Instructional Leadership Course Reflection

The outcomes that I envisioned for this course was to be knowledgeable in the area of technology being used in our classrooms and being able to implement it in our schools. Providing the students with the different ways of communication will open up a new world of information. The students have the opportunity to learn about other students across the world. Distance learning, as mentioned in our videos, will help students to be able to continue their education as we are doing right now. This course has provided me with the knowledge of the different ways that our staff and students can communication and the benefits of doing it. I believe that I did achieve these out comes. The course did align with the outcomes that I envisioned. The activities and readings that we had enable me to understand the benefits of using the blog, wikis, and podcasting. I was really excited about the first activity. I had heard about the blogs, but I had never really attempt to learn about them. Learning how to set up a blog has given me the confidence to use this in my classroom as a project, but I believe that our district has something similar for our students.

To the extent of the outcomes that I achieved from this class, they are still relevant to the work that I do in school. As a Keyboarding teacher, the information has being very resourceful. Our students need to have the knowledge of the different ways of communication that is available to them and how they can use it to the best of their ability to enhance their learning. Technology has been improving every year. The students need to be prepared for what they will be exposed to in the working world. We as educators need to bring these technology innovations into our classrooms. Providing our teachers with training to become familiar with and be able to integrate this technology into their lessons is the key. Once they are informed about what is out there, and actually have the opportunity to use it, they will not be so resistant in implementing it in the classrooms.

The one thing that I did not achieve at this time was not learning more about the different types of communication in depth. The first activity with our blogs, I was really excited. I had heard about blogs, but I had not really used them, much less have produced one of my own. The only types of communication (social networking) that I had heard of, were the ones that my students and own children mention, which were facebook, and MySpace.

The one thing that caused me to not achieve this goal was time. Making sure that I put in more time to work on this website and learn how to use them would have enabled me to achieve my outcome. With this course, I have been exposed to the different types of communication and will make it a goal to dedicate more time to learn about them and how they are being use within the classrooms.

In looking back at the course assignments, I believe that I was successful in carrying them out. At first I would read the assignment and think that it was very long and time consuming, but as I would actually start to do it they became very interesting and challenging at times. Overall the assignments were very interesting and informative. They provided me the opportunity to look into depth about what we were studying for that week. The interesting subject was about the AUP’s. This section really had me wondering if our staff new the AUP’s and if they were following them. In this course I believe that all the assignments that we did enhanced our knowledge on technology integration and the responsibilities of administrators. This course has prepared me to make decisions based on what is available and needed for our student to increase academic success. The course assignments were in line with the subject at hand.

Instructional Leadership was a course that has improved my knowledge and skills in the Century 21 technology. Knowing the TEKS for Technology according to the grade level has provided me with the information to make improvements in the areas that our school needs. What I have learned about myself is that I need to get more involved with the different staff development courses that target new program and how they are used in the classrooms. In attending this course we reviewed the STaR Charts. The campuses use this information to “determine their progress towards meeting the goals of the Long Range Plan for Technology”. (2009, 2nd week Videos Part 3) The Technology Applications Inventory helps me to understand what areas I needed to improve. Making sure that I set goals to progress in the areas I need, will enable me to augment my leadership skills. This course has given me confidence to learn more about the social networking available to our staff and students. This will provide me with the necessary tools to make sure that our students are safe while they are exposed to this new technology.

Blog and blogging will allow the students to share their views and be able to comment to other blogs. Using the blogs in a classroom project will expose the students to collaboration, creating, and communication. These are skills that they will use in the working world. Preparing the students for the future work environment will give them an opportunity to succeed in life.

The students run the risk of exposing themselves to predators. We as teachers need to make the students aware as to what they can and cannot share in such a public space. Educating the students and their parents on cyber ethics is very important. The safety of our students is our school district’s priority. There were districts that were hesitant to provide the internet to the students or staff because of the safety issue concern. Now the districts are able to prevent students or staff from going into sites that are in appropriate for them. They have sites within the district are exclusively for the students and teachers. We at our school district have the Moodle, which I am still learning about, that provides the teacher with the ability to produce lessons for the students to do and upload so that she can grade. My goal for this coming semester is to have my moodle working for my students.
Blogging is not only for students, but our staff can also use it to communicate their ideas on book study, course subjects planning and discussion. As administrators, I believe that we can set the example by using the blog to communicate with our staff. If we were to develop a book study and our meetings on the blog, we would be able to eliminate paper, and probably have better attendance. Our parents would be able to participate in certain blogs that they would be able to voice their concerns about the school or staff. This would be beneficial to our school so that we can address the parents concerns.

This class has benefited me in so many ways. I will certainly continue learning about the technology that we as administrators need to know so that we can introduce to our staff. In this course we learned about the Different types of data that we can obtain to help us make informed decisions on our Technology Plans. Setting goals and assessing our progress is important to us as administrators. Overall this course has provided me with the tools that I need to develop my leadership skills.

STaR Chart Data Presentation

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STaR Chart Data Presentation

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Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support

The one key area that has really interested me is the the Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support. In this area the our administrators need to model the effective use and support their staff in providing them with the training that is needed to integrate technology into the classroom. The administrator will clear about their expectations for the faculty to use the technology to improve student success. As administrators we need to make sure that we budget the amount that is needed to train our staff. In reviewing the data for the STaR Chart, I was able to see that the classification did not change with in the three years. In the 06-07, 07-08, and 08-09 Advanced Tech was the classification all all three years. What this means is that the our school district has a plan in place that will allow the technology to increase in our district. There will be more funds allocated to the grown of that department. Comparing it to the Campus Statewide Summary, are ahead in this key area. This has remained the same throughout the years 07-08 and 08-09.

The recommendations to improve in this area is to continue supporting the teachers with their training and allocate the funds needed to obtain new equipment as well as to upgrade the one that we already have. The administrators are very supportive in providing the time for teachers to use for training. This I believe will encourage teachers to want to attend the trainings and also implement what they learn in their classrooms.

Pre-K Technology Applications TEKS

The Pre-K TEKS provide the students with the necessary social and personal skills that are needed as they continue learning about technology. As the students begins to learn more about the technology, they will need to be able to communicate with several different groups of people. This will help the students performance increase in the future grades.

The spiraling or scaffolding curriculum gives the student the opportunity to learn the skills on the different areas of technology. The students will be able to review the previous skills to acquire new knowledge. The repetition of the skill will enable the student to grasp the basic concepts. The students starts to learn about keyboarding in the second grade and it continues through the eighth grade. This provides the student the ability to master the keyboarding.

Long Range Plan

This plan has a specific goal for each of the participants. It gives us the information about how the students should acquire the necessary skills to perform in the 21st Century. The plan not only shows the expectations of students, but what teachers need to accomplish in order to help the students perform at their best. The plan is a state plan and it measures the progress throughout various Data Base Information that allows them to monitor the progress at each district as well as each school. I believe that I have been able to acquire the necessary knowledge of what is expected of me as an administrator to ensure that the teachers are receiving all the necessary training that they need to integrate technology in their classrooms. It also gave me ideas about how to have teachers communicate with each other their successful innovative ideas.

As an administrator, we need to be knowledgeable of software that is available and know how to use it to it's capacity. I need to make sure that I start being more motivated to learn other software and use it in my work to be productive.

Comparison of Technology Applications Inventory and SETDA Survey

After completing the assessments, I believe that my strengths are the Basic Foundations and Problem Solving. The other two domains in the Technology Applications Inventory, my scores were very low. From this assessment, I would be able to determine that I need to learn more about Information Acquisition and Communication.

On the SETDA assessment, I realized that I need to learn a lot more about different software and acquire the ability to use them to be more productive. This assessment covered six areas: Impact on Student Learning, Effective Practice, Educator Proficiency, Robust Access, Digital Age Equity, and Visions, Systems, and Leadership. This assessment made me realize that my strengths are in the Effective practice. My students are exposed to the computer, but are limited to what they are doing on them. An other strength would be in educator proficiency area, I use the technology in preparing for their lessons. My weakness in this assessment are not implementing what I learn from the staff development for fear of it not working and ending up with and uncontrollable class. I believe that I have the professional development, but lack the practice.

The areas where I need more knowledge and skills is on learning how to use the software to the optimal level. I was surprised to learn that on Acrobat there are features that we can use to improve our productivity. Another skill that I need to acquire, is learning how to convert documents so that they can viewed in different software. I need to take the time to review the software and learn about it as I am using it.

Even thought I do not want to admit it, the results of these assessments are true. Having the opportunity to realize how much more I need to learn about our technology, and start to creat a plan to get there will really prepare me for an administration position.