Well, I made it to the end of my first semester of grad school. I cannot tell you how good it feels to have one semester under my belt and a little glimpse of what is to come. I have learned so much this semester. I have loved meeting and getting to know my classmates through class time, on-line posts, and personal blogs. Dr. Williamson is an awesome professor and I learned a ton from her.
The culminating project - Vision/SWOT/Action Goals was an eye-opening assignment. I really learned a lot by analyzing our school and then helping make a plan that we could actually use and follow in the future. My principal, asst. principal, tech facilitator, and media specialist are going to be so impressed. Hope the teachers at my school don't get upset with me for possibly making more work for them. I tried to keep the goals attainable. That is what Dr. Williamson warned us about - getting super excited about what we are learning and then sharing our enthusiasm with teachers who may be less than enthused. I'm not going to let that get me down, though. The students are the ones who are going to benefit the most from the technology we integrate and that's the main goal.
I am inspired every time I come to KSU for class and learn something new from my professor or peers that I can go back to the classroom and use almost immediately. The thing I am going to work on for next semester is my organization of life. I wasn't quite sure of the best way to plan and organize my home life, work life, and grad school life. Now that I've had a little time to adjust, I will make sure I look ahead to assignments and plan accordingly. I'm also going to make sure I write up my field experience along the way instead of having to write everything out at the end. I had taken notes along the way, but again, now I know what is expected and how I can go about it in the future.
I look forward to continuing to post during the upcoming classes. You'll be hearing from me again soon.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Field Experience
Field Experience for 7400 and 7410:
TF – I.B. Demonstrate continual growth in technology knowledge and skills to stay abreast of current and emerging technologies.
· I-Respond Training: Professional development time with teachers in grades 1 and 2. I know the I-Respond Student Response system is an awesome tool used in the collection of data and analysis. We are using the I-Responds for the Benchmark assessments and Check-points assessments. Data is analyzed at team meetings at the beginning and end of each quarter. We have to know how to use the technology to open the correct assessments and have students enter data correctly. I am very excited to be able to have students complete assessments this way. The students enjoy taking tests this way. It’s fun to them. Teachers are hesitant to buy in to the system, but have to because of expectations of administration and county.
10/11 1.0 hr.
10/11 3.0 hr.
11/18 1.0 hr.
11/19 0.50 hr. recap with team member who was absent during the trainings
- SMART Board Training (with Hoke Wilcox from Kennesaw State University): Professional development and collaboration time with teachers on our 1st grade team where we are able to ask questions about what we have done/made for our class and get more “tricks” from Hoke that can aide in design and implementation.
10/15 0.75 hr.
11/17 0.75 hr.
11/19 0.50 hr. recap with team teacher who was absent the day before
TF-II.D, D1; TF-IIE, E.1., TF-3D, D.1. – Manage resources and student learning in a variety of technology-enriched learning environments and settings (individual, small group, classroom, and/or labs)
TF.IIA, II.A.1 – Design Developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies (including providing resources and feedback to teachers as they design).
· Co-Taught Blog Assistance Class: This class was for teachers who had started a blog, but were unsure of what other things might need to be added to make it more beneficial for parents and for themselves for management purposes. The class contained 8 teachers from K-5 grades who needed additional assistance. Teachers were taught how to add an active calendar to their page and design it according to their needs, how to set the delivery times of their posts, how to brand e-mails, and check on their active users. Teachers were eager to learn and excited to put new materials on class blogs for parents to see. Teachers also appreciated the new items that made management easier and more informative for them.
8/16 1.50 hrs.
· Class Blog Entries: Posts are made to my class blog every week or every 2 weeks depending on the goings-on. School and class information is shared with parents, along with class pictures/video of active learning, and standards-based assessment.
9/17 – 12/2 3.0 hrs.
Standards addressed above, as well as,
TF-VII.B.1- Identify instructional software to support/enhance the school curriculum and develop recommendations for purchase.
· Media/Technology Committee Meeting: Discussion of budget, planning, and Vision/SWOT for Teasley was compared to the Cobb County District’s technology plan. Teachers sign up for committees at the beginning of the school year. This committee has one member from each grade-level team represented, along with the technology facilitator (who teaches technology to the K-3 students), and the media specialist. In this meeting, the technology facilitator and I talked a lot about why our school needs a technology plan. Teachers attending the meeting did not understand what we were talking about when we said “technology plan”, they also were less than enthused about any work needed on their part to complete it. I let them know that I would be doing a lot of the work because of my grad class and would need them for survey information and additional feedback once I’d written the SWOT.
11/2 1.0 hr.
TF-VIII – Educational technology facilitators will contribute to the shared vision for campus integration of technology and foster an environment and culture conducive to the realization of the vision.
· Meetings with Administration to discuss our vision and plan for Teasley Elementary: I met with the Principal and Assistant Principal several times to see what they had in mind for Teasely’s vision and how we should best put that in place. My Assistant Principal (who also has a degree in technology) and I also talked about an upcoming professional development day (in February) where we will develop a tiered training session in technology development where teachers can self-assess and decide which training would work best with their skill-set and what they need to learn.
10/13 0.50 hr. meeting with Asst. Principal to discuss
11/8 0.50 hr. meeting with Principal
11/10 1.0 hr. meeting with Asst. Principal to discuss tiered training prof. development
11/17 0.50 hr. follow-up with Asst. Principal
· SMART Board Survey and Analysis: I created a survey through Survey Monkey that asked teachers 3 questions about how they use their SMART Boards and what else they might want to learn to help them use it more effectively. I then analyzed the data to find that most of our teachers are using their boards. Some teachers use it more effectively than others. Teachers seemed honest during the survey and one even admitted never turning his/hers on. This survey was used for my SWOT analysis and in my action goals.
11/5-11/8 1.0 hr.
· Blog Survey and Analysis: I researched the blogs of the teachers at our school. I looked to see when the last post was made, what kind of information was posted, and whether the teacher included websites for parents/students to work on at home. The information I gathered was used in a discussion I had with the Asst. Principal in preparation of a staff development for the future.
9/13 1.0 hr.
TF-VI.A. – Model and teach legal and ethical practice related to technology use.
TF-VI.D. – Promote safe and healthy use of technology resources.
· Internet Safety Power Point Presentation and Fliers: I used the power point presentation we made for class to share with my team during a planning time. I also gave them fliers other students in our class had created. Some of the teachers said they were aware of the internet safety and use guidelines. Some didn’t know and were made aware. We had some good discussion about what things were hard to keep to the rules (i.e. logging off computers upon leaving the room – especially the one hooked up to the SMART Board when it bogs down and freezes every time you try to log out/in again).
11/9 1.0 hr.
TF-II – Educational technology facilitators plan, design, and model effective learning environments and multiple experiences supported by technology.
TF- III – Educational technology facilitators apply and implement curriculum plans that include methods and strategies for utilizing technology to maximize student learning.
· Individual and Team Collaboration: Our first grade team does a good job of incorporating technology into our lesson plans. We meet together to plan and decide on SMART Board lessons that have already been created using the SMART Exchange website or we create them ourselves if we don’t see something that fits our needs. We also teach and learn from each other. The 7 of us are at different levels in our learning and usage levels of technology. All of us use the SMART Board as more than just a white board. All of us use the I-Respond for inputting data for assessments. The first grade students are very engaged in their learning in these aspects.
10/22 0.50 hr. - helped set up and enhance technology for a fellow teacher’s observation
10/16 1.00 hr. - designed writing lesson for SMART Board
10/25 1.00 hr. - designed writing lesson for SMART Board
11/12 1.00 hr. - designed writing lesson for SMART Board
12/2 1.50 hr. - created assessments using Power Point for I-Respond Student Response
system
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