Create your own customized PBwiki page.

 

About Me:

I am currently working at Northglenn High School in Adams 12 as the school social worker.  I have finished, at the end of the weekend, 3 quarters for my administrative certification.  I finished my internship hours working as a summer school principal in DPS for Summer Scholars.  I want to start an alternative high school and need to know as much as possible how to integrate technology into my program in an authentic way.

 

Professional Experience: 

Thirteen years working with special education students and their families at the middle school and high school level.  I have been involved in district commitees working on crisis recovery and suicide awareness and assessment. 

 

Personal Leadership Action Plan

 

Essential Questions:

·       How can the leader support teacher effectiveness to improve student achievement

·       It is the leader’s responsibility to know the standards and content expectations for classes, to be in the classroom enough to know what is being taught and how it is being taught and then to challenge the teacher to step beyond what he/she has been doing.  With technology in the classroom the leader must know as much as they reasonably can so that they can support the teachers with information, examples and potential places to access for information.  In many school there is a tech person but too often they spend their time on hardware and software and have no time to spend on application.

·       What is a 21st Century school/district/teacher/administrator?

·       Many people talk about the wonders of technology, many people are awed when they become aware of the information contained on-line which is all accessible 24/7. Unfortunately, there seems to be a gap between the realities of technology and the proficient use of technology by the majority of students, staff and administration in a district.  To truly be 21^st Century I believe that all members of the district community would need to be knowledgeable and able to use technology creatively. There would be an implicit expectation that technology was the norm not just something used occasionally to augment classroom instruction.

Your Next Steps

 

Identify “next steps” that you want to take in each of the six identified educational leader standards and the three strand areas to create your own personal action plan. Be sure to identify any resources you have identified during the session that you want to use or explore further. Use the template that follows this page.

 

Strand 1 – Basic Technology Skills and Applications

What skills, experience, and/or willingness can an administrator model in regards to using technology without having to be an “expert”?

NETS- A – III Productivity and Professional Practice

Educational leaders apply technology to enhance their professional practice and to increase their own productivity and that of others.

 

Strand 2 – Leadership Skills

How will you, as a leader and facilitator, help others focus on a vision that improves student achievement and facilitates continuous professional growth?

NETS A –I Leadership and Vision

Educational leaders inspire a shared vision for comprehensive integration of technology and foster an environment and culture conducive to the realization of that vision.

NETS A –II Learning and Teaching

Educational leaders ensure that curricular design, instructional strategies, and learning environments integrate appropriate technologies to maximize learning and teaching.

NETS A –IV Support, Management, and Operations

Educational leaders ensure the integration of technology to support productive systems for learning and administration.

NETS A –V Assessment and Evaluation

Educational leaders use technology to plan and implement comprehensive systems of effective assessment and evaluation

 

Strand 3 – Social, Legal and Ethical

What systems and resources do you need in place to ensure that available technologies support and enhance the learning environment?

NETSA -VI Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues

Educational leaders understand the social, legal, and ethical issues related to technology and model responsible decision-making related to these issues.

 

Strand 1 – Basic Technology Skills and Applications

What skills, experience, and/or willingness can an administrator model in regards to using technology without having to be an “expert”?

 

III. Productivity and Professional Practice

Educational leaders apply technology to enhance their professional practice and to increase their own productivity and that of others.

Short Range: I want to get to know some of the organizing tools;  iGoogle, calendars, and finding ways to set up visual timelines for projects I am working on.  I also need to be able to monitor progress of student behavior and although I have heard there are good tools out there I don’t have one that I use.  As I discover new sites and new technology I will share it with my department staff and others who may be interested. 

Medium Range: I want to learn more about RSS feeds and how to set them up for use in communicating with staff in crisis situations. I want  to build a “library” of files of information as I research and come across it.

Long Range: My long range plan is to establish an alternative high school.  I want to use everything I learn to inform the expectations of ICT in my school.  I need to know as much as I can to work with staff, students and community people.  I will need to collect data, program ideas, and information.  I will need to use technology to keep all of the information accessible.

Strand 2 –Leadership Skills

How will you, as a leader and facilitator, help others focus on a vision that improves student achievement and facilitates continuous professional growth?

 

I. Leadership and Vision

Educational leaders inspire a shared vision for comprehensive integration of technology and foster an environment and culture conducive to the realization of that vision.

 

Short Range: I currently work with ten teachers in my department.  When we have department meetings I will suggest that we spend sometime sharing information of sites people are using and ways they are using technology in their class rooms at this time.  One of our classrooms has a Smartboard and I want to discuss ways it can be used to enhance learning.  I will go back to school this year with a new attitude about technology.  I need to be willing to experiment, not be afraid to "break" anything and be willing to "play" with tools, ideas and sites.

Medium Range: Support students and staff in my current building with their use of technology.  Challenge both students and staff I work with to try new sites and explore the uses of technology.

Long Range: Build a vision, starting now, of how technology will be used in my school.  Design a method of finding out the knowledge and comfort level of staff I hire.  Design an assessment of student technology knowledge so we can have short term classes for information and remediation of skills.

II. Learning and Teaching

Educational leaders ensure that curricular design, instructional strategies, and learning environments integrate appropriate technologies to maximize learning and teaching.

 

Short Range: Talk to my classroom partners about using clickers to begin discussions in class.  I believe it will help to pose questions which can be answered anonymously to begin dialogue more easily. I want to introduce my peers to teachertube and find videos that may engage and exchange of ideas among the students.

Medium Range: I love the idea of podcasting so that the students I work with can have the opportunity to have their opinions and ideas “heard”.   I can envision using thinkfinity to encourage learning through maps, games and activities.

Long Range:  Cataloging sites and tools that can be used to build creative thinking, build a desire to research to find information not just to find facts for a paper.  Ways to promote citizenship not just digitally but to link social and digital responsibility.

 

IV. Support, Management, and Operations

Educational leaders ensure the integration of technology to support productive systems for learning and administration.

 

Short Range: Design or adapt current assessments to drive both instruction and intervention with students.

Medium Range: Advocate for the department by requesting that both the classrooms and intervention rooms to have adequate technology capabilities.  Show administration how a wide variety of media and formats can be used in the special education class rooms.  Advocate that the budget committee put high needs students at the front of the allocation line instead of at the end.

Long Range: Secure and allocate technological resources for my building.  Support teachers in using technology, working collaboratively to design and implement instruction using the most current technology.

 

V. Assessment and Evaluation

Educational leaders use technology to plan and implement comprehensive systems of effective assessment and evaluation

 

Short Range: Use assessment technology to assess individual growth to help with quarterly progress reports.  This can be both social and educational.

Medium Range: Use technology to collect, analyze and interpret school wide data regarding behavior and interventions.

Long Range: Establish assessments for initial applications for my school to find out where each student is starting from.  Implement a model for teachers to assess individual growth toward both staff and student technology skills.

 

 

Strand 3 – Social, Legal and Ethical

What systems and resources do you need in place to ensure that and resources do you need in place to ensure that available technologies support and enhance the learning environment?

 

VI. Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues

Educational leaders understand the social, legal, and ethical issues related to technology and model responsible decision-making related to these issues

 

Short Range: Monitor my personal email so that I never say anything which can be used against myself , the school or the district in court.

Medium Range: Learn what the legal ramifications of email really can be.  If you state facts with no judgement and no names involved are you opening yourself up to potential lawsuits.  How much of email can be used in a court of law?

Long Range:  I want to make sure that my staff,, students and community are aware of not only the districts policy but also healthy and safe practices.  Staff and students need to know how unprivate their technology may be.

 

Some questions to consider while you develop you own action plan (set of next steps) to help you lead to effectively integrate ICT into your school.

 

Describe your greatest strength in helping to integrate ICT into practice in your school

Communication skills and enthusiasm.  I also have “computer genes” I am married to a computer wizard and have three children with computer skills beyond email, gossip, and shopping.

 

 

Describe your greatest weakness in helping to integrate ICT into practice in your school

I am not currently in a leadership position in my building although I might be able to work with my department they are all so pressured to get IEPs done, establish baselines and monitor progress, write transition reports and plan quality classroom instruction that I do not think they have the time or inclination to add anything else to their responsibilities.

 

 

 

Describe your greatest “personal” staff development need(s) in the area of ICT

Currently it seems that the use of technology by the majority of staff members, including myself, is limited to email, grading and some data collection.  When I looked over the Profiles for Technology Literate Students I decided that I need a class that covers all of the expectations for students from PK to 12.  I need to learn how to “illustrate and communicate original ideas and stories using digital tools and media-rich resources” “communicate about technology using developmentally appropriate and accurate terminology” and “use simulations and graphical organizers to explore and depict patterns of growth”.  All of these previous examples come from the grades PK-2 profile. I would think that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to be somewhat knowledgeable about “designing a website that meets accessibility requirements (grades 9-12 profile). I need more exposure and instruction in technology.

 

 

Describe what you believe to be the greatest staff development need(s) of teachers in your school in the area of ICT

As we mentioned in class I think that any of the teachers who are over 35 years old probably need most of the staff development I need along with many of the younger teachers who “just were not interested in school”. 

 

 

Technology Tools you want to explore (software, hardware, Web 2.0, etc.)

I can think of a variety of ways I could use clickers in both classrooms and groups to share information and facilitate conversation.  I am interested in learning more about podcasting  and how to set up RSS feeds.  I plan on setting up an iGoogle and want to try setting up a wiki for classroom use. 

The list of places I want to explore is endless I think.  I stated with 21^st Century Partnership, Route 21  and moved from there to edutopia and information on Autism.  I want more time to explore Intel education, teachertube and Thinkfinity.  I have just scratched the surface.  I have not begun to look at 2.0 websites.  How does a person not get so wrapped up in the information that no real progress is made?  I find myself reading and reading and not “getting any where” and when I come up for air an hour has passed.  It is all so overwhelming to me but fascinating at the same time. 

 

 

School resources and support you will need

Equipment, money and time in the schedule.  Too often the computers in the building appear to be used as self-correcting type writers and encyclopedias.  There is so much more they can be used for and there are many creative uses to help students learn the “non-measurables”; accountability, innovation, collaboration, information fluency, critical thinking, and problem solving. It is often mentioned that if a school or district can not measure learning then evidently no learning has happened.  A school leader often needs support from the district to go “outside the box” and work towards content competency in new, original ways using technology so that the school leader can then support the staff.