Third review of my GAME plan

I realized the other day when reading the two objectives which I want to work towards that I had not blogged on how I would model creativity and innovative thinking. I went to our text for the course and looked up what it meant to model creativity and innovative thinking. According to our text there are six types of creative thinking and I am going to make divergent creative thinking part of my game plan. This means my students will take a point and move outward to a variety of perspectives (Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P., 2009). Later this school year I am planning on doing a lesson on the Gulf Oil Spill. As part of the lesson I want to provide them with the question of “How do you think the environment will be affected by the Gulf Oil Spill”? I would have the students use the websites which I am currently collecting and research how the area is affected already and also research other oil spills and the results of those. I still need to locate all my websites but I have obtained several of them and put them in an online bookmarking site so that they are accessible where ever I am. I have discovered several websites for science, government, and news. I made folders on the bookmarking page which helped me to keep them organized. I still need to go through the government websites to see who deals with environmental issues with in our local, state and federal government. I want to be prepared so if an environmental issue comes up in the city I work in then my students can get involved in learning about the issue and decided if there is something they can do about it.

One area I am going to have to modify temporarily is my professional development on technology due to my work and school load. I will not be able to attend the Podcast professional development. I am hoping they will offer it again but until then I will try and work with it some more. I do know our media center does have microphones and they have used podcasting before, so I will check with them.


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.

Continuing My GAME Plan

As I continue on with my GAME plan I need to develop a list of websites which have current event information. Some of these websites will be news websites on a local, state and national level. Other websites I will add to my list are science and environmental websites such as NASA and EPA. I currently have these websites bookmarked on my computer in my classroom and at home but I need to have them on a flash drive so they are with me where ever I am. Another step I need to take is to locate the names of people involved with our local and state government who deal with environmental issues. I know I can locate some of them on our county website but I need to find other sites where I can find the information I need. The third thing I need to do is to become more familiar with presentation tools such as podcasts or video streaming. I am currently enrolled in a professional development class about podcasting. I have used podcasting once but am not really comfortable with using it with my class until I have more training so I am looking forward to this class. Anytime there is a professional development class dealing with technology in our school district I try to take it because the more proficient I am with multiple media modalities the more helpful it will be for my students.

My Game Plan

New technology is constantly being developed and it is my job as a teacher to learn what is out there and how I can incorporate it into my classroom. In the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers there are some specific goals which I would like to concentrate on in order to use technology as an efficient teaching tool (National Education Standards for Teachers, 2008). Two goals I have established for myself is to promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness and engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems (National Education Standards for Teachers).
One way I will achieve these goals is by exploring different issues which pertain to my students on a local or national level. There are different websites locally which I could obtain information from such as local politicians and environmental scientists in our area. I also need to be up to date with the environmental issues which are occurring today. This can be done by monitoring news websites as well and what is being communicated on television. I want my students to know about their community and nation and develop ways in which they could become affective caretakers of it.
I will monitor myself by keeping a log of what websites I have visited and if they are reliable resources of information. If they are not then I need to keep navigating the internet for more sites. I need to question myself to see if these websites would be user friendly for my students. If they are not then they would not be a beneficial teaching tool for me to use. I need to constantly be aware if I am meeting my learning goals. If not then I must modify them and decide what I should do differently (Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P., 2009). I feel one way of keeping track of myself is by either blogging or keeping a journal of my goals and research. This way I can go back and evaluate myself in order to become a better teacher and researcher.

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.

National Education Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) located at
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/
2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf