*Monitoring my GAME Plan Progress*

I have made some progress in beginning to achieve my goals of connecting with teachers/students in other countries and updating my knowledge on formative and summative assessments using technology.

So far I have had luck in finding resources and information. I'll start with my goal of connecting with other countries. I have been able to contact some Ilex workers at my school, one who lives in the Netherlands. She said she would be happy to help. (Ilex, again, is an international learning exchange program.) People from other countries come to our school to work for a period of time. Usually, they work in a related field back home. I am looking to converse more with the Ilex individuals I have met and see what more I can find out about learning and technology in other countries. I have also been using my social bookmarking site to keep track of different websites and organizations that will be helpful in making and maintaining my connections. I am really excited about one application that I have actually found on Facebook! It is called, "I Am Teacher." It is an application used to connect with teachers from around the world. (http://apps.facebook.com/iamteacher/home) You can click on teachers finding teachers and select what areas you teach and where you are interested in searching for other teachers to connect with. I don't think all aspects of the application are working correctly right now, but there are still ways to message other teachers, which I have began doing. I contacted a teacher in Indonesia and am awaiting a response. I have also found a Twitter page where teachers share ideas. (http://twitter.com/WeAreTeachers) I haven't had any experience with Twitter before now, but have heard a lot about it. I think I will look into these Facebook and Twitter options for connecting more thoroughly because I think they are good sources that would give me live updates and make it easy to connect with others. I had also stated that I was going to look more into ePals, which I did and found a way to connect to teachers on there. (http://www.epals.com/forums/t/27975.aspx) There are many other teachers that have the desire to learn with teachers from around the world and I will contact some of them. ePals can also be used for making student classroom connections. Unfortunately, I cannot experiment with that now because I do not have a classroom of my own. Something else I have looked into is Skype connections with other classrooms. (http://theedublogger.com/want-to-connect-with-other-classrooms/) There are different countries that you can click on to find classrooms. What I have learned from searching so far is that you just need to push yourself to go out and do it. Don't be afraid to message other teachers because chances are they want to connect with you too.

I haven't had as much excitement with my second goal of learning more about assessments and technology combined. I did learn a lot through our class resources this week, especially Chapter 6. I was able to read about the different types of assessments and how technology can be used with them. Technology can also make collecting, analyzing and reporting data more organized and efficient. Recently, we just finished testing our students using the PEP-3. (Psychoeducational Profile: Third Edition). These tests do not involve computers or technology, but I found out there are computerized test options. There are CD's available that can be used to administer, score tests, and print out results. I need to work more on this goal. I might also be able to connect it with my other one and ask teachers from other areas how they assess their students with and without technology integration. Has anyone used an electronic grade book? The web site (www.orbissoft.com) allows a demonstration version to try.

I don't feel I need to modify my action plan at this time. I am just going to continue to make connections and ask questions. I will be recording my progress here on this blog.