Reflection

In reflecting over the outcomes and expectations for this course, I have come to realize that I had a pretty open mind about my expectations. I had a desire to learn more about technology and integrating it within the classroom and learning more about the Technology TEKS and goals for student learning in the area of technology. I also wanted to be able to collaborate with fellow classmates so that I could get a big picture feel of what was taking place in other districts and classrooms. At first the course seemed a little off what I had expected, but once I was able to get into the grove I was able to achieve most of the outcomes for this course that I envisioned I would.

The outcomes that I wanted to obtain from this course are very much relevant to my school and work. I really enjoyed learning about Wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds. Using technology in this way is so exciting and allows learning to expand into a whole new area. I began to search different educational blogs and find information that was relevant to my classroom and to push me to think outside the box as an educator. I really enjoyed reading the journal articles and pulled so many resources and ideas from them. Since I began my graduate course work six months ago I have not had more relevant articles in any of my classes. I don’t feel that there were any course outcomes that I was not able to achieve. I did find that the discussion board could be overwhelming when I tried to post and respond to information. I had a hard time keeping up with the number of responses that I had to others post.

In navigating through my assignments I was able to clearly understand the expectations and grading rubric. I had previously created a blog for my family to follow so was pretty familiar with posting information within a blog. However, I have never used the presentation tool, it was a really found that site helpful and I plan on using it in the future to help prepare for staff developments and integrating blogs within my classroom.

The journey that I have taken through this course has reveled my thinking to a bit out of date on some areas concerning technology. I really thought that I did a great job of integrating technology within the classroom, however through my experiences in this course I was able to see that my vision of what technology encompassed was very much skewed. I thought that because I was able to use laptops regularly and to complete student driven projects with success that I was doing a good job, but there was an entire aspect of technology that I had forgotten and not even exposed myself to or my students to. I had become comfortable to my level of technology, but am glad that this course has spurred me into looking at other types of technology that could be useful within my classroom and future career as an administrator.

One of the greatest tools that I was able to experience in a different light was using a blog in the educational setting. I really liked all the possibilities that it provides for educators to create and take part in conversations with other educators to share thoughts and ideas. It also provides and avenue in which you can communicate with your schools stakeholders. A blog from the principal’s desk allows you to communicate the schools vision and keep the key stakeholders informed about any new information. Blogging does have some concerns that I would take into consideration when setting one up for the school. If you are having the students create their own blogs then it would need to monitor and a way to figure out how to set limits on who can access it.

Organizational Chart

Title	Roles and Responsibilities
Director, Instructional Technology	Develop district technology plan, with key stakeholders, ensuring that it aligns with state goals. Allocate curriculum resources to ensure student achievement Assess district staff development needs, scheduled staff development opportunities along with technology helping teachers.
Campus Principal, AP’s and Instructional Facilitators	Model appropriate use of technology Liaison between central office and school Implement shared vision and encourager to teachers as they begin to implement technology within the classroom Conduct random walk-throughs assessing the level of technology and campus vision is being adhered to
Technology Liaison/Helping Teachers	Present professional development workshops that include creating better projects Provides technical support to teachers and administrators Conducts yearly inventory of resources; including hardware and software
Teacher	Use technology to actively engage learners Model and teach Acceptable Use Policies Use data from AEIS, TAKS ,CBA and STaR chart to plan and implement strategies for student achievement Attend professional development activities to increase understanding and application of technology within the classroom.
Students	Utilize technology provided acquire information, problem solving and to enhance their own learning. Use technology appropriately and follow the Acceptable Use Policy outlined by the State of Texas

Action Plan

The overall needs of the campus technology action plan have been assessed; key stakeholders have evaluated areas for professional development opportunities. In order to integrating technology tools into TEKS to provide student enrichment and achievement a professional development action plan is put in place.

Professional development opportunities also focus on improving gathering, analysis and use of data. Using data such as AIES, CIP, STaR chart, and Campus Based Assessments (CBA) to drive all decision making, to improve student learning through the use of technology. These assessments give you data to provide a clear focus and allow you to build a shared vision within the school. Ensuring that you have goals to implement technology within the classroom.

Staff development opportunities are to include curriculum and instruction with technology, allowing for better products and more authentic learning experience. Recommended staff developments include blogging, building and constructing products within the classrooms. Holding staff developments within smaller classroom settings, allowing teachers to have hands on experience with implementing technology within the classroom arranging activities that allow project learning to take place. Mentor programs with newer teachers pair with veteran teachers to share technology experiences. Allowing for constructive conversations that focus on improving student learning through technology.

Evaluation	Description	Frequency	Responsible Party
Professional Development Workshop Surveys	Surveys completed by attendees after staff development workshops.	Within 48 hours of attending a workshop	Presenter, Teachers and Administrators
STaR Chart	Completed by teachers and provide data that is school specific, used to focus on areas for growth	Yearly	Teachers and Administrators
AEIS Report	Report given that breaks down student achievement on TAKS test is subcategories	Yearly	Principal
CBA and Benchmarks	Assessments given that measure student achievement	CBA- given yearly Benchmarks- given 3 times per year beginning, middle and end of year	Teacher Campus Testing Coordinator
Teacher Walkthroughs	Snapshots of student learning	Informally throughout the year with a minimum of two per teacher.	Administration—building principal and AP’s

Star Chart

Star Chart

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Texas STaR Chart-- Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support

I believe the area in which the impact is the greatest in the Long Range Plan is the area of leadership, administration and support because of this I choose to focus on this area. Strong leadership can ensure that the technology vision becomes a reality. Providing characteristics of what good leaders look and act like. Some characteristics that they exhibit are to provide staff development, use data for decision making and develop, implement and budget for a technology planning.

Progress in this area focuses on creating a technology plan that falls within the shared vision between the state and campus. Creating a campus technology team in which decisions are made in accordance to the goal of the long range plan.

Trends in this area have the focus should be to integrate technology into all schools. Allowing for adequate teacher planning time and tech support and ensuring that computers are able to run effectively. Recommendations for TEA, regional agencies, and local agencies; examples include to provide leadership in data driven decision making and model leadership in the use of technology. At the school level however this was our lowest scoring area. Providing more professional development opportunities in which teachers can build off of their current knowledge and also having the technology team set up to help with issues that arise.

Pre-K Technology TEKS

The Pre-K TEKS allow the young learners to become familiar and gain confidence to different forms of technology. The technology skills that they will be first introduced to are essential to student performance in future grades. Such skills as beginning able to open and navigate through programs and being able to use a mouse to double click or insert a CD-ROM.

A spiraling curriculum allows skills to be introduced at one grade level, but are not intended to be mastered within the same year. There are opportunities and for the students to master the skills during other grade levels. TEKS that provided multiple opportunities for the student to learn are using appropriate technology for the given task, following acceptable use policies, and use software video, audio and graphics to enhance learning. All of these are skills in which the students will continually be exposed to year after year.

Reflections over Technology Assessment

Technology assessments or inventories have been a regular part of my own personal assessment since I have began teaching. The first assessment was a technology inventory and I could answer most of the questions for the most part with little to no difficulty. Under the foundations domain I was able to say yes to all, but two of the areas. One of the areas in which I did not answer yes to was being about to know the difference between analog and digital technologies and can interface the two. I know about analog and digital, but am not clear on what they mean by interface the two. I don't feel like I fully understand what they were asking here. The two domains in which I answered no to at least four questions was information acquisition and problem solving with technology. I had strengths in those areas, but I also had questions that I did not know what it was asking or I had not even heard of what the question was asking. Examples included Boolen search strategy, creating liner and non linear projects, and virtual environments. After looking over the entire assessment I was able to really think about how I am using technology within the classroom to improve student learning. I believe that I have an overall awareness and understanding, but do have room for improvement.

The SETDA teacher survey was much harder for me to reflect on and answer the questions fully. I believe because of my current position. I am not at a school full time and I don't have my own classroom. I consult and work as an interventionist only seeing students for 45 minutes in an intensive intervention. So using the assessment from my current position then I look as if I am weak in technology integration within the classrooms. Most answers were no currently. However, I retook the assessment and based it on my last year as a full time classroom teacher my answers changed to yes on a majority of questions.