Professionalism in Professional Development

For my ITEC 7460: Professional Learning & Technology Innovation class one of the assignments is to write a reflection piece about what I have learned and will use from the class.


I was very glad to learn that my class was about professional development, especially after I had signed up at my school to be on the Professional Development Key Team this year.  The staff that I work with on this committee are great!  They are a diverse group with lots of ideas and opinions,  but are also willing to work together to formulate a plan.  During our first meeting, we worked on determining what kinds of training we thought the staff needed, based on our SIP goals:  Math, Writing, and Technology.  The committee decided to send out a survey (which just so happened to be one of the first assignments that I had for this grad course) that would determine where staff members viewed their standing in these focus areas.  


At the next Professional Learning Key Team meeting, the committee decided the topics of the sessions we would use for the upcoming professional learning afternoon and discussed with some of the teacher leaders at school who were willing to lead/teach the sessions.  There would be two different topics addressed on that day with each topic would have a differentiated session.  Teachers signed up for their area of interest and level of training needed (i.e. Technology Integration:  Beginning Integration or Intermediate/Advanced).


Having this class allowed me the responsibility to conduct a survey using Google Docs that was awesome!  It was so easy to gather the data, and I loved the survey results in the pie charts that made great visuals to present to my administrators and my committee.  


I was also given the opportunity to plan and carry out a professional development session from start to finish.  I believe that some of the assignments from this course like the agenda, evaluation, and overview of our current reality helped me see the big picture of how professional development courses can be used to better the teaching and learning of our staff. I think this class also allowed me to develop a framework that I was able to carry out during the session I taught and will be able to use again in future professional development opportunities.

Areas of improvement for the course would be:  

1.  More direction given in class that provided a better understanding and example of what was expected for the overall project/presentation.  I do not feel that class time was spent properly in preparing us for the end product of the class.  Classes dealt more with research into different professional development scenarios and responses to questions pertaining to those sessions that could have been used as at-home assignments (rather than study guides) while using class time to devote to things that directly related to our own professional development assignment.  

2.  If the use of a certain type of technology is needed to achieve the maximum amount of points in the end product, then that technology should be taught in the class.  The overarching professor stated that in order to achieve the maximum amount of points in the course, we would have  to use a Prezi for our presentation, however Prezi was never taught in the class.  Since this is a technology course, I believe it would have been beneficial to actually teach this application.  I think that I might have had a better Prezi if I had been shown what it was capable of, but instead, mine turned out very simple.  I would have also liked to have been given examples of other ways to use Prezi in my classroom.  

Ready to "Get Up" Out of this" Fall" Semester

So, it's been a while.  Thankfully, the fall semester will be drawing to a close soon.  Here are the things I have learned:

1.  I do not like online classes!!!  I do much better with face to face classes that inspire me, offer support, and offer time to get clarification on tasks.

2.  While I appreciate Georgia School Laws, I do not really like reading page after page after page of them.  It sure did make me appreciate my husband and mother-in-law for having to read laws every day for work.  Yuck!

3.  It doesn't seem to be fair to make students use a technology that was not talked about or taught in class in order to attain an A in the class.  Just saying.  (I'll need to make sure to follow that rule myself when giving assignments to my kids.)

4.  Because of the previous mentioned assignment, I learned how to make a basic Prezi.  It can be viewed at: http://prezi.com/3wxdserczeby/smartboard-its-not-just-a-glorified-projector/.  Yay me!

That's the fall semester in a nutshell.

My Summer Vacation

I spent the majority of my summer taking two online courses for my masters program.  The courses I took were EDL 7305:  Data Analysis and School Improvement and 7100:  Leadership Theory and Practice.  Both classes were good and I learned a lot.  I was very excited in the beginning of the semester to learn that the classes would take place entirely online.  I equated this to mean I would be able to work by the pool for some of the assignments.  Yay summer!  I did take my book to the pool once to read the assigned chapters, but that only happened once.

What I soon realized was that the summer semester is shorter than normal semesters, so 12-14 weeks of learning was shoved into 6.  Whoa!  That also meant that modules of learning that were separated into 8 sections had to be condensed to make sure everything was covered in the six weeks worth of classes.  And by condensed, I do not mean that things were eliminated.  Instead, two weeks worth of assignments sometimes were due in the course of one. I had one face-to-face session in each class where I met two really good professors that I would have enjoyed learning more from in a regular class setting.  Instead, I got to learn from narrated power points (which I was really thankful for), and a once a week online chat that was beneficial.  During those online chat sessions, while trying to get good information from the professor, I also got a lot of interesting noises provided by my classmates.  People were talking over each other, some were louder than others whether from being on the phone as a call-in student or from microphones turned up really loud.  I promise at one time I could have sworn I heard a toilet flush, too.  This could have been partly due to the online site that was used to conduct these meetings because I had another class where we participated in something similar, but it was better with buttons you could click that allowed you to indicate a raised hand for a question or a little bird indicated that you were away from the computer momentarily.  I believe that site was called Moodle.  I'll have to check it out to be sure.

Here's what I've learned from this experience and these courses:

1.  Summer vacation does not exist when taking grad courses.

2.  Data is a lot more interesting that I expected, and I am actually excited about collecting and analyzing (now that I know how) it in the upcoming school year.

3.  If I have good ideas and want them to be implemented at my school, I'd better become a principal and make those ideas a reality.

4.  Being a teacher leader is a huge responsibility with job descriptions in all kinds of areas.

5.  I learn much better in face-to-face classes than I do in online ones.

So here I am at the end of my summer classes.  I made it!  And, I still have 3 more weeks of summer (the only really good thing that came out of the Cobb County school year calendar being changed again). Yay summer! Plus, I am at the half-way point in attaining my master's degree in instructional technology.  Yay me!

You'll hear from me again during the fall semester as I embark on two more classes.  Until then, you'll find me by the pool.

Just Look at All This Data

Description: Compiled a Data Inventory Chart of all the data that is collected at school, in what grade levels, and in what areas of instruction.

Standards: PSC 2A,B,C; BOR I; NETS-A 4C,D
Semester: Summer 2011

Hours: 3.5 hours

Population: Principal and School Colleagues

Reflection: For the EDL 7305, I had to complete a Data Inventory Chart that tells about all the ways we collect data at our school.  It divides it into areas by grade and content area, as well.  During this field experience, I talked with my team about the assessments we give each year.  I reviewed the testing information with my assistant principal, I interviewed other grade-level teachers at my school for information regarding data collections, and I composed the Data Inventory based on the information I collected.

Data with a Plan

Description: I developed an action plan/timeline that will help my school build a Data Team and provide a program of understanding data through the Understanding Data Process (UDP).

Standards:TF-II.D (Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences)
                 TF-V.A,D (Productivity and Professional Practice)

Semester: Summer 2011

Hours: 4 hours

Population: Principal, Future use with School Colleagues

Reflection: The EDL 7305 class was focused on using data and analyzing it to format a plan of action based on student-learning needs.  The class used a process called the Understanding Data Process and went along with the text The Data Coach’s Guide to Improving Learning for All Students.  I found this process to be one that my school can definitely benefit from, and think that developing an Action Plan that outlines a timeline of activities and resources would allow the teachers at my school to see the importance of data collections and analysis.  This course definitely changed my views on data.  It actually got me excited about the data and what I can learn from it.  More importantly, it will help me make changes in the way I teach so that my students can learn more.

Oh the Data!

Description: I analyzed data from our school's CRCT scores to use in a Data Overview presentation.

Standards:TF-II.A,B,C (Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences)
                 TF-IV.A,B (Assessment and Evaluation)
                 TF-V.A,C,D (Productivity and Professional Practice)

Semester: Summer 2011

Hours: 5 hours

Population: Grad School Colleagues, Principal, Future use with School Colleagues

Reflection: I learned so much in my EDL 3705 class with collecting and analyzing data.  This summer class was completely online which made it difficult at times to get field experience hours.  That being said, the professor was well aware of this fact and commented that field experience hours were going to have to include the research hours we spent on projects.  For the Data Overview presentation, I looked at and analyzed data from the 3^rd and 5^th grades at my school related to the CRCT.  Through the use of Microsoft Excel, I was able to compile the data and make visual charts that explained what the data showed.  Based on the charts and data, our school will be able to see that a 3^rd grade area of improvement is math.  We dipped in the amount of students at or above proficiency from 90 percent (2010) to 73 percent (2011).  While the 5^th graders were able to make awesome gains in math, the scores in social studies went from 85 percent (2010) at or above proficiency to 67 percent (2011).  We also have a learning gap between our Hispanic population and our African American and White population that will require us to dig deeper into the data and make strategic action plans.  I was able to speak with my principal about my findings and share my presentation.

Teaching ASP Workers

Description: I taught 3 college-age After School Program workers some tools they could use that would be beneficial for their college classes and for use with the ASP students.

Standards: TF-V.A-D (Productivity and Professional Practice)

Semester:  Spring 2011

Hours:  5+ hours

Population: 3 college-age ASP teachers

Reflection: After collaborating with the ASP director on his webpage, we talked about me teaching some of the ASP workers.  I had the privilege of teaching three lovely ladies about some tools they could use that would benefit them and their students.  For the first three classes, I taught them about Delicious.  We set up accounts, found several links that could be used in ASP (each week the girls had a certain number of sites that had to be added to their account), and how to link to each other's Delicious pages to gain more resources.  The next class, I taught them how to use Zamzar.  Their assignment was to find a video they could use in ASP that the students would enjoy, and then convert it in Zamzar to a format that could be sent to them to download and use at school.  They found some fun videos that the students would really enjoy.  At the end of that class, I told them to bring a smart phone or iTouch so they could co-teach a class on Twitter the next week.  I have had a little difficulty getting used to and seeing the advantages of Twitter.  So, I wanted them to help me learn.  I started by asking them how they thought Twitter could be used from an educational aspect.  I gave them some ideas and got their feedback based on what I had heard and read about.  Then, they helped me set up some things in my account. We made sure we were all "following" each other.  They also further explained the hash tags, re-tweeting, using the zipper, and the purpose of putting the @ sign in front of someone's name.  It was a fun class for me and for them.  The last class we had together I showed them the web page I had put together for my webquest.  They got to explore, offer feedback, and learn more about creating their own webpage in Wix.  This was a great use of field experience time.  I hope to continue to teach these girls in the fall.