GAME Plan Progress

So far, I am pleased with my progress in carrying each of the goals in my GAME Plan. Although it’s an interesting time of the year to be working towards goals, since the school year is winding down, I still believe I am making positive steps toward achieving my goals. My goals are:

1)      Develop more personalized learning activities to address the needs and interests of various types of learners.

2)      Use technology more effectively to communicate with parents and students next school year.

At my last grade-level department meeting, I introduced the idea of developing more personalized learning activities for various types of learners throughout the school year next year. We discussed possible ideas for activities that might be appropriate for various units, and also agreed to bring any books we might have with helpful ideas to our next meeting. I feel that the best way to approach introducing more personalized learning activities is to tackle one unit at a time. It is overwhelming for me to think about how to differentiate for every single unit throughout the school year, but if I make it a goal to only differentiate for my unit on Ancient India, for example, that seems to be a more manageable and attainable goal.

I am very eager to begin work on my goal of using technology to communicate more effectively with parents and students. My team for next year is scheduled to meet within the next couple of weeks to begin working on our team goals. I have already let my colleagues know that further use of technology for communication is one of my goals. Many of my other team members are proponents of technology use as well, and they are eager to pursue this goal along with me. So far, I have spoken with other teachers who have websites or communicate with parents through e-mail newsletters to garner some feedback. Hearing what they like and also what they might do differently in the future has been helpful to me so far. Just like my first goal, though, I feel I need to approach one thing at a time. I may become overwhelmed if I try to communicate with parents and/or students via both a website and e-mail newsletters. Therefore, my plan for now is to focus on creating a website. Once I feel comfortable with that, then I can move forward and explore other ways of communicating with parents and students using technology.