Insight for Improvement

This week, I have gleaned new insight in regards to my GAME plan. If I were to create this GAME plan over again, I would connect with experts in my district. By collaborating with individuals that have a pulse on our districts’ technology capabilities, I would have saved a great deal of time. For instance, after investigating iMovie and taking time to learn from the experts at the Apple store, I found out that the district decided to discontinue use of all Apple hardware in the district. Consequently, I was informed the Apple laptop I was using for the iPods would be replaced with a PC. I no longer have access to the iMovie software at school. Obviously, it would have been advantageous to have been aware of this before pursuing my GAME plan. A better approach would have been to communicate my GAME plan with a district technology resource and ensure my plan could be supported by the district.

In the future, I would focus on researching how to use the video/camera software supported by the district. I would practice implementing it with students and having the technology resources help me trouble shoot its initial usage. This would impact students learning, as they would be able to implement these digital tools to further develop their twenty-first century skills. In addition, I would strongly consider utilizing digital storytelling and would focus on the integration of these two digital tools.

What I concluded at the end of my GAME plan would have been beneficial to know initially. Certainly, I learned the hard way. My students, unfortunately, did not benefit as I had originally hoped through out this process. However, from the information I learned in this class, my future GAME plan is promising with the use of digital story telling and PBL. All in all, despite the setbacks, the process of the GAME plan is beneficial and one that I would select to use for student growth and my own professional growth.

For professional growth, I could also see the GAME plan being a powerful tool. Teachers could individually, or with a group, form a GAME plan for the year. This would allow teachers to focus on areas in which they are interested in improving, or need to improve, versus thinking all teachers need to learn the same information. This would also be a way to hold teachers accountable for their progress. What better way to model the importance of differentiation than for districts to expect educators implement it in their classroom as well as their own journey of life-long learning.