Web Conference Reflection

Wow, this was a very frustrating process!  I could not attend the conference so I watched the link that was sent out and boy, I felt like it was unorganized and all over the place. It seems like there are students from different sections so lots of questions dealing with the ILD course, which I have already completed, LCE questions, course log questions and just a couple notes about this weeks assignments.  The mic was not working so it was all done on chat and I feel that there are to many in the conference to do it this way.  Someone asked about if we needed to turn the assignment in word format as well as on the blog, and I never saw a reply to this so I went a head and turned it in on a word document, as well as posted it on the discussion board.  I am very disappointed with this conference and did not see how it benefits us unless there is something specific we need asked, which I feel comfortable e-mailing my coach and getting a reply with in 24 hours instead of sitting there for 1.5 hours and not getting anything from it.  This is just my reflection though.  Otherwise, I am enjoying the class :)

Action Plan

Part 1, Organizational Flow Chart

Description, Roles and Responsibilities
 

Part 1 Organizational Flowchart

View more presentations or Upload your own.

Part 2, Professional Development Initiative
 In any plan, it is necessary that Professional Development Activities address the SBEC Teacher Technology Standards and the integration of Technology Applications relating to student understanding. As learned in week 3, the ultimate goal of our increased professional growth is to make us a more effective educator while using technology, and in turn, to increase students mastery of the Technology TEKS relating to their learning. As we become more knowledgeable of technology and its uses, we can directly impact the classroom and further students learning. 
 
In order to meet the ultimate goal of a more technologically literate staff population, it is important to establish a dynamic professional development plan that will provide growth opportunities for staff across a broad range of technologically literate levels. The goal is to provide activities that all educators can participate in, and those that will meet their needs. As we identified in week 1 of the course, much of the plan needs to be based on providing activities that will meet staff’s needs for all levels of the STaR Chart. It can also be useful to utilize the NET*S Standards as well, but again, the main focus needs to be on meeting the SBEC Teacher Technology Standards. 
 
Areas that I would directly focus on in developing a professional development plan for our campus are below. This plan is developed after reviewing our responses on previous and current years STaR Chart data, the campus and district improvement plans, and the overall comments from students on technology use in the classroom. 
 
I believe a STRONG emphasis needs to be placed on utilization of current software applications used on campus, specifically the operating system, spreadsheet and word processing, and a large focus on the use of presentation software. Professional activities need to focus on ensuring that all educators can completely navigate the OS and use the software in such a way that will allow them to create various electronic forms of documents or presentations that can then be used for presentation. With this, educators will then be able to better meet SBEC standard 1.3s select and use software for a defined task according to quality,
appropriateness, effectiveness, and efficiency, which should also show an increase in teacher response/performance on the STaR Chart in the area of EP1, EP3, TL1 and TL4. This segment would also include a strong understanding of the Districts grade software and student information software, i.e. COGNOS, and show teachers the access to information about student’s performance on HST and other state and federal markers that drive school accountability and funding.
 
As we better understand the inner workings of software, we also need to provide opportunities that will promote educators use of multiple input devices to further enrich the amount utilized in the teaching process. As identified in the week 3 report, teachers currently have access to whiteboards, smart boards, airliners, PDA’s, ceiling mounted digital projectors, etc, but all teachers may not have an understanding of how to utilize these. Opportunities need to be provided to get these in the hands of educators. Providing opportunities that would place these in the hands of all educators, and expecting them to demonstrate an ability to utilize these should increase the effectiveness and meet the needs of not only SBEC competencies, but show an increase in educator responses in EP3 and EP5 of the STaR Chart. I also believe the you would potentially see an increase INF 3, since more educators would have the understanding of the technology, they should be more inclined to use it, which would potentially justify more of specific items.
 
The technology plan must include effective use of the internet as an instructional resource, and should also model appropriate practices in understanding copyright and ownership of electronic media. In week 4, it was tremendously interesting to learn about copyright and then to see the lack of understanding that many on the discussion board. I think it clearly is an area that needs to be highlighted and incorporated into a section over usefulness of the internet and instructional resources avail through online media. Our campus improvement plan includes a specific area that indicates, “to provide increased educator understanding of the internet by providing professional development opportunities.” Opportunities in this area would directly provide more positive responses from educators in areas of EP3, TL4 and TL6 of the STaR Chart, and directly addresses the SBEC Standards of 1.14s, 1.15s and 1.16s.
 
Finally, I think it is important to include a segment that focuses directly on lesson planning and the integration and utilization of technology. We have many “digital natives” who have a strong understanding of technology, but may not fully understand how to directly incorporate it daily to enrich the learning environment. With this, we provide staff an opportunity to see models of lessons with extensive use of technology, which will increase our ability to make more effective lessons and include the use of technology in the plan.
Implementation of the Technology Plan can take place through individualized campus meetings including departmental and team Technology Meetings, by utilizing Video share sessions, active engagement tutorials where educators have to complete a series of steps to move forward in the development course, or by 1 to 1 face to face interaction in a traditional setting. Ideally, the plan needs to have a mix of ALL of these, and all levels need to have educators interacting with the technology throughout their learning. Just as we want students to have the ability to utilize the resources, we need to make sure that all educators have the actual resource to practice on while learning, which will increase their comfort with the mechanism.
We also need to ensure that we have an accountability standard on educators and require a minimum amount per year of their required professional growth to be technology related. This segment is part of objective 3 of the assignment and is discussed below.


Part 3, Evaluation and Plan
 Data that is important in formulation of this action plan must be comprehensive, factual, and pertain directly to the needs of the campus. As highlighted in the week 2 assignment, the following sources of data are valuable in evaluating the effectiveness of current technology plans, and for potential changes, and are used in identifying the Priority areas later in the plan:
 
• District's current technology implementation
• State Long Range Plan for Technology
• Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Technology (TEKS)
• Texas School Technology and Readiness Chart (STaR)
• Comparative data from other school districts
• SBEC Teacher Technology Competencies
• Computer industry developments and forecasts
 
The plan must ensure we are taking into consideration increases in student enrollment and increase in faculty and staff, as well as current funding and future funding. Likewise, we must consider the importance of meeting the requirements set forth in the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology.
Evaluation must be done regularly and data must be reviewed and plans adjusted to continually meet the needs to teachers and students. 
 
Professional Development needs to be mandated in areas of technology use, and staff must show successful completion of a set number of technology hours each year. Professional growth of ALL faculty and staff is integral to ensure a successful plan.
 
The plan is structured to identify areas of need in importance of priority. This allows a much more flexible way of addressing needs in a limited resource environment, and can serve to identify areas that are considered one of 4 specific areas:
Priority 1, necessary to maintain programs and services
Priority 2, items that can enhance and enrich instruction and are becoming the norm in schools
Priority 3, items that can provide extensions or assistance to current programs
Priority 4, items that would be recommended for future considerations. 
 
In reviewing all information and data affecting our school, the following areas would classify as follows:
In reference to our campus, items that would be considered Priority 1 and need to be given premium consideration are new computers, new software and improved network efficiency, power supplies, video conferencing capabilities, smart boards, airliners, PDA’s, interactive white-boards, digital projectors.
Priority 2 items would be increased online professional development system, printers, document scanners, telephone system, document cameras, wireless overlay. Priority 3 items would be increased computer access to a 2 to 1 ratio and the ability to improve sound tables on network presentation. Priority 4 items would be distance learning equipment and a stand-alone achievement management software system.
Although all of these are key, by identifying the most important resources, we can focus our plan on each element and ensure that we will be providing the most important items first that will provide the greatest benefit.
 
It is imperative that new data is collected each time a priority element is completed and becomes “operational”, so to speak, in the educational environment. From this new data, we can further evaluate and adjust the plan to continually meet the needs of an ever changing diverse population.
The plan is developed with the expectation that everyone will “buy into” integration, growth and development, which will ultimately benefit student growth and campus improvement.

Instructional Leadership Slide Show

Langham Creek & E-Rate, Can we do this?

E-Rate

View more presentations or Upload your own.

Post #1- Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006 – 2020, The Educator Preparation

In the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006 – 2020, The Educator Preparation category is considered the lowest rated category in the Campus Statewide Summary. This is a key area for how technology is used in the classrooms by educators and how funds are devoted to training with technological tools.

The Technology budget allows for 6% to 24% for professional development in technology, but 75% of Texas educators use technology for administrative tasks and classroom management. The question is, why is there such a large difference between what is allocated and what is needed?

Even though instructors lead in the classroom, when it comes to new technologies, teachers are the students learning how to use the technology in their classrooms. To keep up with the Joneses and the top districts in each state, teachers need to be able to develop their skills that will allow them to master and assign the latest projects to their classes that use these technological tools. To keep the students engaged, focused and excited towards what they are being taught, educators must know the latest and greatest tools.

There are several SIMPLE ways to help improve how well educators are prepared and these options can be offered in flexible online training sessions. Teachers are so busy in today’s world due class sizes and lack of planning time due to increase number of periods taught: they need options that will fit their schedule. One way to do this is allow them to have flexible Professional Development hours that fit their schedule. These training hours could be done during their planning period, at home or during holiday break. One training that my campus allows us to attend is Connect to Learn Sessions that are online staff development that can be done on a particular day, but the session is run every 30 minutes that allow for flexibility to meet your schedule.

Blog Posting #2 - Long Range Plan for Technology

The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020 requires an infrastructure to be put into place that meets the challenge of the 21^st century learner. It entails a plan that provides Texas a vigorous state-wide road that connects technology to students learning through on-demand accessibility to data using schools, libraries, colleges and businesses.

The communications system will provide access to e-learning, technical assistance, secured data, and standards to support all users twenty-four hours, seven days a week. All Texas campuses are to provide adequate and up-to-date technology tools for the learners. Budgetary constraints might seem to make the upgrading of systems seem remote, but for this reason, many districts have passed bonds or have written grants to secure funds to upgrade their technology.

Texas Campus STaR chart was designed in 2004 to be used as a tool for technology planning, budgeting resources and to evaluate the technology readiness of a campus. Results from the 2006-07 Campus STaR chart yielded positive gains in technology. The 2006-08 Progress Report (TEA, 2008) states that 65% of campuses were rated as Developing Tech; implying that there are 5-9 students per computer connected to the Internet, 53% of campuses provided the Internet in all rooms, 63% percent of the campuses provide a computer in each classroom that was connected to the Internet, and 46% of the campuses are connected to a networked printer. Furthermore, 55% of campuses have scheduled access to rich media via Internet. Compared to the previous year, fewer campuses were found to be at the lowest level or “Early Tech.”

Only 7% of Texas campuses have reached the highest level “Target Tech.” A strict adherence to the technology plan will ensure students’ success. It is imperative that Texas’ campuses reach technology readiness so that students can compete in the 21st century.

Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020. Texas Education Agency. Downloaded on June 15, 2009, from http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/comm/leg_reports/2008/08pr_to_lrpt.pdf

Welcome Instructional Leadership Peers!

Wow, I can't believe that I am going to be graduating in 3.5 months! So exciting and this program has gone by so fast!! I am looking forward to being creative with technology while learning new ideas that my students will benefit from!

Have a great day!

Libraries in the 21st Century

Action Research Plan -

Libraries in the 21st Century!

Having way to much fun with this blogging!! My volleyball team is tired of looking at all of my updates daily!! Way cool!