Monitoring My GAME Plan

Monitoring my GAME plan

In the last week I have made quite a bit of progress in my first goal: To communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital tools. I am adding new ideas to the website daily and the students and parents are starting to check it out regularly. On the class blogs I have posted some math cartoons that students can give their interpretation of the cartoon’s meanings for extra credit. Any time I mention extra credit my students are anxious to try something new. As more and more students become comfortable posting to the class blogs, I will make responding mandatory. To help communicate to parents and students in my geometry classes I have a link to an explanation of their final project for the year. I want parents and students to know that if students don’t keep up with their digital portfolios though out the year, they will not be able to create a quality presentation for their final.

My second goal: Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity by promoting student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning and creative process, is also progressing. For their final this year my honors geometry students are creating a presentation to relate the concepts they learn to the real world. As we finished the first chapter I gave the students some time in the computer lab to find real life examples of points, planes and angles. My
student’s creativity continues to amaze me. I am really looking forward to seeing what they have to present at the end of the course.

I have learned that technology should be used as a tool and not as an end goal. Technology should be used to give students options in how they learn. It can help students show their knowledge in different ways. I have learned that not every new technology is appropriate for my classroom. I should not try to fit technology into what I'm teaching, but rather, use technology to aid what I am teaching.

Reviewing My GAME Plan

In order to accomplish my goal to provide parents, as well as students, a site they can visit, and have classroom information readily available to them, I have begun creating my web page through the service provided to all teachers at my school. I went to Dave our head computer support advisor and he was more than happy to give me step by step directions of how to log on and begin creating my website. The directions were so easy to follow, within no time I was filling in images and information for students and parents. I included the usually teacher background, a page for each class and some fun games and tutorial links. There is a spot for blogging in each class, but I’m not sure what to blog about. Ideas? I plan on talking with other teachers at school to find out what they include on their pages. I know some post all of their notes on their web page.

The second goal, learn to create power point presentations that include audio and visual, has not progressed as well as my first goal. I will go back to Dave and see if he has a nice tutorial for power points and I plan to talk with the technology teacher this week some time. The problem I have is that my school is so spread out I don’t have a chance during the day to get down to his lab. I am going to have to find the time. The two students who were going to help me have both found after school jobs so now I am looking for new resources from my “digital age” students.

I feel I am on my way to bringing technology in to my comfort zone.

My GAME Plan

My Personal GAME Plan

When evaluating my level of proficiency with the National Education Standards for Teachers I would consider myself a novice when in comes to incorporating technology into my lessons. Dr. Peggy Ertmer says that two of the attributes a teacher must have to effectively use technology in their classroom are knowledge of technology and the confidence to use it (Laureate, 2009). I am beginning to learn the tools that are available to enhance instruction and learning in the 21st century classroom but building my confidence to use these tools is a slow process.

The GAME plan encourages self learners to set goals, take action, monitor their learning process and evaluate each step of the plan (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009). This is my personal GAME plan for incorporating NETS-T into my classroom.

Goal: To communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital tools
Action: My first step is to get a teacher web page that my students and their parents can see daily assignments, interesting math facts and links to math tutorials. When I finally get a smart board I would also like to include class notes and worksheets. I have asked two of my junior boys to show me how to design a web page and they have agreed to work with me one day a week after school. As I become more knowledgeable and comfortable I want to let students add information.
Monitor: Progress can be monitored periodically by asking the students if they are using the web site on days they miss school because of illness or field trips.
Evaluate: A final evaluation for parents and students would come in the form of a survey requesting input on how to structure the site for the following year.

Goal: Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity by promoting student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students’ conceptual understanding and thinking, planning and creative process.
Action: This year in my honors geometry class I have decided to throw the ten page paper final exam into the trash and have the students create a final presentation with power point or voice thread that shows their understanding of geometry and its relevance to their world. As students learn new concepts they are to keep a digital portfolio of images and objects relate concepts to real life. At the end of the year students will present their projects to the class. In order for me to evaluate this final project I have to learn to create advance power points with audio and video so I have enrolled in a work shop to help me become more proficient in creating and evaluating presentations.
Monitor: Periodically I will have students submit their portfolios and check for their understanding of the project and to be sure they are keeping up with the assignment. I will give additional suggestions and clarification as students ask for help.
Evaluate: I will ask the students to fill out a survey to see if they enjoyed the project better than the written test. As students learn geometry and add to their portfolio I am anxious to see their final presentation.






Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.




Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program 3. Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology (Part 1). [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.