Cross Curricular Planning Professional Development

I had the opportunity to work with one of the teacher specialists for staff development in Frederick County, Liz Stiffler. She is the one who is assigned to us because we have not made AYP. She must have a pretty fun job but I can see how some staff may view her as a threat since we are required to attend. So I offered to collaborate with her on one of her sessions. Once again, I am always looking for opportunities to showcase how technology can be used for instruction, even for professoinal development.



The first couple sessions that we attended had some really great ideas for getting students motivated and appeal to different learning styles. I generated several ideas for including technology in those sessions. So when I approached Liz about working together to include a technology componenet, she was more than willing to work together on the idea.

The topic Liz wanted to do was "Cross Curricular Planning." At the beginning of the year, the staff brainstormed ideas of what sort of support the staff development team could give them. One of the ideas was to demonstrate cross curricular planning. So Liz and I brainstormed how to present this in only a 45 minute session. I suggested we make a movie of a sample team meeting where teachers were doing cross curricular planning. This was an exciting idea.

Liz generated a script and we used Inspiration to create a cross curricular planning guide which we would give to teachers are the professional development session. Liz recruited some of her colleagues at Hayward Road and we met to film the video. Later we went back to TJ Middle to edit the video with Windows Movie maker. Finally, Liz 'hosted' a professional development video which we made with VlogIt! software.

We presented the video to the staff on a wintry day when snow was falling. Unfortunately, the snow forced the closing of school early, so we only had time to present to two teams. The first group, made of the sixth grade team did very well. I heard lots of great ideas of how to incorporate skills from other content areas into lessons. The staff seemed to really "get it" and seemed to see the value in it. I am sure many of them already did some cross curricular integration in the lessons on their own, but having a structured time to plan with other teachers usually helps improve a lesson.

As an elementary trained teacher, I firmly believe in the value of cross curricular planning. Students need to see and use skills outside of the content area before it begins to sink in as important to know. Otherwise, they use the skill in math class and walk out the door, never to think about it again. Children need to use a skill 25-40 times before it becomes part of their though process. I know that if I don't do something with great frequency for a while, I will always forget what to do. That's why we can't expect students to divide fractions on Tuesday, take the test on Wednesday and be able to recall that information if they never divide fractions again before the at MSA.

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Inspiration Part 2

The second month of Inspiration focused on more advanced ways to use the software to modify paper organizers and adapt lessons for special education students. The goals were to

• Modifying classroom organizers for special education


• Using Text-to-Speech features


• Adding voice and sound to the diagram as an adaptive strategy


• Adding images from the Internet to the diagram


• Adding videos to the diagram


• Using/Creating templates


• Transforming a paper organizer into an Inspiration diagram

When I presented these topics to the teachers, they were very excited about the possibilities. When teachers tried using Inspiration they found the results very encouraging as indicated by some of their reflections.

They were told that they could use this program to help them organize their thoughts - just like the graphic organizer. After doing a few examples with them, they caught on quickly and began to work independently. One student was having difficulty with generating ideas, so I sat with him and asked him some questions to get more details. He said, "Oh, that's right! I almost forgot about that. This is what happened next . . ." By the end of the period, all three students had a completed/nearly completed graphic organizer with extra supporting details. One even thanked me for helping him remember the events to his story so that he was able to create a very detailed organizer for his letter.

It went very well. As a matter of fact, I saw some other special ed students in resource using Inspiration independently to complete an assignment for their LA class. Seems like this software program is catching on!

These are encouraging reports which show that when students are given tools that are closer to their "native" habitat they are more motivated and willing to stay on task. It gives me encouragement to hear success stories such as these and make me want to continue sharing the information I have with others who will take the challenge to engage students with technology.

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Professional Development Update - Term 1 Recap

Facilitating professional development is always challenging, especially when your school hasn't made AYP. The increased pressure to provide new ideas for meeting the needs of a diverse student population is felt all around. Many times teachers feel professional development doesn't lend any benefit to their teaching repetoire. Other times they feel as if it is "just one more thing to do."
Time is always the biggest objection to meaningful professional development. This year our school has chosen to use an electronic learning community to facilitate the professional development. It was my task to set up and structure the Moodle software we use for an ELC. I've already described the structure of staff development in an earlier post so I won't rehash it on this entry.
Although spirits started high at the beginning of the school year, as they usually do, they inevitably began to sink as the school year progressed. I overheard two teachers talking in the hall how this year they have had more "exta work" to do than ever before. I was also surprised to hear how many teachers felt the Moodle course we are using is not as user friendly as the county provided Blackboard LMS. So what's happening? As an instructional leader, it will be my job to be aware of the attitudes and perceptions of the staff as I guide them to the vision I see.

Initially, spirits were high because teachers were able to choose their professional development strand. Differentiating teachers' choices is just as important as differentiating for students. Each teacher needs to have some ownership of their own professional development. Shortly after the big "kick off" meeting, things began to change.


One of the possible reasons for the change is the decision that teachers will need to demonstrate in some way they have incorporated the professional development into thier teaching. In the past, teachers attended sessions, listened attentively, and then walked away never to think about the topic again. As a response to this, the professional development team meeting the team recognized - and I advocated for it as well, the need for an additional reflection piece. I proposed that teachers would post a discussion message about their experience in the classroom using the new information they learn at a professional development session. I did ask for time to work with teachers to help them learn the new system. But the training schedule was packed and I had to resort to a simple tutorial. In addition to that, I was not able to schedule time with the facilitators of the ELC to help them understand how to use the software effectively. But I was able to meet with them to show them the basic elements of the software so that teachers could participate. Though this allowed the ELC to procede, it didn't give the facilitators any foundation for online teaching pedagogy. I again had to resort to publishing a paper tutorial.

The lack of hands-on training which would have taken about 45 minutes per topic is an example of how initiatives are thought out and well conceived but are ultimately only as effective as the knowledge and experiences of those carrying out the training. Since most of the ELC facilitators did not get the training they needed, they are doing the best they can but are overall ineffective. I can't say I'm a steallar online facilitator but there is a clear difference between how the technology reflections are working and the others. In some cases, no reflections are being done. This could be so if the facilitator simply chose not to use the online piece. But then one of the advantages of using online professional development - the 24/7 availability, is gone.

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Maryland Gifted and Talented Conference

I was asked by the supervisor of Gifted Education to present the work I had done with our Renzulli Enrichment teacher at the 2007 Maryland Educators of Gifted Students conference in Howard County, MD. We were essentially going to be presenting the same presentation as what we did for MICCA. So all we needed to do was massage it for the audience at the conference. What was most exciting for me was that Dr. Sally Reis, the wife of Dr. Joseph Renzulli, was going to be the keynote speaker.




We arrived a little late but caught the last 20 minutes of her talk. It was very validating to hear her speak of the way we look to educate our gifted children. Frederick County Public Schools uses the Renzulli Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM). Obviously, Dr. Reis was a big promoter of this model. Until now I hadn't seen any research to support this model, although it appeared to me to be very credible without the research. After sharing how schools who have adopted the Schoolwide Enrichment Model out perform schools who do not use the model on standardized testing, it occured to me that we should be using this model for all students. .

Students all have their own interests that are usually not what is presented in class. One of the stark realities of preparing students for the workplace of the 21st century is that most of the jobs that our students will be applying for have not been invented. When does anyone over the age of 30 remember seeing an ad for a software design engineer in the local paper when they were in grade school? It is well documented that as technology and information advance, there will be a greater need for students who are self reliant, independent learners, critical thinkers, and have strong math, science, and language skills. So the challenge as an instructional leader is to find a good balance of instruction that provides these basic skills while fostering the thinking, language, and personal skills needed to compete in an increasingly globay economy.

The SEM is a great way to differentiate instruction for students in a classroom. It usually starts with a general exploration followed by some more direct group or individual training, and summarized with a self-selected project to demonstrate mastery. Let's face it, even jobs such as a cashier or waiting tables requires many skills that students can acquire from a learning model such as this. Students who are motivated to learn, learn better, retain more, and have greater self esteem.

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ELO Month 2 - Exam View Advanced

In October, we followed up with an advanced session of Exam View. In this session, teachers were given very succinct tutorials of how to set up a test on the local network so that they can disaggregate data for their classes.



Since we had gone over the basics in September, this was the perfect time to dive deeper into the capabilities of the software. One of the key features is the ability of ExamView to generate reports of how students do based on Curriculum Objectives and broken down by Gender, Race, MSA Math and Reading, and Special Ed. Using these categories, teachers can track how their students perform over time using formative and summative assessments. The ability to show data of how well students do on each curriculum objective will allow teachers to target their instruction.

In the era of high stakes testing, administrators need to be able to assist teachers in collecting and analyzing data about how students score on formative tests. These tests need to be broken down into separate curriculum objectives and/or indicators. Teachers need to share this data in their PLC to garner input from other teachers of how to address those indicators which are not being mastered by the students. This can lead to flexible grouping when students are periodically regrouped to be with teachers who have certain strengths within the curriculum. In the ideal world, there would be several teachers whose strengths all compliment each other.

NCLB has forced teachers and administrators to do much more data analysis. My strength is in using technology to gather such data, analyze it, and share it. It is one of the main goals I would have when I become a building administrator.


Handouts from Session

• Importing Students into Test Manager
• Setting up a Test on the School Network
• Giving a Test on the school network
• Using the Learning Focus Report for Disaggregation of Data
• Getting Test Results from Tests on the Network
  

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Summer Recap

So the first month of school is in the books so I figure it's about time to recap the summer school experience. After all, why wait until the last minute? :-) First, this year summer school was much smoother than before. We really had only two students who were considered disruptive and only one more students who caused any real trouble after that. So over all, it was quiet. But here is what I learned.



Students who are in trouble with the law and receive positive reinforcement from their peers, often seek additional altercations with law enforcement. I don't think you have to be a PhD in Child Psychology to know that, but it was clearly evident at summer school. One of the two disruptive students was required to attend summer school as a condition of his release from juveniles detention. He sauntered into the Media Center the first day and with a wry smile greeted me since I had known him from previous school business. I may have looked surprised to see him there but I did my best to smile and welcome him to school. I don't know if I was good at hiding my surprise or not. I took a minute to walk over to him to find out how things were going with his life and he gave me the abridged version. He quickly described to me his dealings with police and judges and said how proud he was that he has six cases pending against him. I don't know if he noticed my sadness but having known this boy one-on-one in school before, I thought he had a chance to make it. Granted it wasn't a big chance but I guess I am an optimist. Shouldn't that be a good thing? When he explained he had to come here because of his probation, I told him I was hoping it would be a good summer for him.

Within a week he was obviously bored and not interested in doing the work. The teacher who was in charge of his instruction tried many times to get through to him but his apathy continued to increase. Finally he became somewhat beligerant to the teacher and she had no choice but to write a referral. Of course, she knew that was what he wanted. Even though the boy didn't pass his classes, he had a masters degree in street smarts. At the principals office where I was stationed, we talked to him about what he wants to get out of summer school and how we can help him be successful. So we did our part to play the role we were assigned. We all saw the writing on the wall that the boy would keep pushing until he left us no choice but to remove him from school. It didn't take long before he started using the "F" bomb and making personal attacks on the admininstrator.

So I had the privilege to walk him out of the building - because he lived within walking distance. But he refused to leave the lobby area. The summer school administrator was just down the hall and heard his opposition and pulled him back into the office to see if he could coerce the young man to straighten up - since he wasn't willing to leave school. Some more beligerance and finally we called the police to have him removed. In an almost comical display of attention grabbing showmanship, the boy put out his hands for the officer to "slap the cuffs" on him. The officer tactfully negotiated with the boy to willingly come with him and be dropped off at the closest house with supervision.

My biggest concern is that it is easy to education students who put forth the effort and try their best. But how do we reach the kids who have resinged themselves to showing off for their mates by getting into trouble with the law? How can we meet the NCLB with someone who knows the game well enough to do the things he or she needs to do to get kicked out?

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Meeting with Special Educators

I have had the chance to meet with some of the special education teachers to discuss their caseload and identify what technology would best help the students be successful. One of the new software items we have at school is a screen reader which will read text on the computer to the student. This could help the low readers with comprehension. Unfortunately, it is a free software download and the computerized voice may be distracting. Another exciting add on is the speech-to-text capabilities. Students who have difficulty writing will be able to speak their responses to the computer, which will have to be 'trained' for their voice, and the text will appear in a Microsoft Word processing document. And finally, there is Inspiration. Inspiration is a concept mapping software that will help students organize their thoughts and ideas before writing. It is also allowed to be submitted as a grade for a brief constructed response (BCR). I believe this will help the students give more information since Inspiration also has speech to text and text reading capabilities. So there are multiple methods for students to get the information into the diagram. It is a good way to tap the multimodal learning styles and to differentiate.

We all agreed that we will try to meet on Thursdays to do some training. So I look forward to scheduling that. I will also be presenting Inspiration to the staff as a whole in November and December, but I'd like the Special Ed teachers to use it sooner. Click to Read more ...

ELC Month 1

In September, we held our first Professional Development session using the ELC. We met in the cafeteria for our usual staff meeting and then broke into sessions about 3:40 - later than scheduled. It left me and my co-presenter less time for our presentation than we thought. As we walked toward the computer lab, I had the idea to separate the group into two. The first group would be teachers who wanted to sit with the handouts and work through the tutorial on their own while the second group would work through it with one of us.


We decided that I would be with the group who wanted to work through the tutorial on their own. For the most part, my session went well. However I checked on my partner and noticed he was having difficulty with his group. He made the same mistake I have made many times which is to get off topic and not bring it back. Later he confided in me that he would have been more comfortable taking the self paced group.

Part of the ELC is to post a reflection on how you implemented the skills learned in the session. In September, the teachers had to respond to these questions.

• In what manner can ExamView be used to help focus instruction on the special needs of your students?
  
• How can ExamView be used to differentiate assessments for students with disabilities?

Most of the responses didn't address the questions I asked. To compound the situation, I failed to redirect them to the questions because I also forgot to keep that in mind. Most teachers wrote generic responses about how easy the software was to use and that they liked it. I did try to elicit more information from them and asked them to elaborate which few did.

One concern I have is that the Moodle software is supposed to email teachers when someone replies to their posting. So far, that is not happening so I'll have to investigate that further.

In October we will work with teachers to use the ExamView software to disaggregate test data to identify objectives with which students need additional support.

Session Handouts

• Creating Classes in ExamView
• Importing Students into Test Manager
• Creating a Question Bank
• Creating a test from a bank

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My Role in Professional Development This Year

I met with the principal to discuss my role in staff development. Since we did not make AYP and I hold the belief that using technology as an instructional tool is a big part of getting students to perform better in school, I wanted to voice some of my concerns and get feedback from her. So we met in her office to go over them. It was a productive meeting which answered many of my questions but as with any new adventure, there are some answers that will just have to unfold as the year progresses.



As always, my biggest concern is my lack of time to work with teachers. I wear a great number of hats in this building from Tech Ed teacher, ISS facilitator, to computer repair guy, to Technology Resource Teacher Specialist, to Technology Coordinator. All of these jobs have important roles in the school to maintain an orderly school envirnoment and make learning possible. However, the one role I have that I don't see a solid connection to making AYP is being in ISS for half a day, every other day. It is the way it is but I needed clarification on why a highly skilled, highly qualified teacher is needed to fill that need. The answer was straightforth and simple: it's a staffing issue. The front office people are frequently needed to cover classes where a substitute teacher doesn't show up. That was something I didn't realize was so frequent. One other possiblity it to have the Community Liason cover ISS for one block. That way we all have one block to cover and that's definitely a good compromise. Apparently, our community liason is also called out for substituting frequently. I'd still be willing to structure so that if they are needed to be in a classrom, I can just do ISS for them. At least that will free up some additional time.
I feel that my talents are underused but it's not a concious choice to under use them. The situation is what it is. However, if I were an administrator, I'd want my staff with the skills that can help the school make AYP in the position they need to be in to get the students and teachers the help they need. Sometimes, I feel devalued because my vision is not shared and/or it is not communicated in a way so others see the great value and potential it has. So, the ISS situation is the way it is.

Since I always try to find compromise in any situation, I suggested that I work directly with the Special Education teachers since they are working with our SpEd students in a dedicated resource room this year. My hope is that I will be able to share ideas on how to use technology to capture the attention of our students and to provide accomodations for the more needy students. In turn, I hope the Special Education staff will share these ideas with the classroom teachers who will then apply them to their regular instruction. At least the theory sounds good. It reminds me of "Trickle Down Economics." We'll see how well this works.

Scheduling will be an issue because the SpEd teachers are all over the place. The only day when they are not scheduled to be in a classroom is Thursday when IEP meetings are held. The IEP schedule changes weekly so some SpEd teacher will be available. Of course, if it is an ISS day, I may not be available. We'll have to do the best we can.

After the meeting I shared my idea of working directly with the Special Ed teachers with the team leader. She thought it was a good idea but concerned about another "meeting" that the teachers had to attend. She suggested that my meetings with them be used in place of the required ELC participation. I felt that was a good idea and I told her I would discuss it with the principal.

I believe this is a good plan on paper, but I'm not sure how it will work. I know that we are scheduled to get about 100 new computers that will take weeks to set up, I have my own staff development presentations to create, I have my Tech Ed class to teach, I have to troubleshoot problems on a network I am not intimately familiar with, I have to take my last grad class, I have to plan for my ELO club after school, and I have to be home immediately after all official school business is finished so my wife can go to work and I stay with my children. So this is going to be quite a juggling act. Only time will tell if it will work.

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The TJ Middle ELC

Mr. Lininger and I met to discuss how the ELC would be laid out. He wanted an area where the latest news of what was going on in the professional development process could be posted for teachers to read. He also wanted a way that staff could sign up for their chosen topic for the month. At first we talked about how to create one professoinal development "course" with many topics. But I suggested that one course site could become cumbersome and difficult to use as we continue to use the ELC and the amount of information grows. So I offered the idea to separate each professional development topic into its own course site and have a "master" site with news and information about professional development. I knew that Moodle could "link" courses together using the meta course option, but I had never used it before.



Now that the decision has been made to use an Electronic Learning Community, I finally get to showcase what Moodle can do. One of the great featurs of Moodle is the creation of a Meta course which acts as a "master" course. A meta course may be used as a common area to allow Participants in specific courses to interact with each other, such as in an ELC with multiple topics which should logically be separated. Although I hadn't set up a meta course before, the documentation with Moodle made is easy to figure out. All I had to do was check a box for the main ELC course site and check a box on each of the 4 professional development topic sites to link it to the main site. This also made maintenance easier since all I had to do was enter staff names and log in information on the main site and it was automatically copied to the linked sites.

I feel pretty good about this set up. It seperates the differnt topics so the information doesn't get "muddied" as time goes on. It's clearly defined and easy to use. I put up extra menu blocks to help make navigating from one Professoinal Development site to another easier. Hopefully, teachers will find this easy to use.

One big question will be how much training time will I get with the staff. As I have stated before, the greatest professoinal development will be ineffective is staff do not have enough time to process what they are learning. Since few teachers have participated in an online course, and fewer have used Moodle, it will be critical to have at least two opportunities to present the ELC to the staff members so they can be introduced to the site, have an opportunity to practice, and then provide an opportunity to come back together to and ask questions or help each other.

Irregardless I will have to prepare detailed documentation for each staff member to help ensure this ECL works.

The other big question is how to train the facilitators. Since I have taken a course about online facilitating, I will have to rely on what I learned from that course. The general rule is to post a discussion forum that teachers can respond to and encourage discussion among the participants for that month by requiring the participants to read and respond to at least two other teachers' postings. It is also a skill to avoid the "That's a good idea" or the "I agree" response. Sometimes adults can be like students and do as little as possible to claim they have done the work. It's hard when we are all so busy, but I believe it will pay off in the end.

I have contacted one of the instructors, who is an FCPS employee to get advise. She said that my ideas so far are good and she'd be happy to help train the facilitators in any way they want to be trained. Hopefully the facilitators will be open to this.

EDIT 8-23-07: As I was afraid, teachers only had one 45 minute session with me which I feel went really well, but since it happened the first week back, I worry that there will be many questions when the end of September comes.
I had only one 45 minute session with the facilitators where only the bare minimum of information about using the ELC was given to them. I have noticed that forums are not set up in the most efficient manner, facilitators don't participate in their own discussion, and they are generally ignored. There really needed to be two sessions, one on how to use it, and one on how to facilitate.

EDIT 11-8-07 Teachers have voiced conecrns over how to use the ELC. They say it is not as user friendly as Blackboard. Others say it is much easier than Blackboard. In any case, most of the confusion appears to be from the infrequency of using the ELC, the lack of facilitator encouragement of continuing discussions, and that some of the discussions are just not set up well. I have offered to do another training with the facilitators but I haven't had anyone take the offer. So, where does that leave the ELC? As an administrator I would absolutely want to make sure the staff and facilitators are comfortable using the tools of the ELC. But I wonder why none of the administrators have come to me directly to ask what can be done?
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Professional Development Planning Meeting

With the school year underway, the Professional Development Team met again to solidify the schedule for staff development this year. The administrative team presented the calendar of events for the Professional Development team to review. One notable change was that we are now required to attend six ninety minute staff development sessions. We decided at the summer meeting to use that time to work on our ELC topics. However, the decision was made to add SITE facilitation to our schedule. So we now have a ton of professional development options each month. We are required to attend three separate and seemingly unconnected training sessions: Our selected ELC topic with a required implementation and reflection, our monthly Special Ed topic with a required implementation and reflection, and the SITE facilitator session which has no required reflection. I got me thinking about how much can teachers have thrown at them and not shut down?



As each meeting of the professional development team occurred, the growing number of professional development experiences we were required to participate prompted me to write my concerns down in a file which I want to share with the administration. I have a meeting scheduled soon. Essentially, this file reflects on my hopes and concerns for the upcoming year. I identified a lot of "problems" I see with the plan, but I also know that sometimes, administrators are not given an option. The required SITE facilitator training is one of those instances. The Central Offices requires them to come in to give us training since we didn't make AYP. I wonder why they only do that when we don't make AYP? Why don't they do that proactively? Something to ponder.

Anyway, the big deal for me as an administrator is to construct professional development that has common threads and are connected in a way that teachers can digest. Since I'm part of the Professional Development team I can look at the big picture and connect the dots (sort of). With disjointed training, it becomes task mastering instead of skill building.

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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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MICCA 2007

Every year I present a topic at the annual Maryland Instructional Computer Coordinators Assocation (MICCA) conference. My MICCA presentation was about creating vodcasts and how they can be used as instructional tools. I created a screencast of the presentation here and it can also be found on the Tech Time blog. The conference is an excellent opportunity to learn how others are using technology to enhance instructions. Since this is my niche, I go with eyes wide open looking for new ways to improve instruction through technology. Lately, my big push has been for web 2.0 technologies in the classroom. This blog is an example of web 2.0 technology. Other types would include wikis, social networking sites, podcasting and vodcasting sites and other sites that seek to foster online community and collaboration. I have several entries about this on my instructional technology blog, Tech Time With Tony. Essentially, teachers need to integrate these technologies into their instruction if they want to really get students to be motivated and involved in school.

Over the course of this year, I have been doing several technology integration training. This was outlined in an entry I posted earlier this year. We have been posting our reflections about how the use of the new technology is received by the students. The majority of responses have been positive and show that student behavior issues are diminished when the class is engaged in a lesson using technology. This engagement is what can lead to increased achievement since time on task is correlated to increased comprehension and retention of knowledge. This is promising since most of the examples posted were from classes with a high number of special education students. So I am pressing to more time with teachers to help them plan lessons which will get the students engaged and motivated. As I continue to plan and work with teachers, I will devise ways to determine how effective the use of the technology is.

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Technology Standards Presentation

My primary role as Technology Coordinator is to assist teachers with the creation of lessons and unit plans that take advantage of the technology we have available at TJ. Our school is fortunate to have my technologies that we take for granted which other schools view as a luxury item. This is unfortunate since I believe we actually have what should constitute as the minimum technology set for a school the size of TJ Middle. The Maryland State Board of Education recently implemented a set of technology standards for students, teachers, and administrators. These standards are part of the requirements for No Child Left Behind and are going to be assessed in a manner not yet determined. The irony of the three sets of standards is that the student standards, which are what we are charged with helping students master, are far more rigorous than the teacher and administrator standards. It just seems odd that the people responsible for school improvement have been given inferior standards.




As part of the push to get the standards in front of teachers, I met with each grade level team at TJ Middle to present the standards. I know from experience that when teachers are told that there will be an additional assessment imposed that they feel overwhelmed and sometimes respond in a negative manner. With that in mind, I decided to present that standards and simultaneously brainstorm ways that teachers at TJ Middle are already meeting many of the standards. This method seemed to be effective at quelling some potential backlash against the new standards. It also helped that the assessment of the standards is not set and will be in the future. That probably sent a hidden message to the teachers that the standards are not something to worry about - right now.

I feel that the use of the brainstorming to identify ways teachers are already meeting the standards was an effective strategy. Sometimes professional development is presented as "one more thing to do" and not as "here is a way to tweak what you are already doing" so that you can be more effective. There are, of course, times when it is one more thing to do. But I believe the majority of the time, instructional leaders are simply offering a new perspective or new twist to what teachers are already doing. It would be my goal to make sure that professional development I lead as an administrator would frame the new idea in the context that it is not a brand new idea, but an improvement or new perspective on good instruction.

Technology is often views as one more thing to do. This really is not the case. It is a new skill and that is not something we can avoid. However, the instructional strategies behind the use of technology can be incorporated into almost any of the professional development sessions I have led or in which I have been a participant. My objective will be to always link technology to new professional development ideas whenever it fits logically and is appropriate.
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MICCA 2007 Recap

Well the 2007 MICCA conference has come and gone. This year I presented a session with Kerri Cole on how to create a vodcast and emphasized a software title called "VlogIt" from Adobe. I really enjoy presenting at MICCA and other conferences because it gives me the chance to share my love of technology with teachers. It is always my goal to give the attendees something tangible with which to leave my session. This year I feel that I had greater success than years past.


This year's topic was vodcasting. It is a topic that I am very passionate about because of the wide range of applications. As an instructional leader I would encourage teachers and administrators to take advantage of this simple to create tool. Here is just a short list of ways instructional leaders can use the vodcast in the school setting.

• New Teacher Orientation
• Professional Development Sessions
• Regular Parent Messages
• Mission/Vision Statements
• School Announcements

There are also an endless number of ways teachers can use a vodcast for instruction.

• Demonstratrion of steps in a task - i.e. Science Lab Set up, Filling out a graphic organizer
• Direct Instruction - i.e. Solving Quadratic Equations, How to locate map coordinates
• Tutorial - i.e. Screencasts of how to use Inspiration, Word, etc.

The screencast of the presentation gives many more examples but you can get the idea that video is a powerful tool.

The presentation was well received by the attendees. Several came up to ask questions afterward and even stopped us in the Inner Harbor to comment and thank Kerri and I for the information. That always makes me feel that I made a connection with the audience. In fact, we have already been asked to present the information at the Renzulli meetings at FCPS and the MS State G&T conference in October. I wonder if this could lead to the something more? It is my goal to be able to spread the word of technology to others at conferences around the country. Maybe this is the start of that dream.

As for the conference itself, I felt that it lacked something this year. The first two hours each day were dedicated to the keynote address and various awards. These are all important events at a conference. However, in the past, they were held after one or two sessions were presented. This meant that I was only able to attend two sessions each day. Fortunately, I was able to go to Will Richardson's sessions which really got me excited. That's the power of a conference, you learn from other experts and peers in your field. They have different perspectives and experiences they share and I love learning from others and applying their techniques to what I do. Click to Read more ...

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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Congressional Briefing - Project Tomorrow

Every year I encourage the students and staff at TJ Middle to participate in the Speak Up Day survey facilitated by Project Tomorrow. The survey data is used to present to Congress information about how technology is being used for instruction and where there are still needs to fill. This year I was invited to be part of the congressional briefing at the House Rayburn Building. I was asked to bring several students and parents along to give their input as well. As it turned out, we presented the same day as Al Gore when he testified to congress about his global warming theories. Needless to say, it was a media circus. How strange that the attention centered around one man's words about the fate of the planet when the discussion on the floor above them focused on the needs of those who will be the future stewards of the planet. Shouldn't more attention have been focused on how to get the future leaders of the planet the knowledge and skills they will need to solve the problems they will face? Anyway, that's a posting for another blog.

I rounded up three students and one mother of a student and headed down to the Metro station.



We were all excited about going into the heart of our nation's government. We live only 48 miles from Washington, DC but how often do we take time to bare witness to how decisions are made that shape our nation? I admit I was a little intimidated by the grandeur and history of the buildings we would be visiting. The briefing began with with several VIP speeches. The two most notable speakers were John Gage, Vice President of Sun Microsystems and Ray Simon, Deputy Secretary of Education.

Ray Simon's speech was about how quickly technology has changed and its impact on education. He described how science, engineering and math students carried around slide rules and how only a few people knew the secret of how to use the slide rule, the most valuable tool for an engineering students. He remarked how overnight, the tool that had been used for centuries as the standard mathematics tool was replaced by a cheap plastic chip, and he held up a TI-84 calculator. He ended his speech by wondering what will be the next invention that will replace the hand held calculator. It was something to ponder.

After comments from students, the parents and teachers were invited to join the panel. My contribution to the discussion centered around how technology can unite parents and schools in the education process. I also mentioned how there is a lack of technology support which is critical to using the tools that have shown to increase student attendance, achievement, and motivation while decreasing disruptive behavior.

After all was said and done I was very pleased to be part of a process to secure funding for the technology I believe is critical to student achievement and paramount for preparing them for the job market. It is my mission as a leader to help ensure that students are able to access the tools they need to be successful in life. I often wonder how I will be able to navigate the large bureaucracy that is often in place. Many people have different ideals and objectives. I will need to acquire skills of diplomacy and patience. The vision I have will not materialize overnight, but will require slow and steady progress.
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Internet Safety is Everyone's Job

STRETCH PROJECT

This year, I took on a major parent event addressing online safety. This is an area of increasing concern for parents and since I am pretty Internet savvy, I thought I would take up the challenge. I participated in online training with the I-Safe organization which promotes online safety with free materials. I organized a planning meeting where I invited local Information Technologists and law enforcement officers to give input. Then I planned the presentation and publicized it to the media. It was a successful night with about 50 people in attendance. I had never organized an event of that size before and it was a lot of work, but well worth the effort.

I first learned of the iSafe organization at a Technology Coordinator's meeting. One of my fellow Tech Coordinators was presenting the iSafe information to the attendees and I immediately knew I had to do this for the parents at TJMS. It is something I wanted to do but lacked the neccessary knowledge to create the information by myself. ISafe is a non-profit group who creates materials and informational videos for teachers, parents, and community members to use for educating students, other parents, and the community at large about the dangers of the Internet and how to be safe.
I chose to bring in members of the community to supplement the prepared informational handouts. I contacted a friend of mine in IT Security who put me in touch with a man from his company who presents to parent and student groups. I also contacted local law enforcement to get an Internet Crimes officer to come out. I was lucky to have the Frederick County Sherrif agree to be part of the evening. He brought along one of his deputies who presents Internet safety to schools
One of the goals of iSafe is to spread the word about their organization. They want as many people as possible to push for education about safety online. I worked with parents to get up to three parents to take the iSafe training to be certified iSafe instructors. At the parent night, four main topics were presented to the attendees.

1. Avoiding Online Predators
2. Recognizing and dealing with Cybyer Bullies
3. Cyber Security
4. Identity Theft

Because I had been studying ways to hold effective parents nights, I wanted to give parents the opportunity to sign up for seperate topic sessions where they could get additional information from one of our experts. I also knew that to get exposure to the most number of parents, I would have to hold the topic nights on several occasions. This would give parents the opportunity to go to all four or pick and choose the ones they wanted.

To promote the event, I contacted local radio, newspaper and television stations to run an ad as a Public Service Announcement. Both radio stations in Frederick ran a piece about the parent night. The newspaper printed the event, but did not come to report on it. The television station did not return my phone calls. We even used the FCPS email blaster list to promote the event. In the end, we had about 50 parents and community members show up. I was hoping for about 100 but people told me that 50 was an excellent turn out. So I was pleased that we had that many people come to learn about being safe online.

As it turned out, very few parents signed up for the seperate break out sessions. So we decided to cancel them. However, when we do this event next year, I will start promoting it earlier to get more people. I would also get parents to become certified iSafe presenters sooner since they were apprehensive about presenting to parents with only a little time to prepare.

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