Professional Development Team Summer Meeting

We did not make AYP in 2006-2007. Our Special Education students did not make the mark. That's not so surprising. If you look at our MSA scores over the last few years, it is clear that Special Ed would be the first group to fall below the line. So now we have decided to focus our staff development on helping students who receive special services.

Our Professional Development Team Met on July 23 to discuss how to meet the needs of our Special Education students. The data from the MSA was not encouraging but it wasn't dreadful either. So the administration team had decided to move our Professional Learning Communities into cyberspace to form an Electronic Learning Community (ELC). This was great news! I have been advocating for using courseware such as Blackboard or Moodle. I have even detailed it in the paper I wrote for Supervision of the Schools.

The premise of an ELC is simple. By putting staff development information online, teachers can access the training 24/7 and participate in a time table that fits their busy life. The greatest challenge is to facillitate the online learning process. I have completed a course in facilitating online learning this past Spring so that experience should help. The plan is to have each teacher choose one of four topics: Technology, Behavior Intervention; Instructional Strategies, and a Book Talk. I am leading the Technology strand.

The team brainstormed what technology would be presented. My two top choices were the ExamView test creation software and Inspriation. For use to really pinpoint in what skills students lack and in what skills student are proficient, we must be able to give tests that are correlated to specific curriculum objective. My plan is to teach the teachers how to use this software to give pretests that can be used to find skill gaps and skill strengths when planning their instruction.

I really believe that all students can benefit from using Inspiration software. It is a concept mapping software that duplicates the traditional concept web that teachers would draw on a large flip chart paper. Using the electronic version allows students to organize their thought when the create brief and extended response answers. The software has a large library of clip are that can be used to create more visual webs to help students identify pattern or relationships. Inspiration is also identified as a research based product that has been shown to improve student performance.

We also have Audacity audio editing software for creating podcasts and other audio presentations. The premise is that students use and listen to audio files on the Internet and to have them create the files they use in their "play time" would make it more engaging and motivating for them.

In addition to the other titles, we now run Windows XP and Office 2003 which has Speech to Text and Text to Speech capabilities. That can be a big asset for the Special Education teachers.
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Job Shadowing Pt. 1 - A Glimpse of the Future?

Part of this internship is to shadow two educational leaders. The obvious first choice is to shadow my principal, whom I did shadow back on May 4. But I also wanted to take a peek at a position that I would one day like to inhabit, Director of Technology. Between the two experiences I can see a clear distinction between one position and the other. The first experience was to follow my building prinicpal around for the day.

Generally speaking the day was a whirlwind of activity. The agenda for the day was fairly mundane - an observation in the AM and PM, a fire drill, and a meeting with the PTSA after school. However, at every turn there were various staff members and teachers wanting her attention to ask a "quick question" and want an answer. Several people came into her office before the scheduled observation at 10:00 AM. The meetings were impromptu and required her attention.
The first order of business before going to the AM observation was to finalize three "no tresspass" letters to students and parents who were involved in an altercation after school the previous Friday. Incredibly, it was the parents who provoked the incident. I discussed the legal implications of the incident and read the relevant COMAR regulations that authorized the prinicpal to issue a writ of no tresspass.
When we arrived at the first observation, we were to observe one of two teachers co-teaching in a Math class. The observation was unannounced, as all observations in the school are. The students were a lower level math class and were working on individual skill gaps. The teachers had compacted the curriculum to cover the required information in preparation for the Maryland State Assessments. Since the MSA had been given, the teachers were working on closing skill gaps. They gave each student functional tests and tracked the skills which were not mastered. The students then broke into small groups to work with one of the teachers on the skills they need.
I thought this was an excellent way to help prepare the students to move on to the the next level of Math. Each student essentially had an idividual learning plan for the remaining weeks of school. They worked toward the goal of mastering the objectives they show weakness. It would be interesting to see how the class improves as a whole during the remaining month of school.
Later in the day, I had the opportunity to pull the fire alarm for the drill. It's something I've always wanted to do and I can now cross that off my list. :-)
The second observation of the day was not as impressive but had great potential. It was a theater lesson that seemed to be more sage on stage of a vocabulary review. Students sat in their seats as the instructor read through each definition and talked about the meaning and offered a few examples of the word usage. When I ran into the teacher after school I shared some ideas of how I would have integrated technology with simple clip art that relates to the vocabulary. I also suggested having the students act out or pantomime the words and have the rest of the class guess what they were portraying. Points could be assigned to the words to make it a review game. The teacher was very open to the suggestions. I also told her about an idea from the TV show "Thank God You're Here." Students really enjoy impromptu. It doesn't mean they're good at it though. :-)
Overall the experience was eye opening. Half of the day was in observations and the remaining half was for impromptu meetings, admininstrative paperwork, putting out fires, and lunch. If I had the luxury of dedicating 50% of each day to instructional leadership activities, then I'd say I was very fortunate. The principal selected the day specifically for me to be part of observations and the fire drill. So it wasn't a complete representation of a "day in the life." But it did give me a good picture of what would be expected.
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Creating a Screencast for MICCA

The 2007 MICCA Convention is next week and I have been working with Kerri Cole on a presentation about Video Podcasts (Vodcasts). I created a screencast of the presentation last night primarily to practice the presentation but to also have available to conference participants. It's my hope that more and more MICCA presenters will create a vodcast of some sort for others to watch. MICCA has so many good presentations that you just can't get to them all.
I have embedded the video below and you can read more of my reflection by clicking the "Read More" link below the video.



As an instructional leader, I would use this format for many different purposes. I feel it's a great format for facilitating professional development. New teachers need to have available to them examples to good teaching. As more and more demands on teachers' time is asked of them, there is less time for collaboration among peers. This collaboration is extremely important for the development of a teacher - new or experienced. Using vodcasts, teachers can view sample lessons at home or at school when they have the time to do so. This gives teachers greater control over their own professional development and does not lock them into a block of time to receive the opportunity.
Vodcasts can also be used to present instuctional practices, research, and technology. Most staff development excersizes are a "spray and pray" presentaion where a leader presents information and at the end of the meeting wishes the teachers good luck as they try to implement the information into their instruction. There is generally now follow up. Using vodcasts, teachers will have a permenant reference of the information they were presented. Of course, this does not make up for additional collaboration with other professionals, but it doest give teachers the opportunity to refresh their understanding of the original presentation.
Another way I would use vodcasts is for Welcome messages to parents and community members. Parents appreciate direct communication from the principal and using a blog site like Blogger and vodcast videos, parents can put a voice and face to the written word. It also allows the parents to see and hear the inflection and body language of the principal. The written word does not convey these "hidden messages" well and is often misinterpreted. With the vodcast, the intonation is there and can minimize misunderstanding. In addition, when miscommunication does develop, the vodcast can be reviewed to see why the miscommunication may have occured.
If you watched my screencast, I gave even more examples of how to use vodcasts as an instructional leader. So if you haven't please take the time to watch.
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The Road Ahead

I met with Dr. Hickey on Thursday to discuss my internship. Like many interns I had lots of questions about what needs to be in our portfolio, what constitutes Internship hours, and what format should we use for the official portfolio.
After running down my list of questions about what is and is not considered hours for the internship, I finally asked him about the format for the portfolio binder. I am not a paper person. I think anyone who has written out or printed something and wanted to go back and make a change knows that it's a pain. You have to rip up the old copy and then replace it with the new copy. And what happens when you are on your way to do a portfolio review and you find a typo? It's not like you an magically make the typo disappear as you drive down the road.

Well yes, we have become quite spoiled in the era of the Internet. The "Read/Write web" as Will Richardson calls it has revolutionized how we communicate. It's so easy to share and publish your thoughts with anyone in the world and with the new technologies that pop up every day allows us to instantaneously update our personal web sites while driving down the raod to share your portfolio. Of course I would never advocate anyone drive and text at the same time. Always pull over to a safe place to update your web log.

Well I asked Dr. Hickey if I could use a Blog for my portfolio and I was very happy to find out that Towson looking into using such technologies for portfolios in the future. So it looks like I will be the first Towson University Instructional Leadership Intern to create a blog as his portfolio. So I better do a good job, huh?

After Dr. Hickey gave his blessing on my blog idea I immediately launched into my vision for a school where I would be the administrator. I had just turned in my paper for the Administration of the School course about my personal vision for School Leadership. I think I probably got overly exhuberant. I shared with him some of my philosophy. Here's a snipet of the paper.

Stephen Covey famously recommends that we “begin with the end in mind.” When writing my plan for the next five years, I will heed his advice. I believe I would enjoy being a building level administrator immensely because it is at that level where you have the most direct impact on student achievement. However I would one day aspire to be a director of technology for a school district. It is my firm belief that seamless integration of technology tools into instruction is an essential factor in improving student performance.

I can impact more students as a building administrator, but I can impact more teachers as a director or supervisor of technology and indirectly impact a much greater number of students.Technology is not the answer, rather is it a vehicle for instructional methodologies to engage students. I have presented to teachers ways to incorporate differentiated instruction, multiple intelligences, and have been a strong proponent of using new technologies to bring the reality of the classroom closer to the reality of the students’ lives. Too many students do not attend well in class and are viewed as disruptive, under achievers, or lazy. I do not believe that to be true since most of those same students will go home, listen to their MP3 player while instant messaging their friends as they play an online video game with other students their age across the globe. Children’s brains are not wired for sitting in a hard plastic chair and listening to a teacher about history or even participate in an active learning assignment that only uses pencil and paper. The realm of education has failed to keep pace with the learning and living style of most students. By using technology as an ally, teachers can engage their students and foster active learning and problem solving to prepare students for future careers, most of which do not exist today. I will be a leader of leaders who uses technology to bring the classroom to the reality of the student instead of making the student come to the reality of the classroom.

Creating a Plan for Student Success
People should not lead without a moral purpose – they should desire to make a difference in the lives of students, teachers, and parents. I seek to become the leader who has the ability to communicate my vision for student achievement to others, to gain a consensus from the stakeholders, and to empower the stakeholders with a shared responsibility for the achievement of students that will continue long after I have moved on from my position. My school vision is of a school where a culture of high expectations for achievement encourages collaboration among parents, teachers, and the community for the benefit of the students. My vision of a high achieving school is one where technology is used to engage students in active learning and problem solving, to assess students’ progress, is used to plan and implement targeted intervention for students to reach their highest potential, and is used to provide professional development opportunities to the staff. In short, my vision is a school where the stakeholders use technology to collaborate, plan, implement, and evaluate targeted interventions for all students in order to ensure all students achieve at high levels.

So that's where I start with this blog portfolio. I have a lot of back entries to post about such things as the Internet Safety Night I facilitated, the Web Content Management committee I was a part of and my trip to the Capitol as a participant
on the Speak Up Day Congressional Briefing. Stay Tuned!
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