S Ta R Presentation
View more presentations from Tanna Padgett.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
S Ta R Presentation
The Texas STaR Chart presentation describes the survey and it's purpose. The four performance evlauation areas are discussed and a three year summary of Huffman ISD's results is reviewed.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Instructional Leadership Week 2 Opinion
The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology specifies visionary goals in four key areas; Teaching and Learning, Educator Preparation & Development, Administration and Support Services, and Infrastructure for Technology. Upon examining the most recent three years of the Texas Campus STaR chart for my campus I found the area of Leadership, Administration and Support Services particularly interesting as it revealed a steady increase in improvement.
In the area of Leadership, Administration and Support Services, administrators are expected to emerge as leaders in the integration of technology as they model implementation into their daily tasks. They should pave the way for their teachers to become proficient and are the key component in cultivating change. They must incorporate technology into their vision and campus plan, and create an on-going technology committee representative of all community stakeholders. Leaders must budget for and monitor continually changing needs, create environments that are conducive to innovation, offer a variety of instructional opportunities to students, and provide teachers relevant and continual professional development.
By these definitions I would not have expected my campus to receive a score of Advanced Tech. As a district we have become more technologically advanced, however as a campus I don't think that the leadership is supporting technology as it should. I have examined the campus improvement plan and there are provisions for technology improvement however, a technology committee does not exist on the campus level. There are budgetary funds allotted to technology but continual professional development is not offered. If teachers seek out the opportunity and request support it will be granted yet the administration is lacking leadership in that area. Lastly, the leaders on my campus have not created an environment that is conducive to innovation and allows for the variety of instructional opportunities. We are forced to adhere to a scripted cookie cutter curriculum that is then reinforced by homogeneous practice. Every student in every classroom gets the exact same lesson, exact same classwork, and exact same homework. I would not call this innovation and advancement by any means.
I will say that as a campus and a district there have been numerous advancements in the area of technology over the past 4 years. Our curriculum is ea sly accessible online to be utilized at any time either at work or at home. This has greatly improved planning as it frees up a teacher's schedule to plan from home as well as limits the amount of materials that are required to be transported if planning is to occur outside of the classroom. Secondly, the installation of interactive white boards in all classrooms K-8 has dramatically changed the face of classroom instruction. Student attention and involvement has improved, instruction has improved due to the endless possibilities the white board offers and teachers are planning more engaging lessons with the use of the accompanying software provided with the white boards. Lastly, this year my district moved to a new student management software that is accessible by parents as well as by teachers from home. Again, this improves teacher's home time as they can complete data entry from their computers at home. There are technological improvements happening throughout the district that positively impacts my campus however, I do not feel as though my campus is leading the way for their own advancement.
At the state level the majority of the campuses are in the Developing Tech designation in the area of support as well as staffing. Texas trends and national trends are very similar in that there the most frequent technology use at school is the Internet followed by the school website, creating presentations and finally taking tests online. Hindrances are the same both nationally and within the state with not enough computer time at the top of the list. followed by inoperable equipment and not enough computers for everyone.
My recommendations for improvement at the campus level would be for our leadership to cease their micromanagement and open themselves up thus opening the campus up to innovation. Professional freedom in decision making should be afforded to the teachers and encouragement should be given to teachers that are planning engaging and technologically advanced lessons that are differentiated and individualized. For the state and national level, efforts should be made to improve support staff at all levels. Budgetary funds should be focused on technology improvement in all areas from hardware, software, training and support.
In the area of Leadership, Administration and Support Services, administrators are expected to emerge as leaders in the integration of technology as they model implementation into their daily tasks. They should pave the way for their teachers to become proficient and are the key component in cultivating change. They must incorporate technology into their vision and campus plan, and create an on-going technology committee representative of all community stakeholders. Leaders must budget for and monitor continually changing needs, create environments that are conducive to innovation, offer a variety of instructional opportunities to students, and provide teachers relevant and continual professional development.
By these definitions I would not have expected my campus to receive a score of Advanced Tech. As a district we have become more technologically advanced, however as a campus I don't think that the leadership is supporting technology as it should. I have examined the campus improvement plan and there are provisions for technology improvement however, a technology committee does not exist on the campus level. There are budgetary funds allotted to technology but continual professional development is not offered. If teachers seek out the opportunity and request support it will be granted yet the administration is lacking leadership in that area. Lastly, the leaders on my campus have not created an environment that is conducive to innovation and allows for the variety of instructional opportunities. We are forced to adhere to a scripted cookie cutter curriculum that is then reinforced by homogeneous practice. Every student in every classroom gets the exact same lesson, exact same classwork, and exact same homework. I would not call this innovation and advancement by any means.
I will say that as a campus and a district there have been numerous advancements in the area of technology over the past 4 years. Our curriculum is ea sly accessible online to be utilized at any time either at work or at home. This has greatly improved planning as it frees up a teacher's schedule to plan from home as well as limits the amount of materials that are required to be transported if planning is to occur outside of the classroom. Secondly, the installation of interactive white boards in all classrooms K-8 has dramatically changed the face of classroom instruction. Student attention and involvement has improved, instruction has improved due to the endless possibilities the white board offers and teachers are planning more engaging lessons with the use of the accompanying software provided with the white boards. Lastly, this year my district moved to a new student management software that is accessible by parents as well as by teachers from home. Again, this improves teacher's home time as they can complete data entry from their computers at home. There are technological improvements happening throughout the district that positively impacts my campus however, I do not feel as though my campus is leading the way for their own advancement.
At the state level the majority of the campuses are in the Developing Tech designation in the area of support as well as staffing. Texas trends and national trends are very similar in that there the most frequent technology use at school is the Internet followed by the school website, creating presentations and finally taking tests online. Hindrances are the same both nationally and within the state with not enough computer time at the top of the list. followed by inoperable equipment and not enough computers for everyone.
My recommendations for improvement at the campus level would be for our leadership to cease their micromanagement and open themselves up thus opening the campus up to innovation. Professional freedom in decision making should be afforded to the teachers and encouragement should be given to teachers that are planning engaging and technologically advanced lessons that are differentiated and individualized. For the state and national level, efforts should be made to improve support staff at all levels. Budgetary funds should be focused on technology improvement in all areas from hardware, software, training and support.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Instructional Leadership Week 1 Part 4
The technology TEKS from K-8 are continually spiraling and provide the necessary framework to educate the student in the field of technology. After reviewing the TEKS from PreK to 8th grade I was astounded at how advanced they were and what a young age they were expected to be taught and preform complex tasks.
Spending time studying these TEKS really wrapped this week's work up for me and tied a nice little bow on what I have learned. There is such a push to continually keep up with a technological world that is moving at lightning speed. The generation that we are trying to educate is moving right along with them and their ability to learn advanced technological applications is astounding yet to them is just like second nature.
Starting students in Pre-K familiarizing them with the hardware, teaching them the vocabulary, and using age appropriate software really lays a valuable foundation for the furthering of their technological learning. My opinion is to start them as early as possible. I started my daughter at the age of 2 and her proficiency on the computer and the Internet simply astounds me.
The Technology TEKS provide an excellent example of a spiraling curriculum in that as you follow the expectations from Pre-K to 8th grade you see skills introduced then applied to acquire and practice new skills then reviewed, and applied to master higher level skills. When spiraling occurs students are not taught skills in isolated instances and then never reviewed or given the opportunity to apply their knowledge. They are constantly revisiting, re-learning, and re-applying what they have learned. Within the communication domain of the Technology Application TEKS numbers 11 A, B, and C do just this. In Kindergarten students are introduced to publication of information using the printer, and the monitor, storage files and video. After practicing this through 2nd grade they then move to using the Internet, video and begin to use software to design presentations for a specific audience in grades 3-5. Then as they move to grades 6-8 they continue to practice publishing via printed copy, monitor display, Internet documentation, video and electronic presentations. They apply interdisciplinary multimedia such as audio, video, text, and graphics to their presentation software and use telecommunication tools to publish such as Internet browsers, video conferencing, or distance learning. This series of TEKS is fully developed from it's foundation to it's mastery and spirals with each grade level reviewing previously learned skills and apply their knowledge to acquire new skills and information.
Spending time studying these TEKS really wrapped this week's work up for me and tied a nice little bow on what I have learned. There is such a push to continually keep up with a technological world that is moving at lightning speed. The generation that we are trying to educate is moving right along with them and their ability to learn advanced technological applications is astounding yet to them is just like second nature.
Starting students in Pre-K familiarizing them with the hardware, teaching them the vocabulary, and using age appropriate software really lays a valuable foundation for the furthering of their technological learning. My opinion is to start them as early as possible. I started my daughter at the age of 2 and her proficiency on the computer and the Internet simply astounds me.
The Technology TEKS provide an excellent example of a spiraling curriculum in that as you follow the expectations from Pre-K to 8th grade you see skills introduced then applied to acquire and practice new skills then reviewed, and applied to master higher level skills. When spiraling occurs students are not taught skills in isolated instances and then never reviewed or given the opportunity to apply their knowledge. They are constantly revisiting, re-learning, and re-applying what they have learned. Within the communication domain of the Technology Application TEKS numbers 11 A, B, and C do just this. In Kindergarten students are introduced to publication of information using the printer, and the monitor, storage files and video. After practicing this through 2nd grade they then move to using the Internet, video and begin to use software to design presentations for a specific audience in grades 3-5. Then as they move to grades 6-8 they continue to practice publishing via printed copy, monitor display, Internet documentation, video and electronic presentations. They apply interdisciplinary multimedia such as audio, video, text, and graphics to their presentation software and use telecommunication tools to publish such as Internet browsers, video conferencing, or distance learning. This series of TEKS is fully developed from it's foundation to it's mastery and spirals with each grade level reviewing previously learned skills and apply their knowledge to acquire new skills and information.
Instructional Leadership Week 1 Part 2
After completing the Technology Applications Inventory and the SETDA Teacher survey I have decided that I am farther behind the times than I thought. I am considered a technological “go to” teacher among colleagues and pretty advanced in hardware/software trouble shooting. These surveys however, revealed to me that there is so much more that I am not familiar with and that my district really needs to step up it’s expectations for technology usage and implementation.
I wouldn’t say that I am strong in any of the domains required to be a leader on my campus yet I find myself trying to fill that roll in my limited abilities. As I answered these questions I learned that there were more foreign terms and capabilities than there were familiar ones.
I agree with these surveys as they revealed how much I need to learn as well as how behind my district is in their expectations for teachers and students in the area of technology. I need to advance my abilities in order to integrate technology into my classroom in more ways than simply a format for instruction delivery. I also think my district needs to step up their expectations. At the moment we are lacking the professional freedom to plan innovative lessons and we are limited to our scripted curriculum as well as designated supplementary materials for additional mathematics practice. If these limitations were lifted, professional development was supported, and time was provided to plan, integration of technology into lessons would improve.
I wouldn’t say that I am strong in any of the domains required to be a leader on my campus yet I find myself trying to fill that roll in my limited abilities. As I answered these questions I learned that there were more foreign terms and capabilities than there were familiar ones.
I agree with these surveys as they revealed how much I need to learn as well as how behind my district is in their expectations for teachers and students in the area of technology. I need to advance my abilities in order to integrate technology into my classroom in more ways than simply a format for instruction delivery. I also think my district needs to step up their expectations. At the moment we are lacking the professional freedom to plan innovative lessons and we are limited to our scripted curriculum as well as designated supplementary materials for additional mathematics practice. If these limitations were lifted, professional development was supported, and time was provided to plan, integration of technology into lessons would improve.
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