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