My Game Plan

After reviewing the NETS_T standards on the International Society for Technology in Education website, I feel that two areas in which I have made considerable progress over the past few years have been are Model Digital Age Work and Learning, and Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility. With my peers, with parents, and with teachers I communicate frequently via email; with my students I communicate both via email when not in the classroom and through classroom blogs.For me, teaching digital responsibility and safety is crucial, so it is the first item on the agenda when I have embarked with students on inquiry and problem-solving projects; I have also attempted collaborations with teachers and students in other classrooms, although I would still like to achieve more in terms of true global collaboration.

Two areas in which I know I need further development and a higher sense of self-confidence are 1) Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity and 2)Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.

In terms of goal setting for the first area,g, my goals are to enable students to work together collaboratively to work on solutions to real-world problems, to consistently engage students in reflective assessments of their own work, and to provide opportunities for students and me to collaborate with colleagues, professionals, and other members of the community both in virtual and face-to-face situations, in order to explore possible, innovative solutions to these problems.

To achieve these goals, the actions I will take are to develop effective strategies for collaborative learning among groups of students, so that communication among them will be authentic and safe, and students will become self-directed learners, with the sound understanding of my role as facilitator and guide.Students need to know that their attempts at creativity will not be thwarted, and at the same time they need to be guided so that eventually their creative efforts will be productive. I also need to expand my circle of online collaborators, and develop more relationships with parents and others who can be invited to speak with my students as the need and opportunities arise.

Formative assessments are an essential part of the monitoring process, as are continuous adjustments to my instructional strategies and continuous adjustments on the part of students to the way they learn and process information. Observing students' response to learning situations I will assess whether my strategies have been effective, or whether i need to re-teach, making the necessary adjustments so that students will learn the targeted content.

Evaluation of my instructional strategies and style is an important part of my professional growth. By assessing whether students have met the learning goals set for them, I can determine what new path to pursue if there are gaps in student achievement. By gaining informal feedback from students and through reflective observation, I can also determine if the assessment or the goals need to be modified.

The second area in which I want to become more confident and proficient is that of engagement in professional growth and leadership. My goals in this respect are to convince my department and others in my school that technology integration is not only important and more engaging for the students, it is also necessary, and to promote the use of electronic whiteboards not only as an extension of the traditional role of disseminating information, but also as interactive tools that assist the growth of students as self-directed learners.

Actions I will take are to continue and accelerate my recently started initiative of posting technology tips and tools on the language arts shared email board, and to share and demonstrate gains made through technology in my classroom, such as the use of blogs,and multimedia and collaborative projects.I also will keep abreast of the latest ideas, software and online tools by participating in blogs and forums with other professionals in education.I would like to see tools like Voice Thread become available in my district, where they are currently blocked.this means deliberate advocacy on my part, and participation in negotiations with district technology experts.

I will monitor my progress in this area by asking my peers for feedback to presentations and shared projects. I will also incorporate new learning into my lesson plans and curriculum, and evaluate whether new tools and initiatives are working in my classroom. Students are an excellent barometer for whether new ideas are successful or not; there are also different ways of implementing the same digital tools that work for different groups of students. In this pioneering age, much of this can be learned through experimentation prior to presenting them in the classroom, and through trial and error with the students.


References:

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.

[R01] Three basic principles. (n.d.). HKU Philosophy. Retrieved January 13, 2011, from http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/creative/creative.php