Sunday, March 27, 2011
Dr. Abernathy web confernce
During the web confernce we discussed technology in the classroom and how it can be used. We shared ideas with other collegues about how each one uses technology. Dr. Abernathy informed us about Web 2.0, Wiki Blogs, Goolge Docs, ETC. It was very helpful information and a great idea to share our ideas with one another. I believe a lot of peoples concerns were that many schools block blog sites and others that would be helpful to the teachers and to the students. Some districts allow You Tube and some do not. The alternative that we can use is Teacher Tube. There are many resources out on the web that would be benifial to our students and staff.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Week 4
Roles and Responsibilities:
• Superintendent: ensures highly qualified staff for employment. Oversees the entire district. Keeps budgets in order.
• Assistant Superintendent: ensures funding for curriculum and technology initiatives.
• Curriculum Coordinator: ensures required TEKS for instruction and technology are integrated into curriculum.
• Principal: coordinates with Instructional Technology Coordinator to provide proper equipment; provides evaluation of technology usage in the classroom as part of PDAS; ensures integration of technology into weekly lesson plans.
• Instructional Technology Coordinator: organizes and evaluates STaR Chart ; develops technology inservice training; available for day to day instructional support; completes ERATE Grant.
• Campus Technology Representative: available for day to day support; assists with STaR Chart; assists with major inservice days
• Teachers: teach state required TEKS and curriculum; integrate problem solving skills into technology; observe and evaluate student progress.
Professional Development Action Plan
Skills and needs to be addressed with professional development:
• Teachers will be trained on new equipment such as:
Interactive Whiteboards
Document cameras
Interactive Wireless Tablets
Ceiling Mounted Projectors
• Professional Developments will be done in smaller groups in more of instead of larger sessions for better implementation of instruction.
• Continuing professional development and training will be provided to ensure teachers have the training needed to implement technology in the classroom.
Gathering and Analysis of Data:
• Utilize STaR Chart to address areas and offer training to teachers to benefit teachers to engage students.
• Inform teachers on the importance of the STaR Chart and the need to provide and accurate information
• Provide a comprehensive evaluation after each professional development to provide an opportunity for teachers to make suggestions for future sessions.
• Review evaluations at the end of each professional development and determine what methods or subjects are beneficial to teachers.
Integration of Technology
• Technology will be implemented according to the campus and district improvement plans, the local and state technology plans.
• Teachers will use the training learned in professional development to instruct students according to the TEKS aligned curriculum.
• Teachers will implement technology in the classroom.
• Students will have access to and use technology in the classroom to complete assignments and projects.
Evaluation Plan
• Teachers will be required to complete professional development evaluation sheets.
• Teachers will be allowed to ask questions at the end of the session.
• Professional development will be focused on what teachers want to learn and what teachers want to focus on.
• Teachers will continue to learn through ongoing professional development.
• Students will be evaluated to insure that the technology TEKS required are being met.
• Superintendent: ensures highly qualified staff for employment. Oversees the entire district. Keeps budgets in order.
• Assistant Superintendent: ensures funding for curriculum and technology initiatives.
• Curriculum Coordinator: ensures required TEKS for instruction and technology are integrated into curriculum.
• Principal: coordinates with Instructional Technology Coordinator to provide proper equipment; provides evaluation of technology usage in the classroom as part of PDAS; ensures integration of technology into weekly lesson plans.
• Instructional Technology Coordinator: organizes and evaluates STaR Chart ; develops technology inservice training; available for day to day instructional support; completes ERATE Grant.
• Campus Technology Representative: available for day to day support; assists with STaR Chart; assists with major inservice days
• Teachers: teach state required TEKS and curriculum; integrate problem solving skills into technology; observe and evaluate student progress.
Professional Development Action Plan
Skills and needs to be addressed with professional development:
• Teachers will be trained on new equipment such as:
Interactive Whiteboards
Document cameras
Interactive Wireless Tablets
Ceiling Mounted Projectors
• Professional Developments will be done in smaller groups in more of instead of larger sessions for better implementation of instruction.
• Continuing professional development and training will be provided to ensure teachers have the training needed to implement technology in the classroom.
Gathering and Analysis of Data:
• Utilize STaR Chart to address areas and offer training to teachers to benefit teachers to engage students.
• Inform teachers on the importance of the STaR Chart and the need to provide and accurate information
• Provide a comprehensive evaluation after each professional development to provide an opportunity for teachers to make suggestions for future sessions.
• Review evaluations at the end of each professional development and determine what methods or subjects are beneficial to teachers.
Integration of Technology
• Technology will be implemented according to the campus and district improvement plans, the local and state technology plans.
• Teachers will use the training learned in professional development to instruct students according to the TEKS aligned curriculum.
• Teachers will implement technology in the classroom.
• Students will have access to and use technology in the classroom to complete assignments and projects.
Evaluation Plan
• Teachers will be required to complete professional development evaluation sheets.
• Teachers will be allowed to ask questions at the end of the session.
• Professional development will be focused on what teachers want to learn and what teachers want to focus on.
• Teachers will continue to learn through ongoing professional development.
• Students will be evaluated to insure that the technology TEKS required are being met.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Texas STaR Chart Power Point
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Blog powerpoint
View more presentations from tennessee_broncos.
Blog # 2
The Long Range-Plan for Technology 2006-2020 is the idea to incorporate technology into the classroom based on the notion that the world revolves around technology. The plan includes recommendations to improve classroom teaching that would push technology to the forefront. This plan involves recommendations made to SBEC, Service Centers, Teachers, Districts, ETC; that outlines how we can change the environment of the school based on technology. The plan talks about what 8th graders should know based on what they learn in the classroom setting about technology. The plan talks about requiring schools to carry certain subjects in technology to improve students’ skills. The plan outlines the importance of teachers being trained properly on how to use technology and ways to present the technology to students. The importance of technology in the class room is very vital in the world today. With more technology coming out and with more students having access to the technology, teachers need to be aware of the shifting change. TV’s, IPods, computers, and more are apart of every day life in our young students today. What once was considered to be high class such as a cell phone is just the norm for a 6th grader. The more we can use technology in the classroom the better we can prepare out students for the real world. Most jobs that you apply for you apply online. Those are the skills student needs these days. Checking email is a vital communication tool in the workforce today. Again, this plan outlines the importance of technology in the world today and the importance of bringing into the classroom for our students to use and learn.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Blog 3 Post
The NETP presented five goals with recommendations for states, districts, the federal government, and other stakeholders in our educational system that addresses learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The plan also indentifies far reaching grand challenge problems that should be funded and coordinated at a national level. I would like to review and discuss the five goals outlined by NETP and give you some thought on teach of these.
Learning: It just simply says that all learners will be entitled to and engaging and empowered learning experience both inside and outside the classroom environment that will prepare the students to be active participants in our globally network society.
In order to reach that goal we need to develop and revise standards that fit the 21st century. We need to include technology in our plans. Use advances in our science and technology. For example at my district we started a robotics class. This is a great class that challenges the students and uses technology to do so. We compete in several robotic events against other schools, we break down different electronics to build other objects, and we familiarize students with engineering as a career and a path for later in the future.
Assessment: We need to use the technology to assess students. We also need to be using more data to break down the objectives in which the students are low in. The recommendations provided suggest we need a better system to assess our students besides just testing. We use TMSDS (Texas Math and Science Diagnostic System) in which students place their benchmark answers in the computer system and it atomically gives feed back on what their percentage rate was, what objectives they were low in, and what areas that can improve on. This system is great for feedback in that it lets us know what objective each student is low in. Of course this goes back to the old way that a test determines what they know and do not know. I think there can be other ways to give feedback on what students know and this section is saying we need to come up with other ways to do so.
Teaching: This section just states that teachers will be supported individually and in groups by technology that will link them to data, content, resources, ETC. We have gone far with the technology we have. We have a website called Teacher Tube where you can upload lessons for other teachers to view. We have blogs that teachers can follow to get lesson plan ideas and communicate with other teachers. As we get more complex with technology the more there is to offer and more places to get help. I believe this is an important factor in teacher as it is always helpful to have someone to turn to. With technology tools so readily available you are bound to find something out there.
Infrastructure: All students and teachers will have access to infrastructure for learning when and where they need it. I believe this is possible through the schools as we offer a lot of time and resource for technology for the students. I believe the thing that is hard is to promise that access to students outside of the school environment. We have a lot of students that have no access to a computer or internet once they leave the school. I know we offer free internet at the public library, but still many students have no way of getting there.
Productivity: Our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money, and staff. I believe any change you make at a district level must be for the students but you also have to keep in mind time, money, and staff. With anything there are pros and cons to everything. I believe this is what this section is talking about. It has to be supported by all and make sense for the district.
Learning: It just simply says that all learners will be entitled to and engaging and empowered learning experience both inside and outside the classroom environment that will prepare the students to be active participants in our globally network society.
In order to reach that goal we need to develop and revise standards that fit the 21st century. We need to include technology in our plans. Use advances in our science and technology. For example at my district we started a robotics class. This is a great class that challenges the students and uses technology to do so. We compete in several robotic events against other schools, we break down different electronics to build other objects, and we familiarize students with engineering as a career and a path for later in the future.
Assessment: We need to use the technology to assess students. We also need to be using more data to break down the objectives in which the students are low in. The recommendations provided suggest we need a better system to assess our students besides just testing. We use TMSDS (Texas Math and Science Diagnostic System) in which students place their benchmark answers in the computer system and it atomically gives feed back on what their percentage rate was, what objectives they were low in, and what areas that can improve on. This system is great for feedback in that it lets us know what objective each student is low in. Of course this goes back to the old way that a test determines what they know and do not know. I think there can be other ways to give feedback on what students know and this section is saying we need to come up with other ways to do so.
Teaching: This section just states that teachers will be supported individually and in groups by technology that will link them to data, content, resources, ETC. We have gone far with the technology we have. We have a website called Teacher Tube where you can upload lessons for other teachers to view. We have blogs that teachers can follow to get lesson plan ideas and communicate with other teachers. As we get more complex with technology the more there is to offer and more places to get help. I believe this is an important factor in teacher as it is always helpful to have someone to turn to. With technology tools so readily available you are bound to find something out there.
Infrastructure: All students and teachers will have access to infrastructure for learning when and where they need it. I believe this is possible through the schools as we offer a lot of time and resource for technology for the students. I believe the thing that is hard is to promise that access to students outside of the school environment. We have a lot of students that have no access to a computer or internet once they leave the school. I know we offer free internet at the public library, but still many students have no way of getting there.
Productivity: Our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money, and staff. I believe any change you make at a district level must be for the students but you also have to keep in mind time, money, and staff. With anything there are pros and cons to everything. I believe this is what this section is talking about. It has to be supported by all and make sense for the district.
Blog 1 Posting
I chose to write about Educator Preparation and Development for several reasons. This section talks about the importance of making sure our educators in the classroom are well prepared to teach students technology and to make sure the teachers know how to use technology. Teachers in today’s classes have been teaching for an average of 15-20 years at our district. What that tells me is that a lot of teachers do not have experience in the classroom with certain technological advance that we have today and have not been around the technology our students are use to. I am considered a young teacher (27 years old) and did not get my first cell phone until I was in college. These days, I see 4th and 5th grade students with cell phones. Students know how to use a computer to do research, power points, chat, type correctly, ETC; when many teachers can not perform simple task like check email on computers. We have to build up our teacher’s knowledge in technology. In our district we are required to keep a grade book via the internet on computer. This allows the students grade to be uploaded nightly and viewed by the parents. Many teachers still struggle with this task.
We as schools send 2-3 teachers from each campus to learn from the service center on how to use these technological advances and then expect those teachers to teach fellow teachers how to use them when they have only had a couple hours of experience. I believe if we plan on doing that, we have to provide more proper and solid training on those resources. We as a district can provide all the technology we want, but without proper training and guidance we might as well not try at all. When we have teacher in service, a lot of our people training have little or no experience in what they are presenting. I was asked last year about a day before the training to do a presentation. Now luckily I had previous experience and I knew what I was talking about, but a lot of trainings I have been to at my school the person could not answer simple questions about the tools they were using.
In my belief, every teacher needs to go through a technology program in order to teach. I believe it needs to include: Power Point, Excel, Email, Grade viewer, Navigation to School Website, ETC. All these are important skills.
On one hand it is important that you know how to use tools to help your teaching, but it is another thing on how to present it to the students and include it in your classroom to benefit your students. If you have a piece of equipment you use and you do not let the students interact with that resource you are doing them a disfavor. You need to let the students explore and use technology if they haven’t already because right now that is what most jobs require. A lot of the jobs want you to list the experience you have in computer or software you have used. It is important for these students that you are teaching to be able to navigate just as well as the teacher and be able to use and interact with the technology in the classroom setting. It might be their only time to use technology outside of the home.
We as schools send 2-3 teachers from each campus to learn from the service center on how to use these technological advances and then expect those teachers to teach fellow teachers how to use them when they have only had a couple hours of experience. I believe if we plan on doing that, we have to provide more proper and solid training on those resources. We as a district can provide all the technology we want, but without proper training and guidance we might as well not try at all. When we have teacher in service, a lot of our people training have little or no experience in what they are presenting. I was asked last year about a day before the training to do a presentation. Now luckily I had previous experience and I knew what I was talking about, but a lot of trainings I have been to at my school the person could not answer simple questions about the tools they were using.
In my belief, every teacher needs to go through a technology program in order to teach. I believe it needs to include: Power Point, Excel, Email, Grade viewer, Navigation to School Website, ETC. All these are important skills.
On one hand it is important that you know how to use tools to help your teaching, but it is another thing on how to present it to the students and include it in your classroom to benefit your students. If you have a piece of equipment you use and you do not let the students interact with that resource you are doing them a disfavor. You need to let the students explore and use technology if they haven’t already because right now that is what most jobs require. A lot of the jobs want you to list the experience you have in computer or software you have used. It is important for these students that you are teaching to be able to navigate just as well as the teacher and be able to use and interact with the technology in the classroom setting. It might be their only time to use technology outside of the home.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Reflecting Thoughts
I believe this course has had a great impact on how I view research projects. Before this class, I really had no need to conduct a research or how to even present my findings and really understand why the question was the most important part of action research.
It is clear to me that action research is needed and is an important part of helping a school based on data and findings for one particular area of interest. The research needs to be beneficial, meaningful, logical, and have an impact on others.
The first week of this class allowed us to get our minds thinking about what is action research, the second week we discussed the purpose of our research, and the third week we began to brain storm what we wanted to research over. In watching the video in week three with Dr. Arterbury and Dr. Jenkins discussed the importance of the research topic we chose to be meaningful. If it was not meaningful, then more than likely we would get bored, off topic, and/or not give it our all during the research phase. I totally agree with what they both said during the lectures. When choosing my topic, I decided to go with safety at the school because of experiences I have seen at the school and continue to see at school. I also think that it will have a great impact on our school when I have concluded my research, analyze my data, and present it to whomever.
The assignment for creating an action plan was very helpful. It made me aware of what activities need to be done when. Without a time frame and knowing what areas I need to cover, I could have the chance of not finishing on time to present my information or to have a chance to put my actions into motion for the 2011-2012 school year.
I also found discussion boards and blogs very helpful during the past few weeks. I mention in my action plan that I wanted to present my findings to the school board when I have completed my work. One of my fellow students suggests I might approach the Campus Improvement Plan Committee first before I go straight to the school board. I thought this was a great idea. If I go to the CIP first, they can give me some feedback into maybe what I need to focus on, how I should present it, and other things to reach the school board to the best of my ability.
There are many reasons why to conduct an action research project. There are many variables to conduct research on throughout a school. What matters most is that you choose a topic that will impact your campus the most and what you believe in the most. This is why I chose safety at school. All students should have the right to feel safe at our schools. Many students do not even have that privilege at home and look to school as a safe outlet. With things that are going on in the world today, you can never under estimate what could happen. You have to be on guard at all times. When my daughter starts school, I want to make sure the most advanced and innovative safety measures are in place, would not you? I look forward to when my research comes to an end and I can present my findings. I hope in the long run that I can be a leader in the safety fore front for schools and hope to have certain measures in place.
It is clear to me that action research is needed and is an important part of helping a school based on data and findings for one particular area of interest. The research needs to be beneficial, meaningful, logical, and have an impact on others.
The first week of this class allowed us to get our minds thinking about what is action research, the second week we discussed the purpose of our research, and the third week we began to brain storm what we wanted to research over. In watching the video in week three with Dr. Arterbury and Dr. Jenkins discussed the importance of the research topic we chose to be meaningful. If it was not meaningful, then more than likely we would get bored, off topic, and/or not give it our all during the research phase. I totally agree with what they both said during the lectures. When choosing my topic, I decided to go with safety at the school because of experiences I have seen at the school and continue to see at school. I also think that it will have a great impact on our school when I have concluded my research, analyze my data, and present it to whomever.
The assignment for creating an action plan was very helpful. It made me aware of what activities need to be done when. Without a time frame and knowing what areas I need to cover, I could have the chance of not finishing on time to present my information or to have a chance to put my actions into motion for the 2011-2012 school year.
I also found discussion boards and blogs very helpful during the past few weeks. I mention in my action plan that I wanted to present my findings to the school board when I have completed my work. One of my fellow students suggests I might approach the Campus Improvement Plan Committee first before I go straight to the school board. I thought this was a great idea. If I go to the CIP first, they can give me some feedback into maybe what I need to focus on, how I should present it, and other things to reach the school board to the best of my ability.
There are many reasons why to conduct an action research project. There are many variables to conduct research on throughout a school. What matters most is that you choose a topic that will impact your campus the most and what you believe in the most. This is why I chose safety at school. All students should have the right to feel safe at our schools. Many students do not even have that privilege at home and look to school as a safe outlet. With things that are going on in the world today, you can never under estimate what could happen. You have to be on guard at all times. When my daughter starts school, I want to make sure the most advanced and innovative safety measures are in place, would not you? I look forward to when my research comes to an end and I can present my findings. I hope in the long run that I can be a leader in the safety fore front for schools and hope to have certain measures in place.
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