Blog Reflection

As a teacher, I’m not new at setting goals for myself. Whether taking classes, developing my teaching skills, or working on life skills, I am no stranger to developing goals that will increase my knowledge and abilities. But with my hectic life and busy schedule, I haven’t always had the time or chance to carry out my goals. Many have fallen to the wayside, with the intent of coming back to them later. But we all know how new things arise and we don’t always revisit our goals, despite our best attempts. By using the GAME plan model, I feel as though I found a system that helps me keep up with my goals, and I look forward to using this model in the classroom.

The easiest part of the GAME plan is setting the goal. Like I said, I’ve done that enough in the past to know how to set a good goal. Yet, as I said, goals aren’t always realized for a lot of different reasons. In this course, I learned that goals are never set in stone and that revision is absolutely vital. As I worked to take action on my goals, I figured out that my goals weren’t easily achievable over summer vacation, and while I did attempt to take action towards meeting my goals, it was really the monitoring and evaluating steps that proved most valuable. As I learned this in this course, I really came to see how important it is to teach this process to my students. Students need to understand that they aren’t trapped in their goals. Vicki Davis tells us that using the GAME plan model can help students evaluate the process of learning and document their progression as they become self-directed learners (Laureate, 2009). What I think the GAME plan model really allows for is for both the teacher and the students to learn creative and critical thinking skills in a way that is automatic and instantaneous. If students are constantly making goals, taking action, monitoring, and evaluating their learning, critical thinking will be “infused in content and used in context” in a way that leads to truly meaningful learning (Laureate, 2009).

An immediate adjustment I plan to make is to keep the NETS-S and NETS-T in mind when creating and carrying out lessons in my classroom. Of course, much of this course has been based on integrating those standards into lessons, and the GAME plan model lends itself perfectly to developing technology skills in the classroom. Another adjustment I hope to make in my classroom is to use some of the tools presented to us in this course to turn my students into self-directed learners. Whether I use problem-based learning, online collaboration, or digital storytelling, my students will learn higher order thinking skills and discover how they learn best. With so many options available to present knowledge, I must give my students the opportunity to “show off their strengths” in unique and exciting ways (Laureate, 2009). I’ve created many hypothetical lessons in both my undergrad and graduate careers, but the unit plan created in the course is one I plan to actually carry out. I think this course has been incredibly useful in my professional development and I look forward to taking what I’ve learned to my students and create the kinds of learners needed to run our global society.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Programs 1-10. [Motion picture]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore: Author.