Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress

Two weeks ago I began developing my GAME plan. GAME is an acronym for set Goals, take Action, Monitor, and Evaluate and extend, and is used to assist in self-directed learning (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009). The first goal I set was to create a classroom website that will be used to provide information to students, families, and the community, and a place where students can publish their work. My second goal is to introduce and show my colleagues what technology can do for them in the classroom. This week I am monitoring my progress on these goals.

I have spent some time looking for the information and resources I need and have found a lot of helpful information on creating a quality classroom website. Two of these resources are located at http://k6educators.about.com/c/ht/00/07/How_Classroom_Web_Site0963767121.htm and http://hubpages.com/hub/10-Tips-for-an-A-Plus-Classroom-Website. The tips they offer have been helpful. The information that I am still having difficulty obtaining is from my own school district which seems to have put a hold on my request for permission to place school information on my website until after the holiday vacation. I have also been gathering information to provide to my colleagues on the benefits of technology in the classroom. After reviewing effective assessments using technology this week in class I knew some of my colleagues might be interested in learning more about it. Ross noted that assessing with technology provides flexible options for testing student content learning (Laureate Education INC., 2009). Last year I began building digital portfolios with my students. This morning I had the opportunity to share examples of these portfolios with a few of my colleagues. The information located at http://electronicportfolios.org/handbook/index.html was extremely helpful in talking about the process of using electronic portfolios and how to get started. I think I have at least one of my colleagues interested in using something similar with her students and I will be talking more about it with her next week. Does anyone else have additional information or resources that I might find helpful in this area?

At this point I do not feel like I will need to modify my GAME plan, other than to reflect a more realistic time table for development of my classroom website. I have a general idea of website design and links to helpful resources I seem to be at the mercy of my school district on moving forward. Does anyone have any helpful suggestions on this? I am beginning to think I should build the page using software and then try to move it to a site when I get the okay. The problem is that I am unsure what I will get the okay to put in the website. Hopefully I will find out early next week.

So far I have learned to keep up with my goals. With my busy schedule it can be easy to put these goals on the “back burner” and forget to go back to them later. I have asked one of my colleagues at school to help me with this by asking me each day where I am on carrying out my GAME plan.

The new question that arose from this monitoring of my GAME plan is if my time table is still doable for my website. I wanted to have it running by the end of the blogging assignments. I hope to be able to move ahead as soon as possible this next week.

As always, I welcome thoughts, comments, and suggestions on my blog.

Shannon Eno

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Program seven. Assessing Student Learning with Technology [Motion picture]. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.