Field-Based+Activities+Reflections

= Field-based Activities Weekly Report - Part 2: Reflection =

__ August’s Reflections: __
All district Campus Instructional Technologists started off another new school year by having to attend a day and a half of professional development provided by the department of Instructional Technology. There were many items covered during these sessions, and as usual I left the trainings feeling both excited and overwhelmed at the same time.

I always love starting off a new school year. I am refreshed and ready to get started on making the next school year better than the last. However, at the same time, it can be very overwhelming when you think ahead to all of the work you need to do in order to get the year started off right.

Our Director of Instructional Technology always does a wonderful job of providing us with all necessary documentation, updating us on new developments and/or changes to procedures that occurred over the summer, supplying a detailed overview of the district plan for Instructional Technology for the year and is always prepared to share some type of inspirational presentation to get us mentally pumped for the work that lies ahead.

Once I was back on my campus, the heavy load of my job begins. The first order of business for me is to work with my campus Instructional Team and Leadership Team to develop and approve a workable yearly schedule for my Professional Technology Learning Community (PTLC – a name coined by Lacey Gosch and myself.)

Once the PTLC schedule was established, my next order of business was to immediately begin the process of distributing/redistributing all necessary technology equipment to campus staff. Considering that my staff consisted of about 65 people that needed to have equipment issued to them, this is a hefty endeavor that can take anywhere from 1-2 weeks to complete. All necessary forms and documentation were filed in my office, as well as electronic documentation being maintained in WASP, our district approved electronic database.

As part of our regular campus Professional Learning Community (PLC) schedule, I will begin to attend both Grade-level and Content area PLC meetings. Attending these meetings is a requirement of my position as a CIT. This is a new procedure put in place this school year by the Instructional Technology Department. The CIT is to turn in meeting log sheets for all meetings attended to the Director of Instructional Technology weekly. In all, this means that I must attend 7 meetings (5.25 hrs) and electronically submit 7 meeting logs each week.

__**Standards addressed this month:**__ Staff Development: TF.V.A, B; TF.VIII.A, B, C, D Establishment of PTLC Schedule: TF.V.A, D; TFVIII.A,B,D Inventory: TF.VI.E; TF.VII.A.1; TF.VII.A.8; TF.VII.B.2; TF.VII.B.4 Attending Content and Grade Level PLCs: TF.I.A; TF.II.A, B, C, D, E, F; TF.III.A, E; TF.V.B; TF.VI.B,C,D; TF.VII.C

Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE’s technology facilitation and leadership standards: What every K-12 leader should know and be able to do. Eugene, OR: International Society for Education.

__ September’s Reflections: __
I met with my campus Technology Committee to begin the process of establishing a training schedule and topics for this year’s Technology Trainings to be offered by each of the 8 Technology Leaders (total of 16 trainings to be offered by the Tech Leaders.) These trainings are in addition to any others provided by me, the CIT during regularly scheduled PTLC (Professional Technology Learning Community) times on a weekly basis.

During our 1 hour meeting after school, the Tech Leaders were instructed to begin asking, during their PLC meeting times, for feedback on what their grade level and content area teachers would like to have trainings on throughout the year. Example topics may include trainings on the use of: KLRN/United Streaming, Blogs, Wikispaces, Interwrite Tablets, Copyright and Fair Use, BrainPop, eInstruction Student Response Systems, and Podcasting. Some feedback was provided during the PLC meetings, while other feedback was provided via e-mail at later times. I created a wikispace for all Tech Leaders to post their teacher feedback on; Schedule and Topics for Happy Hours. I will be monitoring this page as I work towards finalizing our campus Technology Happy Hour Training Schedule for the year.

I continued to attend all weekly PLC meetings throughout the month. Most of the meetings this month consisted of establishing meeting norms, procedures, and roles/responsibilities of each group member, looking at previous years TAKS data, and various reports and feedback to be turned in by teachers to campus administration.

I also had my first designated after-school meeting/training with all newly hired teachers. This first meeting was to discuss and provide all necessary documentation regarding district and campus technology procedures, district AUP, and requirements regarding teacher websites.

During our regularly scheduled PTLC times this month, I provided updates and training on maintaining teacher websites to all teachers, campus administration, and counselors (who also have a dedicated webpage). In order to accommodate and meet with all campus teachers, including elective teachers who do not have a PLC schedule, only a conference time, I had to provide alternate meeting times. This resulted in a total of 7 meeting times this week @ 45 minutes each.

The month of September and some of October have always been incredibly busy months. These are the months that I start the ball rolling on my entire year’s plan for providing educational technology information, trainings, and guidance for my campus. It's a lot of work, but it pays off because the rest of the year is all about carrying out the plan I have already established. For me, half the battle is in the creation of a plan and establishing the direction we need to head, and once that is established then you simply continue working towards that end.

__**Standards addressed this month:**__ Meeting with Technology Leaders and establishment of our yearly campus Technology Training Schedule: TF.II.A, B, C; TF-VI.D; TF.VIII.B, C, D, E Regularly scheduled PLC meetings: TF.I.A; TF.II.A, B, C, D, E, F; TF.III.A,E; TF.V.B; TF.VI.B,C,D; TF.VII.C Meeting with New Hires: TF.I.A, B; TF.II.A, B, C, D; TF.V.D; TF.VI.A; TF.VIII.D.E. Regularly Scheduled PTLC & training on websites: TF.V.D.4, TF.V.C.8

Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE’s technology facilitation and leadership standards: What every K-12 leader should know and be able to do. Eugene, OR: International Society for Education.

__ October’s Reflections: __
One of the main technology resources utilized by our Science Department is Study Island. In order for all Science teachers to begin utilizing it, I needed to work on updating all teacher and student information in the database. Our campus purchased Study Island at the end of the previous school year, so this was the first time we had to address the issue of updating all information in the database in order to prepare for a new school year. As the CIT, I was given administrative access to complete this process. I worked very closely with our Study Island representative throughout the entire process to ensure accuracy and that proper procedures were followed.

I continued to monitor the feedback being provided by the campus Technology Leaders from their designated Cohort members this month and finalized our campus Technology Happy Hour Training Schedule for the year. A final copy of the schedule along with an explanation was sent out to the entire staff via e-mail. All classes will be available for registration within our Learning Management System.

All secondary CIT's began meeting to discuss our plans for the district's secondary student e-mail and AUP training schedule and development of all training materials. Our first meeting was held at McNair Middle School. As a result of the meeting, my designated task would be work on the development of all AUP information to be included in our final presentation. Each CIT was given their own task to work on. Our next scheduled meeting will be in November. All meeting notes were sent to our Director of Instructional Technology for any feedback or concerns she may have.

Towards the end of this month, I began the process of conducting classroom Technology Integration Observations. As per our Director of Instructional Technology, all CIT's are to focus on our campus Technology Leaders at the beginning of the year. CIT's used a district approved observation form for all observations. After each 15-minute observation, I scheduled a 30-minute meeting with each person to discuss my observations, provide feedback, and answer any and all questions. This observation process will continue throughout the year. All observation documentation will be shared with campus administration.

Updates to Study Island database: TF.II.A; TF.III.B-E; TF.VI.E   Regularly scheduled PLC meetings: TF.I.A; TF.II.A, B, C, D, E, F; TF.III.A,E; TF.V.B; TF.VI.B,C,D; TF.VII.C   Meeting with Secondary CITs/ E-mail and AUP training: TF1.A.1-2, B.1; TFII.B.1, C.1-2; D.1, F.1 Technology Integration Observations: TF.IV.A, B, C; TF.V.A, B, C
 * __Standards addressed this month:__ **

Williamson, J. & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE’s technology facilitation and leadership standards: What every K-12 leader should know and be able to do. Eugene, OR: International Society for Education.