Revising Your GAME Plan

So here we are, another week at accomplishing our Goals and completing our GAME Plan. I must say that I feel great about my GAME Plan(s) and am prepared to continue them out to their completion and to start some new ones. Looking back over the
NETS-T standards/goals, I feel pretty confident in the other areas. I really feel that I meet those standards/goals and can appreciate them for what they are. The two that are in my current GAME Plan(s) I feel need my attention the most and I really need to keep working at them.

Some new developments have occurred over the past week or so. While I was away on Spring Break I had some time to go back to some home roots and really look into my family history. One of my goals is: I would like to collaborate with students, peers, parents and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. (NETS-T 3b)(International Society for Technology in Education, 2008). I started thinking about different ways my students could look into their family histories and how we could incorporate families and community members into this project. There is a TV show on NBC called 'Who Do You Think You Are'. I started with that title for a collaboration project. Students would interview family members about their family history. Get back stories, find names of people generations back. I looked at how much money I had left in my budget, and I have enough resources to be able to get my students an account with ancestry.com. I talked it over with my administrators and they were excited about it and really wanted to be a part of this adventure. So I said they could do this project with us too. A letter was sent home to parents asking if they would like to collaborate with their child on a family project. I have received a great amount of support and willingness to do this. Students are to research as much as possible through the use of family interviews, pictures, videos and with the help of ancestry.com. Students will then put together a multimedia presentation/project of everything they have found. I am really excited about this because it really will help to support and fulfill my goal.

I have learned that no matter what, learning is an ongoing process. You hear the term Professional Student or Lifelong Learner, and honestly that fits every single person. There is not a moment when we do not learn, I even find myself reflecting and learning as I sleep. In terms of setting new goals, I am going to stick with these goals, at least until the end of the school year. At that point, I am going to reflect on all the NETS-T standards and look at what ways I can improve on all of them. From there I will set some learning goals for the next school year. As I learn, I realize I need to lean on the shoulders of my colleagues, peers, and students. They really help me to look at all different aspects and to appreciate the information I have and do not have. Bouncing ideas and thoughts off one another help to open new views that I had not thought about before. Reflection has been a big part of these GAME Plans. I will continue to do that as I complete these goals and go on to other goals.

References
International Society for Technology in Education, Initials. (2008). Nets for teachers 2008. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx