T document. This will be done after I am satisfied that I have met my goal requirements for standard two. Consequently, I plan on sharing my experience of creating a GAME plan with my colleagues at the teacher's workshop that the school will be hosting in the third week of August 2010. In this way, I believe, I will be extending what I have learned, not only in my other classes, but in several other subject areas and grades as well.

I will continue to use the learning strategy of inquiry as my main vehicle of discovering new ways to convert my classroom in to a technology-rich environment that will address the individual and specific needs of the diverse student body that I will be interfacing with daily. I also intend to continue working on my GAME plan, but this time I will invite my closest colleagues to help me accomplish the many tasks that I have planned for myself. In this way, the work will be delegated, and the end result of our combined efforts will benefit us all.

In conclusion, despite my overall slow pace of planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating my GAME plan, I envision great success for the future for my students, my colleagues, my school and myself.


Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Chapter four. Technology-enriched learning environments. Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning

Checkpoint Two for GAME Plan

As I continue to work on my GAME plan, I have found that I have accomplished some aspects of my goals. I have made new decisions which have resulted in me adjusting my schedules to fit into those of my students. Consequently, I have been afforded some time from teaching to search the Internet for the technological resources that I intend to learn about and use.

I have found that my decision to use delicious to socially bookmark the many websites that I need to browse for information was a good decision. The task of inter-facing with so many websites is still daunting, however, I have narrowed my search to a few websites that I have found to be extremely helpful; one such site is the IRA website.

I now recognize the significant relevance of engaging students in goal setting prior to the beginning of any academic year. It is a kind of documentation that informs students of their responsibility in their own learning. It provides direction and focus, a tool that can become an integral part of a student's self-reflection and assessment. I have also discovered that many students are not aware of how they, individually, learn and consequently, have no idea about how to study effectively to meet their own learning needs. This knowledge has proven to be valuable, especially as I am presently marking and grading the exam responses that my students have given on their English finals. I also believe that if my students set academic goals and work towards them, their academic achievement and performance will improve.

I still have to learn to use the technological device, the mimeo, in my instructions so that my students can use it in their learning. I also yet have to learn how to incorporate Microsoft Excel in my instruction, not only as a tool to record data, but also for my students to use it to develop certain language skills, such as inferencing, critical thinking, analysis and synthesis.
My school is soon to purchase a Promethean Smart Board and so the use of this technological tool will have to be included in my instructional planning to address my need to make my classroom instruction technologically-rich.

My plans, therefore, have changed only slightly, in that they now include learning to use this additional device to enhance my lessons. I also need to adjust the perspective of the goal setting exercise that I shall engage my students in. I plan to ask my students to include in their goals a decision to use at least one of the school's available technological resources to improve their academic performance.

Hence, I welcome any suggestions from my colleagues on lesson activities that will have the students using the mimeo device and the Smart Board as both presentation and learning tool in an English/Language Arts scenario.


Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2009). Chapter four. Technology-enriched learning environments. Technology integration for meaningful classroom use. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning