Monitoring My GAME Plan Progress

I am making very poor progress at this point.  I am truly at a loss for where to look in order to find a way to make contact with others outside of my area.  I am thinking that even if I could find someone, I would be on such a short timeline to get a plan together and worked out that would be successful, it almost seems that it would be destined to fail.  One of the other large roadblocks for me is that the computers in our school have been subjected to an entire year of abuse and are barely functioning.  There is nothing I can do about this as our IT Department has made it clear that they are not interested in making repairs with only a few weeks remaining.  The usual backup plan is the computers in the library but these are being used over the next few weeks for research on a state mandated Classroom Based Assessment.  It appears that I have set my sights to high and dreamed to big in this case.  I am not sure where to go from here.  Do I scrap this plan and start from scratch?  Do I work over the summer in an attempt to pull this off next year (that doesn’t help me in this course)?  I know modification is necessary, I am just a little unsure as to how much modification.  I guess I should say a lot unsure.

My biggest question that I have for myself and for others at this point is about whether I should continue trying to make my original plan happen or should I shift gears (or completely back up and start over) and come up with an alternative solution.

This is very frustrating.

Carrying Out My GAME Plan

While I feel I have a pretty good idea of the things that I need to do, it is the specifics and where to find those answers that are what I am lacking.  If I had to narrow the resources down, I need reliable computers or laptops that my students can have access to.  One of the biggest issues we are trying to deal with in my school right now is the number of broken computers and laptops that we have in circulation that are leaving our students on a digital island.  Working with the computers is not enough, our internet needs to be able to access and stream information for my students at the same time as it is functioning for the rest of the school.  It would also be important to acquire some sort of webcam or camera that can be used as such.  I need to be able to find a website or resource that will allow me to reach out to another school in another part of the country where I can set up the opportunity for my students to interact.  I think that it is important have a conversation with others in my department and see if they have any input or opinion on this type of learning experience.

My needs are immense when it comes to the physical components and somewhat minor in the information sense.  I think the biggest obstacle is finding a resource that can link me with other high school teachers that are teaching a similar subject.  I am at a loss as to where to find this.  My other concern stems from something that is outside of my control.  Our district recently passed a very strict and restrictive policy on social interactions that take place with our students on the internet.  Since this policy has only been in place for a few months, it hasn’t really been tested in this manner and there might be a long process involved in creating an experience like this.  This will take a few conversations with administrators to determine feasibility.

I view many of these pieces as out of my control.  I have worked to determine if streaming these types of interactions is even possible.  It was great to find out that it is.  The laptop/computer component is something that I may not be able to resolve.  We are working with our IT department but it doesn’t look like it will be fixed this year.

If anyone knows where I can find a resource that can help me locate a “buddy” classroom, I would really appreciate hearing about it.

Developing A GAME Plan

The first NETS-T indicator that I want to work on is Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.  More specifically, I want to focus on the component that deals with collaborative learning in virtual environments and engaging students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.  My goal is to spend some time researching various avenues of connecting my students to others around the nation, locate a viable option and then implement a learning opportunity for my students.  It is also critical for me to find a way to make this happen on my campus as I am not sure that our current bandwidth can support such an environment.  This will require me to reach out to a teacher from another school in another part of the country and work collaboratively with them to develop a lesson that will be beneficial.  My hope is that we can create a valuable learning experience where our students can interact with each other in focusing on issues that are current and relevant.  I think the best way to monitor my own progress is to develop a checklist of the things that I need to do in order to be able to accomplish this goal and then work to check the boxes off until I have fulfilled all of the requirements.  I will also set a timeline so that this doesn’t become a never-ending project.  Once I have completed the steps and put together the learning experience for the students, I must implement it.  It is only after this implementation that I can look back upon what went well and what did not.  I can learn from what went right and what went wrong so that changes that need to be made can be brainstormed. 

I find this to be the best approach for learning and reflection on lessons that I teach.  Try it.  Enjoy the success of what went right.  Learn from and find a way to fix what went wrong. 

Reference

ISTE | NETS for Teachers 2008. (n.d.). International Society for Technology in Education | Home. Retrieved May 11, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx