Monitoring My GAME Plan

            Looking back on the previous two weeks, I actually feel like I have made some significant progress on one of my GAME plan goals while the second GAME plan goal has remained somewhat stagnant.

            My first goal of trying to incorporate more project-based learning activities and assessments in my classroom has been fairly easy to pursue.  I have found a great deal of resources concerning project and problem-based learning from websites, educational journals, and advice from colleagues.  For this particular part of my GAME plan, I feel like I am right on track when it comes to taking action.  I have already incorporated several project-based activities in the last few weeks and while monitoring the learning of the students, I have come to the conclusion that these activities are worthwhile and meaningful.  Probably the most important thing I have learned so far concerning project-based learning is the fact that it cannot and will not fit into every single subject or content area.  Rather than forcing a project-based activity on students for the sake of just doing it, I have looked for other ways to tackle some other content in my Economics classes.  The biggest question I have concerning this part of my GAME plan is how many projects or problem-based learning activities do my colleagues use for their classrooms?

            The second goal of trying to increase parent and student communication through technology has no progressed as quickly as I had hoped.  This is despite finding some good resources through research and colleagues, such as Edmodo and Class Parrot.  Because this goal has progressed slower, I think I need to modify how quickly my plan will move forward.  At first I thought transitioning into instant digital communication would be easy.   I found out that even parents who do have computers and internet available do not always know how to use all the digital technology for communication purposes.  This does not mean I will give up on digital communication but rather I will be more patient and sparing in using computer technology.  I am going to try to work on getting parent cell phones linked up to a system like Class Parrot because I know for a fact that more parents and their children have cellular devices than computers and this may be the bridge I need to carry some parents into the digital communication arena.  For sure I have learned that even though technology is all around us in society, not all people can use it effectively and that can be frustrating.  If I keep being patient and use a combination of different communication tools, then I can still reach the goal of increasing parent communication with some use of technology support.  My question for my colleagues on this goal would be “what other communicative technologies do you use to help increase your parent, student, and teacher communication?”  Overall, I think that I am making some good strides in my GAME plan and I will continue to work toward achieving my goals so that student learning and communication improve.

 

 

Some resources I have discovered for my goals for both project-based learning and communication”

http://www.udel.edu/inst/-  Project-based learning

http://pbl-online.org/-  Project-based learning

https://www.remind101.com/-  parent/student communication

http://classparrot.com/-  parent/student communication