ISTE's NETS for Teachers

After TiLT's first meeting I realized that it is time to survey our staff on their comfort level with technology in their classroom and lesson plans.  I am using ISTE's NETS for teachers.  A survey was created based on those standards in a Google Spreadsheet and has been emailed to all of the staff.  I have asked them to have it finished by Friday, February 1st.

This data will be used as a baseline.  The survey will once again be given to the staff at the end of the year to determine progress made due to our efforts.

The survey questions follow after the break.

TiLT First Meeting

I met with the Technology Leadership Team for the first time on Friday, January 18th.  I asked one teacher from High School, Gwen Gilbert, and one teacher from Elementary School, Natalie Stewart, to join the team.  In this way all grade levels are included since I teach in the Middle School.  Kindergarten through 12th grade is represented on my campus and therefore I wanted a teacher from every level.  Gilbert has shown her expertise with technology and currently serves as the campus resource person for our electronic grading system.  Stewart is a quick learner and eager to promote the use of technology in the lower grades.

We decided to name the group TiLT.  We discussed offering mini-lessons to staff members after school to cover a wide-range of technology related topics teachers can use in their classrooms.  The list we came up with is as follows:

•  Refresher training, but also beginning courses on topics for new staff.
•  Promethean Board, Promethan Slates, ActivVoters
•  Twitter
•  Edmodo
•  Moodle - Gwen
•  Gaggle 
•  Gaggle YouTube videos
•  TeacherTube
•  Helpful Educational Website
•  Worksheets
•  Educational Games
• Wiki with Helpful Educational Website *1st one - Freaky Friday
• Blogging

While there are many more topics available, these are the ones we are choosing to start with.  Our first mini-lesson will be over Helpful Educational Websites such as Khan Academy, and TeacherTube.  We will be using a Wiki at http://tilted.wikispaces.com/ to easily organize and share the information with teachers.

We will determine a date for the first training at a later time.  It was a successful meeting and I am looking forward to working with a great team!

Reflections on Web Conferences for EDLD 5363

Reflection of the Sun in a Puddle by jaydenillman

Clear as mud.  There was so much confusion over what was due when and in what form that we were not given ideas on what makes a great video.  On two occasions I made Arrangements to attend a video conference and the professor was not there.  Emails were reportedly sent out, but I did not receive them.

The last web conference I attended was filled with questions over the expectations of the assignment.  I had many questions about this myself, but it was frustrating that this conference was not about content but about semantics.  I was very disappointed.  

The only conference that I felt it worthwhile to attend, and the actual assignment itself was discussed, was the first conference out of the three that I attended.  Dr. Kay Abernathy Ed.D discussed how to create a personal digital story and gave us tips on her own experiences with this.  Abernathy discussed what worked well for her and gave us places to find useful examples.   I had high hopes for the remaining weeks as I ventured to create my own personal digital story.

Alas, it was not to be.  I worked with a fantastic group of people for the final project, however they were as stymied as I was about the requirements.  The confusion was not only with us students as Abernathy confessed that her IAs were also trying to convince her that it would be better to condense the assignments into one document.

To review, one of three web conferences I attended were on topic and covered the content of the course.  Two of three web conferences dealt entirely with how to submit what, in what form, to whom, at what time, in what document.  I found it a detrimental requirement to attend these conferences especially when they could have been viewed at a time that was convenient for me.

Please include attribution to TheBestColleges.org with this graphic.

Review of Windows Movie Maker

Personal Digital Story

Reflections on My Time in EDLD 5301 Action Research

Photo by Kevan Davis

Course EDLD 5301 included constant self reflection to become a better teacher and prepare to become a better administrator.  The Action Research Plan helped focus that reflection into a living document that can be shared with others so that they also may benefit from it.

The lectures from Arterbury and Jenkins made use of the ability to share information regardless of who is teaching the class and what time the interviews took place.  It was good to get more points of view with the interviews from Briseno, Chargois, and Lewis.  More of these would have been helpful.  It also would have been helpful to have an interview with the professor of the course, Dr. Abshire.  An introduction to the course or her introducing herself with her expectations at a very minimum would have been greatly appreciated.

The Harris text was a particularly useful book for Applied Research.  It offered practical applications and real-world examples of what Action Research should be and how to successfully create an Action Research Project.  The Dana text was another useful resource as the Action Research Project was being created.

Most of the assignments could be summarized in one word – summarize.  It seemed as if all I was doing was summarizing what was read week after week.  I found week three's assignment particularly confusing.  It would have been very helpful to have a template included in the assignment instead of having to get it from the resources section of the website.  I had to email the TA several times just to be sure I was completing the assignment as expected.  I found week three's assignment very confusing and extremely frustrating because of the lack of information.

The Discussion Boards were light for this course.  I tried to make my original post by Thursday so that I would receive feedback, but it was not forthcoming.  I found that most people ended up posting on Sunday, therefore it was difficult to make the required two comments on others' posts difficult.

To get an idea for this assignment I searched the Internet for ideas on this summary.  I was disheartened to find several bloggers that express some of the same concerns I have and they have yet to be addressed.  Brooke Hughes made the comment on Cordelia's Action Research Blog: EDLD 5301 End of Course Reflections, “Dr. Abshire could have been providing us with far more useful information on the weekly assignments as well as maybe narrowed questions and concerns that took up a lot of time during the web conferences.”  It worries me that if nothing has been done to address these issues in this class, what are the classes going to be like for the rest of my program?  Do the student surveys we take at the end of the course really looked at?  Are any changes being made to improve the program?  This is especially scary considering this course is named Action Research and it has been stressed that things will change throughout our Action Research and we should embrace the change for the better.

In conclusion, Action Research is a wonderful method to use to improve one's own practice as an administrator or a teacher.  It has the power to positively effect every student on a campus and possibly even a district when done correctly.  I am looking forward to my own Action Research of Awesomeness.  However I think that this course could benefit from some of its' own teachings.  I would like to see the powers that be turn this course into an Action Research project of its' own so that future students may benefit even more from seeing seeing how it can be effectively implemented in a course in which they are students.

References Follow