Course Reflections

Post your course reflections to your blog site. Please respond to the following reflection questions:

· What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?
At first when I read the class syllabus and found out what we where going to be doing I felt like just dropping the class, I am not very good with computers. I had envisioned this class to be very computer based and had to do a lot of computer and software learning. The first two weeks of this class were very challenging and took up a lot of my time. But as the days went by and I started to feel more comfortable, I really got into it and I learned a lot from the readings and by doing the assignments. Before taking this class I knew nothing about blogging or podcasting. Know we are trying to hopefully implemented some of these new learning’s into our math department and classes. My self and a colleague of mine were talking about the article written by Marc Prensky titled Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, because we are really immigrants when it comes to learning how to work properly with the computers and all of the copyrights and dangers that come with the new technology. We as school leaders need to become better prepared and start pushing our school district to become more envisioned into the 21st century learners and meet the technology plan for 2020.
· To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?
This course has made me realize how behind and blind we are at our district when it comes to technology and all of its great capabilities. Before taking this class I taught we were doing pretty good, purchasing extendas for our classroom, obtaining smart boards for our math department, etc… But after the first couple of weeks in this class and through the readings, lectures, videos, but most importantly the discussions I soon realized that we were not where were we need to be. Most of our students have no idea what blogging or podcasting is. And I do not blame them because most of our staff does not know either. This course has opened my eyes and now I which I had known all these information sooner. I as the math department lead teacher would like to get something going with our department and hopefully extended to the whole school with the blogs. I find this to be a great communication and informative tool to use with all of our stakeholders. The STaR chart is another thing that I know understand a lot better. Before this course I knew what it was and that we needed as a whole school to take it, but did not know how important it was to our district and to our students to meet the long-range plan and Vision 2020. We as a math department have come to an agreement that we do need to take advantage of what we have and use more technology to get our students more exposed and prepared for the future.
· What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?
One thing that I felt was very important and I did not get to achieve in this class was teaching our students technology and internet ethics as well as teach them about the dangers that exist in the net. During this time of the semester we are very constrained with time and deadlines to meet, with benchmarks, grades, reports, and data desegregation that it would be very overwhelming to have gone into these with the students. But I do plan to achieve this before the school year finishes and at least they will have this information for future reference. Another thing that I would have liked to have achieved would be getting together with my math department and as a department come up with a couple of lessons designed to help teachers implement into their curriculum strategies, activities, and assessments that allows students to work with technology themselves instead of just the teacher. Again unable to do this because to the time issue but we will get to it and it will be great for our students.
· Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?
When I first found out that our next class was going to be about technology I was a little hesitant about it. I am not very good with technology and while I am willing to learn new things it is hard to teach old dog new tricks. Then came the first week and I was completely overwhelmed, I honestly taught about dropping the class. I have never had to do a blog; I did not even know what a blog was. Then there were all this readings and discussions we had to do, twenty-one or so, when we were used to doing one. This course has been a great challenge and very time demanding. You just need to place your priorities in place and just do it like the Nike commercial says.
· What did you learn from this course…about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

This course has taught me a lot of new things that I had no clue as to what they were before taking this class. I have learned why it is very important for our district to complete the STaR chart and how it is linked to our long-range plan for technology and for Vision 2020. I have also learned how important it is for school leaders to be role models and advocates of technology in our campuses. We need to start changing our ways of teaching and lecturing if we want our students to be 21st century learners and contributing citizens. Another fun thing that I learned for instance was how to create a blog, now I think this is something that I will continue to use and implement into my classes and department meetings. I learned about myself that I am more computer literate then what I thought I was, but I still need to improve my skills a lot more if I want to help my students master some of these skills themselves. I have also kept a positive attitude towards changes that need to occur if we want to keep up with the demands that our society has placed on us. I will continue to be positive and hopefully lead my team and district to a better tomorrow where students have the necessary tools to be successful in their higher education and work force.

· What is the educational value of blogs and blogging to the 21st century learner?

The educational value of blogs and blogging to the 21st century learner depends how the learner uses and takes advantage of this tool. Blogging can be a great way of sharing and obtaining new information and ideas. It could also become a great way to communicate and inform people with the same interests as yours. Before this course I had no idea what a blog was, now I have my own blog and feel that it is something that I can continue to use and learn more about later. 21st century learners need to be exposed to this type of communication tools as well as other, because they will probably end up needing it in the future.

· What are the concerns of blogs and blogging in education?
Blogs and blogging just like in any other communication tool could be very dangerous when discussing something very private or sensitive subject. Blogs could be seen as something like MySpace where students would end up posting very personal information, pictures or videos that would not be appropriate for everyone to see. I know that at our school district all of these sites have been blocked and are not assessable to our students.
· How can you use blogging to communicate with school stakeholders?
Blogs could be used to communicate with all school stakeholders as an informative and communication site. Teachers can use blogs to post class syllabus, assignments, important test dates, etc… Blogs can also be use to share ideas and information with other teachers that might not teach in the same school as yours. Parents and community members could also take advantage of blogs to communicate with school officials and teachers about what is happen in the district and also get results from benchmarks scores, to student’s attendance, to athletic events and lot more. Blog and blogging if done correct and with respect to all stakeholders could be a great tool to use by all.

Part 2: Campus Professional Development Action Plan
Goal: We will implement technology in all our classrooms through the use of new communication methods and through new machinery and computers in our CATE classrooms and improve our subpopulations performance in their benchmarks by at least 15%.
Action Item
Person Responsible
Timeline
Staff needs continuing professional development on the use of technology to deliver and enrich their curriculum, integrating technology into our curriculum, instruction and assessment.
Campus Principal and SBDM Committee
August 2010
Summer Academy
Take advantage of our Fine Tuning Protocols that we have available during our Small Learning Community meetings to focus on improving integrating the use of technology to deliver instruction and implementing it into our lessons and projects.
Small Learning Community Coordinator and Assistant Principal
Through out the school year during our SLC meetings.
Improve our established curriculum, CSCOPE, by integrating technology into our lessons, activities and assessments by subject area.
Department lead teachers and the rest of the department staff
Summer 2010 and continue to work on it through our year.

Zapata High School S Ta R Chart Presentation

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: STaR Chart Data

Zapata High School S Ta R Chart Presentation

View more presentations from roelibanez.

Week 2 Part 2, STaR Chart Opinion Piece

Educator Preparation and Development is the area from the Texas STaR Chart that I have selected to discuss. This area talks about how important it is for current educators and those who will enter the education system in the future, to have the skills needed to change instruction to meet the needs of this generation of Texas students (Vision 2020, P.23). Only through professional development can educators continue an ongoing learning process that will enable them to learn the new strategies and technology updates that will benefit their students. Technology has become a fundamental aspect in the education system and it is can impact curriculum and instruction, but for this to take place teacher need to learn to support the curriculum and bring about learning opportunities that would not be possible without the technology. In order to prepare 21st Century students that are going to successful in their secondary education or enter the workforce, teachers need to be capable and prepared to take significantly diverse roles, students, and technologies; through obtaining the skills necessary to get the job done. At our campus this area is in the developing tech progress, this seems to be consistent with the state results. In the last three years our campus has gradually improved from being early tech to now having a developing tech progress. We still have a lot of improvement to do and hopefully within the next couple of years we can become a campus with target tech level of progress. This will mean that in our classrooms teachers will be prepared to have regularly supported by technology and learner-centered instruction and projects are being delivered. Right now we do have a lot of technology available and our administration has implemented it into their tasks and classroom management. As educators and professionals we need to come up with the understanding that what worked for us twenty, ten or even five years ago will not be enough to get our students where they want to be. We need to encourage our students to use and take advantage of all the technology resources available to them. Locally, at our campus our administration has done an exceptional job bring in professional development for the staff to keep up with the technology and new programs that is going to benefit our students. Our principal is very aware of these changing times and has been able to purchase several technology equipment and programs to improve classroom resources and technology integration. For instance we just had a set of extendas (six computers in out classroom), ceiling mounted projectors, new teacher laptops with new programs, and in the math department we had smart boards installed. The students really get engaged when they get the opportunity to work with the smart board they think it’s the coolest think. Taking advantage of the technology and being prepared as educators will just make our students more ready for the 21st Century.

Technology Applications TEKS Summary

In a spiraling curriculum, you learn by getting ready, from sources, by doing, by feedback, or by thinking ahead. The technology TEKS are designed in a scaffolding manner to provide support for students from grade to grade. Once the students have mastered their technology TEKS, the support is no longer needed. Throughout all grade levels of the TEKS, the foundation strand “the student demonstrates knowledge and appropriate use of hardware components, software programs, and their connections” is scaffold from grade 2 through grade12. This is only one example of the scaffolding curriculum. Students have various opportunities to master that expectation.

Long-Range Plan Summary

This was the first time that I looked at this Long-Range Plan, and it is all making sense to me. Before I looked at this plan I felt that technology was important and that we needed to incorporate into our classrooms because it was available and that our students really get engaged and interested when implemented accordingly. Now I have learned that this Long-Range plan was put in place to make sure that our students get the best technology out there and that they can learn to use as it will become a great part of their everyday lives in the near future. The Texas Long-Range Plan for technology consists of four major components: integration of technology into teaching and learning, professional development, administration and support services, and infrastructure for technology. This plan was developed to help school districts and school campus keep up with the ever changing world of technology. This plan also provides a guide for future technology implementations. Teachers have noticed the great demand from students when it comes to incorporating technology in their classrooms from laptops, smart boards, graphing calculators, projectors and even digital equipment. As a school leaders and educators we need to continue to improve and learn new skills to keep up with tomorrow’s technology. We should model technology and teach students to be wise when using the technology available. The biggest key to have a successful technology program is having a strong infrastructure and the support from all staff, administration and community leaders.

Reflections of the two technology assessments

In the first assessment that I took the technology applications inventory it had four domains. The first domain had to do with foundations and in this domain I answered 16 questions yes and only 2 questions I answered no. In this domain it basically had to do with the user understanding the main concepts and usage of the computer. The two things that I still need to master are being able to delinate the various digital file formats and being able to identify the difference between analog and digital technology and interface the two appropriatly. In the second domain information acquisition, I answered yes to seven questions and answered no to three of them. Domain two had to do with finding information via the internet. While I do have some knowledge doing research through the internet I still need some learning to do. The three aspects from this domain that I need most help with are with the vector graphic files and bit-mapped graphic files. I also need to learn more on identifying, creating, and using image, audio, and video files. Being able to determin and employ methods to evalulate electronic infromation for accuracy and validity. While in the first two domains I was able to have some prior knowlege and knew more less what they were talking about in the third and fourth domain I was for the most part lost. In the third domain of the assessment dealing with solving problems with technology tools I answered yes to only five questions and asnwered no to thirteen of them. In this domain I can create with a work processor, understand the readability issues regarding different font types, can use the format as far as settings, margin settings and page alignment. I am also able to work with the draw and paint application and also construct graphs and graphics from paint or draw, and mail merge. The fourth domain had to do with communication and in these domain out of the twelve questions I only answered yes to one question. I only aswered yes to being able to evaluate products for relevance to the assignment or task. After taking this assessment I soon came to the realization that I need to become more computer literate.

In the SETDA Teacher Survey I was able to find out that while in our district we do have a lot of technology available we are still not up to date. In our district and especially at the high school we do use technology at our content areas to impact student achievement. All of the four content areas have extendas in thier rooms and laptops available to the students. Teachers also use the internet to modify thier lessons and make them more rigorous and improve student engagement. The technology is made available to every student with out discriminating against any social class or ethnicity. In the math department for instance we have the smart board and the navigator from TI to incorporate into our lessons. We also use internet programs like brainpop, coolmath, and geometry 3D findings, etc... The students also have a studyisland membership where they can go into and practice thier skills in this program in the computer. We do have a lot of technology available we just need to get all of our staff members involved and interested in using it. All of our grading and attendance is also done online and we can also have easy access to our students profiles via thourgh our AB profiles and everything is done with our computers. Thers is also collaboration between our staff members with the technology and there are some staff members that have more experience and experties with technology than others. The technology is very equally distributed within the district and very campus has it fair share of the technology available.