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.