Developing My Personal GAME Plan

Preparing students of today for the 21^st century workplace demands that the teacher be conversant with the use of technology to facilitate better understanding of content and the development of appropriate technology skills that are commensurate to the new inventions and developments in the workplace. The teacher should display an infectious enthusiasm and confidence towards the use of technology and know how to select the right technology tool which enables her to present the content, and the students to interact with the content (Laureate Education, Inc., 2012). 

Today’s children are well immersed in technology and kindled by it much more outside the classroom, as they are exposed to both digital and electronic devices which they use more at home than in school; thereby making home hours more interesting than school hours (Prensky, 2008). The reverse should actually be the case, hence the need to integrate technology into classroom activities so that students will catch the fun in learning and at the same time be prepared for the 21^st century workplace. 

In reading through the standards of National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) which are the indicators of the skills expected in a technology enriched learning environment, I discovered that there are some of the standards I am confident in because I have been practicing them in my pedagogy and there are some I am not confident in so I decided to use the GAME plan to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in two of the indicators.

Lesson Title:    Mathematics - Geometric Measurement

Grade Level:   3

GOALS

Content Standard:

Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition.

ISTE NETS-S

1.      Teachers develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.

2.      Teachers communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats (ISTE, 2008)

Instructional Objectives

·         To create a learning environment that is enriched with technology where students will be self directed learners as they incorporate the use of technology in their learning experience.

·         To make my class inclusive of all participants in the educational pursuit of my students, by communicating relevant information through the use of technology.

ACTION

•  I plan to equip the classrooms with more computers and this includes mine, so that we can have two students to a computer for the next academic session. In my class in particular, I will make sure all the computers are functioning well and that the internet connection is on because sometimes there is internet interruption in our country, Nigeria.

•  I will work on this lesson using the mathematics tool on my laptop that the students will for this lesson activity and make sure I am proficient in it before I introduce it to my students.
•  Then I will check out our class blog site to ensure that it is made accessible to all and inform parents ahead of time to watch out for a new post concerning this lesson activity.

• In grouping the class, I will first work with a whole class group as I show my students how to think independently and how technology can assist them in knowing how to transfer their knowledge of one mathematical concept to another.

•  I will encourage them to individually think about how the concept of multiplication can be applicable to area and how area can be divided into units of measurement that equals the addition of all the units.

• They will then make use of the Cambridge mathematics tool software installed on their computers to access rectangles and squares, so that they can make a choice of the measurements for the sides, divide the shapes into units and add all the units together. This activity will be totally self-directed because by now I would have left them to do this on their own since I had modeled it for them.

• I will divide the class into groups of fours and they will share their experiences with each other.

• I will write about our present class activity on our class blog site and tell my students to inform their parents at home so that they can read about what is going on in class so that they can also enable their children to do same at home.

MONITOR

·         I will move around to observe the children’s activity after which a representative from each of the groups will share a collective experience of the group with the class and this will help me know whether my actions in this lesson has worked well or not.

EVALUATE

• The main way I can evaluate myself is to take a look at my students’ finished work on the computers to assess their understanding of the concept and their ability to direct their learning by themselves.
•  I will expect to receive feedback from parents as well as students on this class activity.

References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for

teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/PDFs/NETS_for_Teachers_2008_EN.sflb.ashx

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Enriching Content Area Learning 

Experiences With Technology, Part 1. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1341773_1%26url%3D

Prensky, M. (2008). Turning on the lights. Educational Leadership, 65(6), 40-45