Setting up a GAME plan for a more technology filled classroom.

     This week for my current course on integrating technology to teach content, I was shown the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers, or the NETS-T.  These offered up a framework for how the classroom should look, and what teachers should be offering, as schools move forward in updating classroom tools and better preparing students for both education and the workforce outside of a k-12 school system.  These included things such as preparing students by showing them proper online etiquette, modeling ethical use of technology and digital information, and using the technology to facilitate creativity.

Goals

 There were some points of the NETS-T where I feel like I could be a better educator and facilitator for my students.  One that initially popped out to me was number three that points out that I should “Model Digital Age Work as well as Learning.”  Now, in my own building, I feel like I do a better job than many of the other educators at this.  This may be because I am one of the youngest teachers in the district and that I am more comfortable with it.  But I know that I could do a better job than I currently am.  I don’t take advantage of the technological resources that we have at our disposal.  The students could be doing more with their everyday tasks on those resources.  Another area where the NETS-T points to where I could do better is where it states that teachers need to “Design and Develop Digital Age Learning Experiences and Assessments.”  Specifically, I’d like to create learning experiences that focus on the content, but also base it around strong use of technology. 

Actions

To make myself become more proficient in these areas, I am going to make sure that I focus some extra time to these areas each week.  At the end of each day and in the mornings before school, I typically find myself with some extra time.  My first action is to set aside about thirty minutes to an hour each week for working on injecting more use of technology into my lesson plans.  I will spend that time working with MOODLE and other online resources and use them to set up a more technology based learning experience. 

Another action I plan on taking towards bettering myself as an educator in the way of technology is that I plan on attending a professional development course on how to make better use of the MOODLE web based learning tool.  I had a brief crash course in the program from our district IT department, but I think with some more learning and with a new group of people, I can get more ideas on how to best use it to optimize student learning.

Monitor

To monitor my progress throughout the process, I will set up checkpoints at the end of each month.  On the last day of each month I will put a star in my plan book so I remember to look back at the prior month’s lesson plans to ask myself if I made progress in my goals.  Have I been injecting more useful technological tools into my lessons?  Have I done all that I can to best teach both the content and foster strong use of tech tools?  Have I used them to develop relevant learning experiences?  Are my students more fluent in their tech usage?  I can ask myself these questions and reflect upon them in my lesson plan books as I move forward.

Evaluate

In the end, I will be able to look back upon my monthly reflections to see if I have achieved my goals of improvement in the NETS-T areas.  Should I not reach those goals, it will give me a good starting point in restructuring those goals in moving forward for the upcoming summer and eventual school year.

NETS-T Standards - http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

Mike