reflections on instructional leadership and technology integration

When I saw the title of my next class “Instructional Leadership” I was quite excited because I thought that the class would provide me with specific strategies for becoming a strong instructional leader for my campus. I was looking forward to learning innovative classroom best-practice approaches to improve my craft and share with others. I suppose I thought this class would be like the Instructional Leadership Development training I took last summer and learned so much from. Then, after reviewing the syllabus, I came to understood that this course was focused on technology integration in the classroom. At first, I was somewhat disappointed because I still thought of instructional leadership as something very different than technology integration. The past five weeks have changed my thinking.

My expectations had to undergo a major adjustment once I began to understand the purpose of this course. My desired outcome – as with all classes – is to come away with some knowledge and experience that will be relevant to my future role as an administrator and help me improve my practice. As a result of this class, I now understand the usefulness of the STaR Chart as a campus technology assessment tool. I am also excited about the possibilities that blogs have as both a communication tool for a faculty and as an instructional tool in the classroom. I have come to understand that for today’s ‘digital native’ students, integrated technology-based instruction IS effective instruction. As an administrator in the 21^st Century, it will be vitally important to personally keep up with technology and to be an advocate for technology integration in instruction. Our students will be utilizing technology whether we are or not.

As I previously stated, I originally expected to learn more about being an instructional leader, providing my faculty with instructional strategies and guiding them in curriculum management. Instead, this course has reinforced my understanding of the importance of utilizing integrated technology to maximize our students’ learning opportunities. It is still a bit of a paradigm shift for me to go from thinking of technology as an assistive tool to understanding that it can and should be fully integrated into every curriculum.

I was frustrated with the length of the discussion board assignments and the ‘busy work’ nature of that activity. I enjoyed having more interaction with my peers and I feel the ‘final word protocol’ was an effective technique for encouraging more discussion. However, pulling quotes from each reading was tedious busy work. I would have gotten much more out of using the ‘final word’ approach in response to some thought-provoking discussion questions or experience sharing with my colleagues. I also would have liked to learn more about the different Web 2.0 tools and their uses in education.

As an administrator, I will utilize the lessons learned about the necessity of modeling and supporting technology integration in all aspects of education. I had never considered having my own blog before, but I have enjoyed the learning experience of creating a blog and I can see their usefulness. There are many ways that blogging and wikis can be used in the classroom and as a tool for professional development. I have also never used SlideShare before and I was pleased to learn about this valuable resource. I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised to discover just how much I do not know about technology tools. This course has motivated me to explore what technology resources are available at my campus and district level. I discovered that several teachers are already using blogs, Google docs, and other web-based tools regularly. I find that while I am not the most ‘tech savvy’ person, I am extremely excited about the opportunities that technology integration provide to our students and staff. As a campus instructional leader, it will be important to make technology integration a priority in order to ensure that our campus curriculum stays relevant and engaging for our students.

Through this course, I discovered that one of the easiest ways to integrate technology is through the use of blogs. Blogs can be used in so many different ways: as an alternative to a class website, to encourage written responses to class discussion, to communicate across school campuses or with people outside of the campus, to collaborate on a project, and many other uses. The 21^st century learner is accustomed to communicating and collaborating through online and wireless media and educators need build on those strengths. I also find that teachers often become isolated in their classrooms and do not work together enough. Creating department blogs may help. Teachers can also use blogs to collaborate on lesson planning and design or other projects. I would like to set up a classroom blog for my 8^th grade Language Arts classes. I could use the blog to inform the students of classroom policies and daily assignments. I can also imagine having students respond to literature and complete short writing assignments through the blog.

My main concern with blogging is protecting the students’ privacy and ensuring that they are safe. As with any use of technology, teachers should always review the safety guidelines and expectations around using a blog. Online ‘netiquette’ and safe use precautions cannot be assumed, but must be explicitly taught. The students should have a thorough understanding of the district’s Acceptable Use Policy. Many school districts appear to still be leery of using Web 2.0 tools because of the possibility of exposing students to harm. This possibility is very real, but I believe with proper training and supervision the benefits of educational blogging can be vast.

Blogging is simply another means of communication. When I want to learn about a product, store, or service the first place I look is on the internet. This same mindset is becoming more and more prevalent with our educational stakeholders. When a stakeholder needs more information about a school or classroom, they will frequently start with looking online. For this reason it is essential that the educational system embrace online communication and begin utilizing it effectively. A campus or classroom blog can keep stakeholders informed of upcoming events, policies, homework and class work expectations, etc. Blogs also facilitate two-way communication by allowing the stakeholders a means of responding to the teachers’ posts. One thing that I have learned in my years in education is that parents really do want to be informed about their Childs’ activities. I believe that blogging and many of the other technology resources mentioned in this course will become more and more prevalent in education and will become the norm in the future. These communication tools can provide an important connection between all the stakeholders: teachers, parents, and students.

integrating technology: a professional development priority

Technology Training Needs - Overview:

My campus has the wonderful resource of school-assigned laptops issued to each middle school student. Unfortunately, the teachers have not been given enough time or training to effectively incorporate the laptops into daily instruction. The faculty would benefit from targeted training and staff development time focused on utilizing technology. Technology trainings in the past have provided brief overviews of software available and data management tools. While these are helpful, our teachers need specific tools and ideas for use in the classroom. Teachers who are tech savvy need to mentor teachers who may be intimidated or overwhelmed by technology. Teachers need to come away from staff development trainings with specific tools and ideas that they can use in their classrooms. Also, our curriculum needs to be reworked to provide ways to integrate technology in student learning.

Monthly Department Meetings – Technology focus

Session Purpose: To improve student learning and TAKS scores by analyzing the current Teaching and Learning Plan and ensuring technology integration and learner-centered focus.
Learning Objective to Be Addressed: Ensuring alignment of curriculum with TEKS / TAKS objectives, targeting instructional strategies to address weakest areas of student achievement, and integrating technology into instruction to enhance student engagement and facilitate student inquiry.
Purpose	Description	Steps
Teachers will analyze AEIS data, TAKS data, TEKS, and technology plan to identify current instructional deficiencies.	The teachers will choose specific lessons, units, or instructional objectives which need extra focus.	1. Provide teachers with AEIS data, TAKS results, TEKS, technology plan, and CIP. 2. Teachers will decide – based on the data – what areas need improvement.
Teachers will identify weaknesses in the curriculum with regards to meeting the TEKS / TAKS objectives, technology objectives, and CIP goals.	Analyze the current curriculum, specifically identifying the lessons that appear weak or do not meet the stated objectives.	1. Provide the teachers with the curriculum scope and sequence and the TEKS. 2. Identify lessons that do not adequately address the TEKS / TAKS objectives and do not utilize student-centered learning strategies or technology integration.
Teachers will learn about different technology options and ideas for integration in the classroom instruction. Ex: blogging, web exploration, data management, presentation options, research tools, simulation tools, etc.	During monthly meetings, teachers will discuss / learn about technology tools and options available in the district.	1. The district instructional specialist and technology specialists will meet with teachers to suggest technology tools, websites, and other ways to integrate technology into student learning.
Teachers will revamp specific lessons or units to increase TEKS alignment, integrate technology into instruction, include student-centered activities, and engage students’ higher order thinking skills.	Teachers who are not as computer literate will be partnered with teachers who are more comfortable with technology. The mentoring pairs will work together to revamp identified lessons or units to include more opportunities for students to utilize technology and engage in inquiry-based learning.	1. Technology mentoring partnerships will be identified. 2. Partners will choose one of the lessons/units that were identified for improvement. 3. Teachers will work together to improve their chosen lessons adding student-centered activities focused on technology integration and high order thinking skills.

S Ta R Chart

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S Ta R Chart

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technology - are we prepared?

The Educator Preparation and Development section of the STaR Chart measures the amount and usefulness of professional development received in the previous year, the amount of targeted technology training received, the educators’ levels of understanding and capability in integrating technology, and the educators’ ability to provide web-based learning opportunities. The 2008-2009 STaR Chart survey results for my campus show that Educator Preparation and Development is the weakest area for my campus. The survey indicates that our campus is still at a developing level, although we have shown growth in each of the past three years. These results indicate that there is still a significant amount of teacher training that needs to be done in order for our faculty to feel comfortable with fully integrating technology into the classroom.

The state-wide STaR Chart survey results show that the majority of schools are still in the Developing category for this area. Only 20% of the schools that reported were Advanced. This suggests that my campus falls within the normal range of advancement for most of the schools in the state. However, complacency is not acceptable. Especially considering that my school district spent tens of thousands of dollars putting a laptop computer into the hands of every 5^th-8^th grade student in the district, we should be scoring at an advanced level at the very least.

These results highlight the technology breakdown in my district. The infrastructure was provided without the training and preparation needed to make it truly successful. Before laptops were ever distributed, the school district needed to invest in extensive professional development training for the teachers whose classrooms would benefit from such an amazing resource. The school district still needs to provide significant, effective, ongoing technology training. Teachers need to be trained not only on the different software applications available, but on creative ways to integrate laptop use into every day learning.

It is imperative that the education system find ways to be on the cutting edge of technology, otherwise, we will not be able to adequately prepare our students to operate in today’s digital world.

spiraling curriculum

It seems to me that most curriculum are spiraling or scaffolding. We cannot jump into 8th grade Language Arts teaching the literary elements without the students first knowing how to read and becoming familiar with types of literature. Each year is comprised of reviewing skills taught in the past and then expanding upon that prior knowledge to reach new learning. This is why it is so important to have vertical alignment across the district. As a middle school teacher, I will have a very difficult time effectively teaching compound-complex sentence structure or dependent clauses if the students do not already understand what a complete sentence is and cannot identify nouns and verbs.

pre-k technology application teks

The guidelines set forth for the Pre-Kindergarten Technology Applications certainly advance young students’ classroom exposure to technology as compared to past expectations. Through these guidelines children have the opportunity to learn basic functions of the computer. They learn how to operate a variety of input devices. They are exposed to technical terminology and begin developing a technical vocabulary. Several software programs are introduced that use audio, video, and graphics and which provide students with interactive learning opportunities. This foundation allows young students to have a jump start into the world of technology.

the long-range plan

There is an overwhelming amount of information in the Long-Range Plan. The task of implementing a plan to overhaul the Texas educational system to effectively integrate and teach technology is an essential, yet daunting, one. As an educator and administrator, I will need to do my part to ensure that our children are prepared for the twenty-first century workplace. I will need to create an educational cultural that values and utilizes the use of technology in the classroom and in professional growth. I will need to ensure that my faculty and I receive ongoing, effective, and relevant professional development opportunities in technology and its classroom implementation. I will also advocate for appropriating sufficient funding and up-to-date hardware and software to support the technological and educational goals of my campus.