Evaluation of GAME Plan

The actions I have taken in my GAME plan have been very beneficial. The research I have done and questions I have asked of colleagues has helped me to begin writing my plagiarism policy. I feel that what I have found is going to be beneficial to both my students and myself in the upcoming school year. I have also found many WebQuests and other lessons that will correlate with our curriculum and help the students to further their understanding.

One of the things that I have learned is that it is important to teach my 5th graders about plagiarism from the very beginning of the school year. Over the past couple of years, I have waited until about half-way through the school year to teach plagiarism, but I have found that it will be more beneficial to teach it at the very beginning of the year. It will help the students then throughout the year.

I am still trying to balance the lessons I find. There are so many great lessons and WebQuests that correlate with our curriculum, but I need to balance them and spread them out among each of the content areas so their is a mix of learning going on.

So far, my plan is still fitting my current needs, so I not need to adjust anything yet.

Monitoring my GAME Plan

I have been able to find valuable information in order to help my carry out my GAME plan. The Internet has helped provide me with information about plagiarism, and I have found websites that have helped me with finding WebQuests and other projects for the students. I have found many great things for science/health and have now found some for social studies. I am currently working on finding projects for math and communication arts. As of now, I do not need to modify my GAME plan, as I have not run into any issues or concerns yet. I have not had any new questions arise, other than just wanting ideas about how to teach plagiarism. I am still finding this to be my hardest part.

Carrying out my GAME Plan

In order to carry out my action plan, I am going to need a few resources. First, I am going to need a computer with internet access. I will need to be able to research online different ideas that other people have created. I am also going to be talking to my colleagues to find ideas that they have developed. Using both the internet and my colleagues, I should be able to find enough information to develop real-world activities and develop a plagiarism policy.

I have already found a few WebQuests that use real-world ideas and problem solving. The WebQuests I have found so far all relate to science/health. I still need to research some ideas for math, social studies, and communication arts. I have also started researching how to teach plagiarism to elementary students, specifically fifth graders. This will help me to get started on my plagiarism policy.

Personal GAME Plan

On the International Society for Technology in Education (www.iste.org), I researched the NET standards for teaching technology. As I researched the standards, I found a couple of indicators that I feel I could use more work on. The two indicators are:

*Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity: engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.

*Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility: advocate, model and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright.

I am going to set goals in order to strengthen my understanding and ability in these indicators. My first goal is to create more authentic learning activities that allow for real-world application and problem solving. My second goal is to create a plagiarism policy to help better teach students about plagiarism.

In order to achieve these goals, I am going to research different WebQuests and lesson plans that allow for real-world application and problem solving. I will then plan these lessons in order to correlate with the content areas that I teach. I also plan to research plagiarism policies and ask colleagues about their plagiarism policies. I will then create and implement a plagiarism policy for my students.

I will monitor my progress for these goals by setting a timeline. I plan to complete my research for both goals before the first day of school. This will allow me to immediately begin teaching using enriching lessons and allow me to implement a plagiarism policy.

I will evaluate my learning by determining how effect my teaching is and the plagiarism policy that I implement. I will reflect after lessons and ask for student input. I will also continue to research effective lessons and revise my plagiarism policy as needed.