Personal Game Plan

After reviewing the National Education Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T /2008) provided by the International Society for Technology in Education website I began to feel very confident that my GAME plan was directly in line with some of the standards. The GAME plan that I have created for myself coincides with my personal goals and my current teaching position. In investigating the standards I felt pretty confident that many of my short term and long term goals laid beneath the umbrella of the coverage of the standards.

The three standards that I found most of my goals to be related to were standards number 1, 3, and 4. Standard 1 describes an educators ability/intent to facilitate and inspire student learning. Standard 2 sets for objectives for educators to model digital-age work and learning. While Standard 3 focuses on the continual professional growth and development within educators, themselves. These three standards relate closely to my six goals listed below. With these goals intact I hope that I promote a digital-age classroom that prepares the 21st century learner for their future into the digital society that we all are becoming accompanied to.

GOALS:
1. I hope to promote creative and innovative thinking in my classroom by providing an atmosphere that motivates students with disabilities through the use of technology.
2. In the future I would like to teach a section of "life skills" to my students of special needs through the use of technology. (Example: Virtual Reality/Role Playing)
3. Being a special education teacher, I would like to continue to increase my parent to educator interaction by finding a way to communicate more efficiently through technology to report student progress.
4. I hope to increase the percent the rate of student success in the online credit recovery by the gaining of credits, in which, will cause an increase in our schools graduation percentage.
5. I hope to continue to explore, investigate, and communicate with my peers, colleagues, and mentors to find new strategies and methods through to use of technology to promote student success.
6. Complete the final requirements to gain a Master's in Integrating Technology into the Classroom.

Monitoring these goals should be easily done due to the fact they coincide with my personal goals and career goals already intact. Collecting data on graduation rates, successful gaining of credits for my students, observations of students and the work they accomplish, and tracking parent contact and involvement will all be items that will be included in the evaluation process.

How will I extend my learning? Well, one thing that I would like to continue to do, is sign up for as many professional development seminars, that my district offers. These seminars offered are usually free, innovative, and hands-on. Also, I hope to finish my Master's in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. Finally, I hope to continue to evaluate the data that is collected from my classroom, which is focused on technology, to adjust my teaching style to my student's learning style. Dr. Peggy Ertmer states it best that in order to enrich your content with technology you must be knowledgeable, confident, believe in yourself, and be supportive (Laureate 2009).

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). EDUC 6713I-1 Integrating Technology Across Content Areas. [DVD]. Enriching Content Area Learning Experiences with Technology Part II. Baltimore, MD. Dr. Peggy Ertmer