EDLD 5352 Instructional Leadership Week 5

Edld 5352 Week05 Assignment Jill Williams

Week 4 EDLD 5352 Technology Plan

Week 4 Assignment Jill Williams Sp2 11 Ea1202

Week 3 EDLD 5352

The International High School at Sharpstown and the Houston Independent School District (HISD) has worked with Asia Society International Schools Network to develop a new, small high school beginning in August of 2007. The goal was to create a rigorous, college-bound school culture that promotes global citizenship. Our campus provides our students with an opportunity for a personalized learning environment, prepares students for active roles as global citizens, and develops students’ international knowledge and skills in hopes of deepening their understanding of world cultures.
Our campus and our district are extremely data driven when making decisions for all stakeholders. However, after reviewing our Campus Improvement Plan, I have noticed that it fails to mention technology or technology improvement anywhere. Despite this, our campus administrators are fully aware that they know in order to aid our students in their quest of becoming global citizens, our administration and teachers need to consistently use technology in order to enhance learning and instruction. Our students need an international perspective infused into their education, not only to compete in the ‘global market place’, but also to succeed here in the Houston marketplace. Our school serves our community by producing citizens that understand and appreciate the broad diversity represented in their city, and we do this by instilling the importance of technology standards into curriculum and instruction, professional development for teachers, and project based learning.
On my campus, technology is used to deliver and enrich instruction in almost every classroom on our campus. Most core curriculum teachers are equipped with either a smartboard/projector or just a projector. In order to support teachers with smartboards, our principal has asked the Houston ISD Smartboard representative to come to our campus to train us during our GLC planning period. This is extremely helpful because teachers can learn in their own classroom in a hand on learning experience. All of our teachers have access to Flip video cameras which assisted the Chinese language classes in creating some incredible Chinese music videos last semester. I recently had my students use the digital cameras and photography editing software to create Claymation videos depicting scenes from the ancient Inca, Maya, and Aztec cultures. I am also asking all of my students create a blog which they will use as their high school digital portfolio until their graduation. This will be helpful for them when they are asked to present their graduate portfolio in a digital medium during their senior year. Some students were hesitant in creating a blog, but once they posted PowerPoint projects using www.slideboom.com or photo story projects using www.onetruemedia.com, they were hooked! Now they can never use the “I lost my flash drive” excuse again!
International High School at Sharpstown uses AEIS, AYP, STaR chart, and Houston ISD’s EVAAS data in order to make data driven decisions on our campus. At the beginning of the year, all data was reviewed for all students and all student groups by the entire staff. The results and conclusions of this review are reflected in our SMART goals for the entire school year. On a weekly basis, our teachers meet to analyze data using Campus Online and EVAAS and any student’s not meeting mastery have immediate intervention plans both in class, after school, and during Saturday school. Data team leaders receive training on Campus Online, Access, EVAAS, and analyzing data by excellent school site visits and training. Staff members participate in weekly staff development on effective Marzano learning strategies and best practices, and attend other effective teaching and technology professional development offered by HISD and Region IV Service Center.
According to the International Society for Technology in Education, there are five standards for administrators. These five standards for administrators include: visionary leadership, digital age learning culture, excellence in professional practice, systemic improvement, and digital citizenship (ISTE, 2009). It is the responsibility of school leaders to “inspire and facilitate among ALL stakeholders a shared vision of purposeful change that maximizes use of digital-age resources” and to “engage in an ongoing process to develop, implement, and communicate technology-infused plans” (ISTE, 2009). According to Dr. Kay Abernathy, standard 2 is important because the “world has changed, but web 2.0 resources gives Lamar candidates an opportunity to model for ALL stakeholders” by “connecting to everyone electronically” (Abernathy, 2011). Standard 3 encourages administrators to “promote an environment of professional learning and innovation that empowers educators to enhance students learning” through technology and digital resources by “staying abreast of educational research and emerging trends” (ISTE, 2009). According to standard 4, systemic improvement can be achieved by “providing digital-age leadership and management to continuously improve the organization through the effective use of information and technology resources” (ISTE, 2009). Finally, school leaders must seek to gain their digital citizenship by effectively being able to “model and facilitate understanding of social, ethical, and legal issues and responsibilities related to an evolving digital culture” (ISTE, 2009).
The round table interview conducted by Dr. Kay Abernathy, Ms. Cindy Cummings, and Dr. Steve Jenkins, was very informative. As Dr. Jenkins addressed all 5 NETS-A standards, Dr. Abernathy and Ms. Cummings made some astute observations. I agree with Cindy Cummings statement that “staying on top of emerging technology trends and research and the practical uses for campus improvement” is extremely important (Abernathy, 2011). I feel that our campus leaders do an extremely good job at this and our campus is leading the way for better assisting our digital natives. Dr. Abernathy stated that we must “emphasize our beliefs and lead our teachers to resources like Project Tomorrow in order to create digital citizens” which is definitely the right idea (Abernathy, 2011). I am constantly seeking out new and creative resources on the internet and sharing/demonstrating my new ideas with my peers.
Abernathy, Kay, and Cindy Cummings, and Steve Jenkins. "EDLD 5352 Week 3 Interview 1-4." Lamar University. Beaumont, TX. Jan. 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2011.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2009). In National Educational Technology Standards - Administrators. Retrieved March 14, 2011, from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-administrators/nets-for-administrators-sandards.aspx

Web Conference February 27, 2011

I attended the Web Conference on February 27, 2011 at 5pm. At first I was rejected from the chat. I assumed that this was due to the large amount of students attempting to logon to the web conference. This was slightly annoying, but I understood. After several attempts, I was allowed to enter successfully and enjoyed participating. My web camera and microphone were not working, but that was fine because there were too many people on the conference for more than 20 to use their cameras. I used the chat and 'raised my virtual hand' to ask Dr. Abernathy questions. She responded quickly and was very helpful. Most of the questions and concerns dealt with TK20, the weekly overviews, and the constant changes being made to the assignments. I felt that there were too many people involved for the chat to be 100% effective. I wish there were chat sessions with fewer people involved. It would also be helpful to see what Dr. Abernathy says in the chat script for future reference.

Blog Post #3 - NETP

The U.S. Department of Education’s draft of the National Educational Technology Plan: Transforming American Education: Learning powered by Technology, lists all of the goals that President Barak Obama’s administration outlines as being important to today’s educational system. The Obama administration has two goals: to raise the proportion of college graduates from 39% to 60% of our population holding a 2-4 year degree and to close the achievement gap so that all students are college and career ready. The NETP presents five goals and recommendations for states, districts, the federal government, and other stakeholders in our education system that address learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. All learning should have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and outside of school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society. Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement. Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise and learning experiences that enable and inspire more effective teaching for all learners. All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it. Our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money, and staff.

Office of Educational Technology U.S. Dept of Ed. (2010, March 5). Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology. In U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf

Blog Post # 2 - Progress Report on Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020

According to the Texas Education Agency, the 2010 Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020, Texas has made progress thanks to the “resourcefulness of Texas educators and other stakeholders as they continue to leverage resources and programs for their students” (TEA, 2010). The Texas STaR chart shows improvement in the number of teachers at higher levels of implementation of the Technology Applications TEKS. This 2010 report shows “how the necessary tools and resources for administrators, teachers, librarians, and students are being provided for our 21st century classrooms” (TEA, 2010). I tend to agree with the overall findings, but I think that TEA might be patting themselves on the back while ignoring the gloom and doom of the pending budget crisis. Although our campus has made great strides when addressing educational technology needs inside the classroom, but there are still so many things that need to be done in order to achieve maximum student achievement. Our administrators are extremely helpful in providing on campus training for our Smartboards during professional development. But, as our enrollment increase in the 2011-2012 school year, we will be once again short of technology and without the funds to solve the problem. In the area of Leadership, Administration, and Instructional support, the 2010 report mentions that full support of the school leaders and administrators is a crucial part of teacher and student success. Administrators should remain involved with planning and budgeting to assist their staff to include technology in the classroom. The Infrastructure can be assisted with grants, Educational Service Center resources, Texas Education Communications Network, and the Texas Education Agency.



Texas Education Agency. (2010, December). 2010 Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020. In Texas Education Agency. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=5096&menu_id=2147483665

Blog Post #1 - Texas Long Range Plan for Technology 2006-2010

The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2010, contains four areas and I would like to focus on Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support. This area requires school leaders to effectively model and encourage their staff to use technology inside their classrooms on a daily basis. In order to meet these expectations, school leaders should provide ample time for professional development to ensure that staff members are capable of implementing technology in their daily lessons. The main goal of the instructional leader is to ensure that their budge allows them to implement and align resources to improve student achievement by creating a responsive environment to maximize teaching and learning. There has been great strides made in local, state, and national arenas regarding leadership, administration and instructional support, but there is always room for improvement. Currently, “Texas faces a significant challenge in providing visionary school leadership with the necessary background requisite skills to lead and nurture the changes technology brings. Rapid changes on many fronts make it difficult for any individual within a school system to maintain the necessary knowledge to represent all facets of technology planning and implementation” (TEA, 2006). My first recommendation would be to introduce this document to your entire staff. I was completely unaware that this document existed and I think that it would help to ensure that my staff to be on the same page. I would also strive to provide as much training and technology my budget allowed in order to reach the goals set by the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology.
Texas Education Agency. (2006, November). Long-Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020. In Texas Education Agency. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=5082&menu_id=2147483665