The task at hand was to integrate the National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators into elementary physical education. When setting a goal to strengthen my confidence and proficiency in at least two indicators in the NETS-T I chose 3b and 3c. NETS-T 3b: collaborating with students, peer, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. NETS-T 3c: communicating relevant information and idea effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.
GAME Plan:
Set Goals: My goal is to create and maintain a website that will effectively aid me in communicating information and ideas about physical education, health, and fitness to students, parents, and other interested readers. For this goal to be achieved, my website needs to be consistent and have appropriate information, without being too cluttered from text or images (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009. p.64).
Take Action: The actions I will take to achieve my goals is to have class announcements, calendar of events, classroom project and assignment rubrics, physical education and health links, and a link to my classroom blog.
Monitor: I will monitor my website progress by keeping a journal of the feedback and blog postings from students, parents, and other readers. “Students and parents may need guidance on what and how to post” (Cennamo, et al., 2009. p.74). I will need to make sure I teach the students how to use the website and blog appropriately. I will also need to make sure that I send home information on the website and its use to the parents, and possibly offer a training session if needed. I will also need to make sure that I have the website set up so I have approve or possibly reject any postings before they can be seen by others.
Evaluate and Extend: I will evaluate and extend my learning by journaling. I will use my journal to track the progress of learning. I will also provide questionnaires to the students, parents, and other readers through the website. I will use the questionnaires to provide feedback and help me improve the website. “It’s amazing how much a learning environment can change when technology is added to the mix” (Cennamo, et al., 2009. p.51). With the use of my GAME Plan I will be able to better knowledge of physical education, health, and fitness to those around the community.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National education standards for teachers (NETS-T). Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers
Lifelong PE 
Shelly
Kelsey,
I think that it is wonderful that as a PE teacher you are incorporating technology communication with your parents and students. Technology is so much a part of our world that it is vital that we learn to use technology that benefits everyone that we come into contact with at our school. I love your Goal of making a blog that shares diet and fitness information with parents and students. Would you have a section containing videos with fun exercises that students may do at home with their parents so that the entire family is being active and trying to become healthy?
I teach at a Title I school which means that over 50% of our students are receiving free or reduced meals. If you were teaching at my school how would you ensure that parents and students are receiving information that you are sharing through a blog? As well, how would you communicate with parents whose primary language is not English? I am interested in your thought about this as I had a parent whose primary language was Spanish and actually had to have an interpreter available at parent-teacher conferences and also had to have classroom notes and permission slips translated. This made communication very difficult.
I think your GAME plan for developing your weaker standards looks great!!
Shelly
kelseygillen
Shelly,
I do plan on having a section containing videos with fun exerciss that the students could do at home with their parents. I thought it would be a fun project for the students to make some of these kinds of exercise videos, that we could post on our class website.
If I were teaching at your school I would make sure I was also sending some of this information home with the students as well as posting it on the blog, too many people take their health for granted. I want to make sure people realize that you can still eat healthy, even on a budget!
I personally taught at migrant school for 9 years, so I have a lot of experience where the parents have difficulty with communication, because of a language barrier. However, our school has two staffed interpreters so I would have them aid me in interpreting my letters and other information to be sent home.
Kelsey
Betty Smazenko
Kelsey,
I think you are well on your way in developing a personal technology GAME plan. I too think it is great you are able to incorporate technology into your physical education classes. Communication with parents and the community is very important for an educator, and it also demonstrates our desire to have them involved. In an ideal world, each student would have access to the internet on a regular basis.
As with all of the other tasks a teacher has, this takes time. Make sure you do not over-task yourself so you do not feel overwhelmed. In my blog, I found it very time consuming to allow the comments as they came in. What I did, I gave very strict instructions that I will be reading all comments and if there would anything inappropriate they would be immediately removed from the blog.
Good luck Kelsey.
Betty Smazenko
kelseygillen
Betty,
Thank you for the advice!
Kelsey
Kara Geiger
Kelsey,
I LOVE your idea about including videos with students doing various exercises. I can imagine students getting really excited about seeing themselves (and/or their friends) on the internet and want to share this with their parents, siblings, etc. This is a great way to also encourage physical activity outside of the classroom. My one concern is about ensuring confidentiality online. I imagine you would have parents sign a permission for their student to be featured on the web-site? How would you include someone who’s parents do not want them to be featured in this project?
Great ideas, thanks for sharing!
Kara
kelseygillen
Kara,
Yes I would have permission slips. If I have students who do not get permission from there parents, I will put them in a group(s) together and then I could make a DVD for them to take home or see if their parents would allow them to to be in a video that I could post with password only viewing.
Kelsey