How Eduactional Leaders can Utilize Blogs

Blogs have many uses in education. Teachers can create a classroom blog to post their syllabus, requirements, announcements, and project information for parents. They can also use them highlight the accomplishments of their students and post any other additional information needed to communicate with parents and students on a regular basis. Administrators can utilize blogs by posting general school information, testing dates, graduation requirements, campus announcements, and the accomplishments of it's students.

Action Research

Action research is a cyclical process of seeking out information and using reflection to gain insight into ones position. Specifically in education, action research can be used by administrators and teachers in leadership teams, district meetings, and/or professional learning communities. Action research is conducted by posing questions and collecting data. This data can be reflected upon by the individual or by the group as a whole. The purpose of the inquiry is to improve the way issues are addressed and the way problems are solved on a campus. Action research differs from traditional research methods in that it the individual is actually reflecting upon their actions and gaining insight from others. Traditional research methods do not require any action or reflection from the audience. Action research allows issues specific to the party involved to be addressed rather than just one broader issue covered by many.

I believe action research has many uses, but I think it can be used as a very useful tool on my campus during teacher in-service. My campus normally conducts our in-service sessions by providing a power point and lecturer on a specific topic. If we conducted action research instead, the audience would be actively involved in the process of school improvement.

Action Plan Week 4

Implementing Study Island in Core Areas
After the great success of Study Island in our Science area the district technology team has decided that we would implement Study Island in all our core subjects to better meet the needs of our students on TAKS assessments. To integrate this into the curriculum of Math, Social Studies, and English each school will send representatives district Professional Learning Communities this coming semester to work on incorporating Study Island into the curriculum for the school year 2010-2011. These teachers who are working on curriculum are going to be our lead teachers in implementing Study Island district wide. The lead teachers will introduce Study Island to their fellow department members in April or May of 2010 to go over how Study Island works and how they will be using it in their classroom the following year. This will allow them to become more comfortable with the program. In August, in Departmental breakout sessions, the core areas will break off to the computer labs to familiarize themselves with Study Island again and to also welcome the new teachers and explain the usage of Study Island. The core subjects will also be part of professional learning communities on campus and will be responsible for meeting once a month after school to discuss areas of concern and to offer assistance to struggling teachers.

Qwizdom Professional Development
Qwizdom has been used by our Math and Science teachers for the last few years, but not all teachers in these departments have been trained or take advantage of this resource. The English and Social Studies departments do not currently implement Qwizdom, but I think they need help understanding how it can be utilized in their classroom. During our January 4th in-service a Qwizdom presentation will be given to the teachers in these four core areas. The activity will include a breakdown of the Qwizdom system, a mock game using a Qwizdom activity, and an opportunity to develop their own activity for their subject. To successfully implement this resource, teachers need to be trained on how to upload their classes into the system, how to use the remotes, and how to view reports of the student’s progress during the Qwizdom activity. Each core area will be required to develop a Qwizdom activity which can be used in their classrooms. We will also brain storm as a group how and when this resource can be successful integrated into the classroom.

Apangea Professional Development
Apangea is our District’s newest technological resource. It was purchased by our district for use in computer labs across the high school campuses. This web-based tool is going to be used to target our 11th grade Math Models and IPC students and our 9th grade initiative students. This resource provides personalized one on one tutoring and great incentives for learning. A certified teacher is available live to tutor the students after a short lesson has been given. Apangea also provides a Smart Rewards Program which rewards students with gift cards for consistent effort and achievement. This program is to be implemented in the Spring Semester and in the 2010-2011 school year. All teachers who have these targeted students in their classroom will need to be trained on Apangea. A professional development session will be held to allow these teachers to explore Apangea and discover its usefulness for their students. They will be required to schedule computer lab time throughout the second semester to utilize this resource. At the end of the second semester a meeting will be held with is group of teachers to discuss and analyze the results and use of this program. We will look at our 2010 TAKS results and discuss whether we feel this resource impacted our scores with our target group of students.

Texas STaR Chart Presentation

Provide Leadership and Vision for new Technological Advances
Provide Professional Development opportunities for teachers to help them with technology use in the classroom
Bring on-line learning to the classroom

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Texas Longe Range Plan-Infrastucture for Technology

Having an infrastructure for technology is key to meeting the needs of all learners. In order to give teachers and students the environment for high tech learning, districts must acquire the necessary techological equipment and structures. My district has met this need. We have campuses which are strictly for math and technology, campuses which offer higher level content for the literary arts and a campus which offers the IB program. In order to offer these outstanding programs, it is imperative to supply the necessary resources. First and foremost on that list of resources is technology. We have scanners, mulitiple computer labs, multi-media equipment and web-mastering classes. In addition, we offer many software programs which the students can learn to increase their knowledge of the content and problem solving skills.The infrastructure, the foundation of the campus and district, must be designed to meet the needs of all learners. At my campus alone, we offer multiple resources to make this a possibility. On-going and interactive staff development is also necessary to keep the forward progression of technology alive and well on a campus. Without considering and also meeting the needs of the teachers will bring a sure end to the advancement in technology. I truly believe the Infrastructure for Technology goes hand in hand with Educator Preparation and Development. Both of these areas have been on the rise over the last few years. I believe my campus and district are fulfilling their mission for bring technology into the 21st century at a fast rate.

Pre-K Technology Application TEKS

Pre-K students are expected like never before to acquire skills to help them achieve success when they enter the first grade. It is imperative that we expose this age group to as much technology as possible to help in the transition into the normal education system. Pre-K has now become a very important formative phase for our students. Providing a base of knowledge and helping them to learn to apply that knowledge will help them advance at a faster rate. The ability to acquire knowledge, solve problems, and communicate with others is a life skill that will serve them well as they age. The key is to make sure the technology used to engage the students is age-appropriate and challenging. By the time these students reach the first grade they must have basic functions of the computer mastered along with related technologies. An outline may be as follows; a) uses software, b) exposed to different input devices, like keyboards, mouse, sound recorders and touch screen technologies, c) use basic terminology in everyday language, d) interaction with different electronic resources, e) use a variety of software packages. It is of the utmost importance that these skills are addressed and mastered at the Pre-K level if we are to give our students the best chance at success. Not only in our school buildings but in the world economy as well.

The Technology Applications TEKS are designed as a spiraling curriculum. For example, TEK 1: The Student is responsible for demonstrating his knowledge and use of hardware, software, software programs and their uses. Walking through the expectations of TEKS 1 it is clearly evident the systematic approach expected by the classroom teacher to ensure the mastery of specific skills in regards to knowledge base and implementation of that knowledge base. In the beginning the student is expected to learn and be able to apply the terminology that will be used in that lesson. They must be proficient in the use of the programs (hardware or software) that will help them in the application of their lesson. They must be able to maneuver around the software using appropriate menu options and commands. They must also multi task and be able to be working within multiple applications of different software to achieve mastery of the lesson. At the conclusion they should be able make adjustments regarding compatibility of different applications and be able to incorporate different formats into one streamlines presentations or application and also be able to use peripheral equipment like cameras and printers. The beautiful aspect of this learning is the multitude of ways to achieve the stated goal. It is imperative that it be tailored to the needs and abilities of each individual student and allow them the room for error and improvement.

Long Range Plan Analysis

I was very intrigued by the Long Range Plan. I had no idea this plan and the vision for changes in technology even existed. The goal of the Long Range Plan is to educate each student by including the parents, teachers, and administration through the use of technology. Making as much information as possible available to all involved will help keep the student on track and help keep surprises to a minimum. This includes everything from attendance, to the lesson organization of the classroom teacher, to policies of the district. Lack of information is the number one cause of issues and to keep the information flowing will minimize the negatives. Incorporating technology in all aspects of education will ensure that our students graduate having been exposed the latest and greatest applications. This will help ensure that our students will be successful in college and competitive in the workforce.
This information will assist me as an instructional leader on my campus in many ways. I first and foremost need to seek training in the use of some of the newer uses of technology and become exposed to the new applications of existing technology. The more informed I am, the better suited I will be to give my students the best possible chance at success. I will also be able to help others on my campus by sharing my experiences with the use of new technology applications in my classroom, positive and negative.