EDLD 5352 - Web Conference Reflection

On August 7, Doctor Jenkins and anywhere from 20 to 60 students were able to discuss issues from weeks four and five of the course.   Perhaps the best news shared was that we didn’t have to put anything on tk20!

Dr. Jenkins discussed the merits of project based learning and other ideas similar to it.  Some students shared their experiences with it.  Many worked in districts where this was the expectation in the classroom. One of the big issues discussed was the problems with grading.  This led to a discussion about the necessity of rubrics.

The PBL discussion led to a discussion of technology in the classroom and the issues of allowing students to bring their own devices into the classroom.  These included students using technology off task, posting information that shouldn’t be posted, and using technology to embarrass others.  It was agreed that kids must be trained to use it correctly; they must be monitored and be documented as signing the school’s policy.

The students then discussed the web 2.0 tools that they had found as part of their collaborative assignment using google docs.  Too many sites to list were mentioned.  Some of them were some that I had used before while many I had never heard of before.

I enjoyed hearing others articulate some of the same concerns I had about project based learning and to hear that others had some of the solutions to those concerns.  I jotted down some of the web 2.0 tools so that I could more to my list.  It was a good conference.

EDLD 5352 - Action Research Project Progress

My Action Research Project has focused on the impact of Step up to Writing on our students’ English Language scores - specifically on writing conventions.  We just received our site level test data for this last years’ state tests.  I will be analyzing the students’ scores a part of a three-year examination of their progress since we went to a school wide writing strategy.  The preliminary results are that we had a slight drop as a school in our scores but a larger one for our EL students.  I will be looking into this as part of my research.

I have the survey data from this last year and will shortly be giving another survey to the teachers to look at implementation data as well as perception data.

Over the summer, I acquired additional literature on Step Up to Writing from my principal and from the English chair and am in the process of adding this information to my project.  I am looking forward to finishing my project his fall.

EDLD 5352 - Internship Progress

Beginning in July, I have been working as an interim assistant principal at the same high school I have been teaching at for the past 14 years.  This has given me a tremendous opportunity to work on my internship plan.  In my last assessment of my plan, I had noticed that I had mostly covered the first two domains from the internship plan and really needed to focus on the third which is more facilities and structures based.

The principal has asked me to oversee attendance, records, faculty meetings, and the health services for the school.  I also have supervisory duties over the science and physical education departments. 

I was able to take part in the beginning of the year symposium for all administrators in the district and helped with the beginning of the year planning for our school site.  In collaboration with the site level admin team I have been working with the master schedule, teacher training, student discipline, the bell schedule, school safety, and testing data.

I am very grateful for this opportunity.  It has helped me see the real world applications of many of the concepts that I have discussed as theory so far in my internship.

EDLD 5352 - Technology Skills Gained

At the beginning of this course, I felt that I had a good grasp for using technology in my classroom.  I usually provide technology support for my colleagues, especially those in my department.  We have in the last two years increased our collaboration in the use of data analysis from state and site-based assessments.  We have utilized Dropbox to share resources.  We have created and collaborated on shared wikispaces sites to collaborate in lesson planning, lecture notes, web links, study guides, and assessments.  This has made our curriculum more accessible to our students and parents and made our discussions about classroom instruction more effective.

More than anything else, this course has given me the push to examine some web-based resources that I hadn’t taken the time to examine.  Some of these included Google docs, which I had not used before.  Our Google docs group shared ideas about LiveBinders, Prezi, Edmodo, TimeToast, Animoto, and Evernote.  I have never used any of these before.  I hope to begin using some of these as a result.

Our discussion board discussions covered project based learning and Flipped Classrooms.  I had heard of these innovations for the classroom but had not previously taken the time to learn how they might be implemented.  All in all this course has given me some new avenues to pursue in terms of technology in the classroom.