On Sunday, I attended a web conference. I sat in my husband's recliner while my children shouted at the computer screen while Dr. Abernathy spoke to us that had logged in. Thankfully, I don't have a web cam or speaker on my old DELL Inspiron 1501 so no one else had to hear them yell either. I took from this web conference a lot of valuable information. Dr. Abernathy was very helpful; as was having a conversation with people that are doing the same work you are doing! There are many benefits to completing an online degree, one of them is not the loss of being able to pick your professors brain. But I digress....
The most important thing I took away from this web conference was information on what ILD stands for; which by the way is Instructional Leadership Development. What is this you might ask? ILD is a course that has a primary audience of future administrators. It is meant to teach you how to gain skills to facilitate continuous campus improvement. Topics included are data-driven decision making, curriculum, instruction, assessment, developmental supervision, professional development, community partnerships/communication, organizational management, and evaluation. Doesn't that sound like so much fun? Don't you want to spend 36 of your long awaited summer vacation hours attending this in a cold education service center building??? This 36 hour course can be completed face to face or online. The cost ranges from $450-$600. Seriously? We are teachers! That's almost 3 trips to the grocery store! Oh well, there is nothing I can do about it because ILD is a requirement in order to become a certified principal in the great State of Texas. I guess I'll be shelling out this money sooner than later. If you have a need to find out information about ILD, I have provided you below with the information I found online at the Region IV ESC website.
http://www.escweb.net/tx_esc_04/catalog/event.aspx?s=7b9fdb7f-04de-4413-a63c-69393b0802d6&keywords=ILD&audience=&subject=&creditType=&start=&end=&pid=&eventId=2552&guid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Texas Long Range Plan for Technology
The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020, is a comprehensive plan that is mapping out a plan for all schools in Texas to be Target Tech schools by the year 2020. A Target Tech campus will be the campus that embeds technology in every spectrum, for all age levels and for all stakeholders (parents, teachers, students). A component of the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology is The Texas STaR Chart. The STaR chart is a teacher tool for planning and self-assessing aligned with the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020.
On our campus, the STaR chart showed that Educator Preparation and Development was our greatest weakness on campus. In 2009-2010, we scored developed and that sends up a red flag to myself and should to administrators on campus. What changed in this year that we fell from advanced from the year before and then went up again the year after? As a future administrator, I would look carefully at the sub domains within this area and determine where our weakness lies and how we can improve upon that. Those sub-domains are Professional Development Experiences, Models of Professional Development, Capabilities of Educators, Access to Professional Development, Levels of Understanding and Patterns of Use, and Professional Development for Online Learning. It’s apparent that Professional Development in this area is not strength on our campus and it would be beneficial to ask the teachers what time of professional development would help them long term and then seek those types of presentations/presenters out for our teachers.
On our campus, the STaR chart showed that Educator Preparation and Development was our greatest weakness on campus. In 2009-2010, we scored developed and that sends up a red flag to myself and should to administrators on campus. What changed in this year that we fell from advanced from the year before and then went up again the year after? As a future administrator, I would look carefully at the sub domains within this area and determine where our weakness lies and how we can improve upon that. Those sub-domains are Professional Development Experiences, Models of Professional Development, Capabilities of Educators, Access to Professional Development, Levels of Understanding and Patterns of Use, and Professional Development for Online Learning. It’s apparent that Professional Development in this area is not strength on our campus and it would be beneficial to ask the teachers what time of professional development would help them long term and then seek those types of presentations/presenters out for our teachers.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Reflections....
This week we were asked to reflect on the different parts of the course. I found the reflections helped allow me to self-evaluate my progress in this course. I found this assignment very validating to my work over the past 5 weeks.
Lectures: Each week Dr. Arterbury and Dr. Jenkins gave a personal overview of what our week was going to encompass. I enjoyed listening to both professors discuss the area we were about to study. Because we aren’t “in the classroom” I felt like that the videos were time to soak in the professors’ purpose for this course. I enjoyed the virtual face to face time I had with both professors because again it made me feel like I was both just sitting in front of a computer reading information about my course. I was able to actually see the professors and if needed, communicate with them regarding my course.
Readings: During both reading assignments I had to pause a moment and use different resources to gain better understanding of what both authors were saying. Dana’s text I felt lent itself to be more academic. However, while Harris’ text was academic I felt it was more of any “easy read”. I gained valuable information from both texts. I feel both texts helped me in more than one way gain valuable insight into information during the beginnings of my action research plan. I would also say they were very applicable to my action research plan.
Searches, like electronic searches of topics and questions: During the five weeks of this course, I would use the internet when the text was unclear or if I needed to find more in depth definitions. It helped to have another author’s perspective to clarify what the authors were trying to say to us. I also found reading other action research plans was helping because it allowed me to see what an action research resembled.
Assignments and activities: The assignments and activities that I completed during this course have been very valuable. I feel that as an aspiring administrator, the more practice I have learning how to write an action research plan and how to develop appropriate action research questions, the more qualified I will be to my campus. I will use different tools to aid my research such as the CARE Model, Force Field Analysis, the Delphi Model, and the Nominal Group Technique. Each of these tools will allow me to gain a deeper insight into how to work with my faculty.
Discussion Board: The weekly discussion boards were like the classroom discussions that go on in a typical university setting. It allowed us to voice our opinion and allow for feedback that was constructive and beneficial at the same time. I feel that without the discussion board, the students in this course would feel isolated and alone. The discussion board feedback I received was valuable. I reflected on each student comments on my post and took into consideration what they had to say.
Blogs: I never thought I would have a blog. I am not private person, but on the other hand I didn’t feel I needed a blog in my life either. I am encompassed in social networking via texts, e-mail, Facebook, etc. The action research blog for me has allowed me to post my opinions on my coursework and allow for feedback. I have checked my blog every day for comments. I hope that as the course continues I’ll start seeing more. The ability to check others blogs in the same course really is neat to me. I like having the ability to see what others are thinking. The blog also has allowed me to share my views on educational topics that others may never known I had. I feel that my blog has given me second voice.
Lectures: Each week Dr. Arterbury and Dr. Jenkins gave a personal overview of what our week was going to encompass. I enjoyed listening to both professors discuss the area we were about to study. Because we aren’t “in the classroom” I felt like that the videos were time to soak in the professors’ purpose for this course. I enjoyed the virtual face to face time I had with both professors because again it made me feel like I was both just sitting in front of a computer reading information about my course. I was able to actually see the professors and if needed, communicate with them regarding my course.
Readings: During both reading assignments I had to pause a moment and use different resources to gain better understanding of what both authors were saying. Dana’s text I felt lent itself to be more academic. However, while Harris’ text was academic I felt it was more of any “easy read”. I gained valuable information from both texts. I feel both texts helped me in more than one way gain valuable insight into information during the beginnings of my action research plan. I would also say they were very applicable to my action research plan.
Searches, like electronic searches of topics and questions: During the five weeks of this course, I would use the internet when the text was unclear or if I needed to find more in depth definitions. It helped to have another author’s perspective to clarify what the authors were trying to say to us. I also found reading other action research plans was helping because it allowed me to see what an action research resembled.
Assignments and activities: The assignments and activities that I completed during this course have been very valuable. I feel that as an aspiring administrator, the more practice I have learning how to write an action research plan and how to develop appropriate action research questions, the more qualified I will be to my campus. I will use different tools to aid my research such as the CARE Model, Force Field Analysis, the Delphi Model, and the Nominal Group Technique. Each of these tools will allow me to gain a deeper insight into how to work with my faculty.
Discussion Board: The weekly discussion boards were like the classroom discussions that go on in a typical university setting. It allowed us to voice our opinion and allow for feedback that was constructive and beneficial at the same time. I feel that without the discussion board, the students in this course would feel isolated and alone. The discussion board feedback I received was valuable. I reflected on each student comments on my post and took into consideration what they had to say.
Blogs: I never thought I would have a blog. I am not private person, but on the other hand I didn’t feel I needed a blog in my life either. I am encompassed in social networking via texts, e-mail, Facebook, etc. The action research blog for me has allowed me to post my opinions on my coursework and allow for feedback. I have checked my blog every day for comments. I hope that as the course continues I’ll start seeing more. The ability to check others blogs in the same course really is neat to me. I like having the ability to see what others are thinking. The blog also has allowed me to share my views on educational topics that others may never known I had. I feel that my blog has given me second voice.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
EDLD 5301....Wrap it up and put a bow on it...for now!
EDLD 5301 Research for Teachers has taught me a great deal. When I read the title of the course, I assumed we would be reading many different forms of research and writing reflections or essays from what we had studied. I dreaded it. That is not how I learn. I was happy to see from the course overviews that the assignments were much more than that.
The new learning that really caught my interest was action research. I had no inkling of what action research was until I begin this course 4 ½ weeks ago. I spent time looking online at what others classified as action research. I read a few blogs from past Lamar students to get an idea of how they saw action research. Hence, by the time I had to begin creating my own action research plan and drafting my question/wonderings I was prepared because I had done some “research”. In one of the many meetings I had with my site supervisor, we discussed our campuses action plan, which I was surprised to see how closely the draft I was creating resembled our campuses action plan. The format, the wording, the criteria, etc. were relatively the same. For me, to see that what I am learning in my 2nd course of my Educational Administration Masters program was something that I will be applying to possibly a campus where I am a site supervisor one day, made that learning valid.
I would be careless to say that action research is not an area where I still want to learn more. I know that as the internship program continues and my action research continues, I will learn much more about the topic. I want to learn more about how to get more teachers involved in doing their own action research. If every grade level, once a year took a topic that was really an issue to them and their students, our campus would learn so much more about our students. Many times we think we know our students but in reality, we could know so much more. I would like to see how we could use that data to turn our campus into a true Professional Learning Community.
To continue building my understanding of action research, I am going to complete my action research study on the impact of afterschool tutorials on student growth and achievement. I also plan on keeping up with my classmates’ blogs to see how their action research plans are going. I will continue reading information online and in the text that was required for this course, but we did not read due to time constraints. After my initial action research study is completed for this internship program, I would also like to partake in more action research that I think will benefit my campus. When choosing a topic for my action research study for this course, I brainstormed many ideas and a number of them my site supervisor felt would be of interest to our campus. I hope to be able to delve into those areas after the current action research is finished.
On another note, I am in the process of setting up the initial introduction of my action research plan to the faculty. That should be happening within a week or so. I have already been collecting data because so much is shared with the entire campus when benchmarks are done. I'll post more next week on the initial introduction and how that plays out!
The new learning that really caught my interest was action research. I had no inkling of what action research was until I begin this course 4 ½ weeks ago. I spent time looking online at what others classified as action research. I read a few blogs from past Lamar students to get an idea of how they saw action research. Hence, by the time I had to begin creating my own action research plan and drafting my question/wonderings I was prepared because I had done some “research”. In one of the many meetings I had with my site supervisor, we discussed our campuses action plan, which I was surprised to see how closely the draft I was creating resembled our campuses action plan. The format, the wording, the criteria, etc. were relatively the same. For me, to see that what I am learning in my 2nd course of my Educational Administration Masters program was something that I will be applying to possibly a campus where I am a site supervisor one day, made that learning valid.
I would be careless to say that action research is not an area where I still want to learn more. I know that as the internship program continues and my action research continues, I will learn much more about the topic. I want to learn more about how to get more teachers involved in doing their own action research. If every grade level, once a year took a topic that was really an issue to them and their students, our campus would learn so much more about our students. Many times we think we know our students but in reality, we could know so much more. I would like to see how we could use that data to turn our campus into a true Professional Learning Community.
To continue building my understanding of action research, I am going to complete my action research study on the impact of afterschool tutorials on student growth and achievement. I also plan on keeping up with my classmates’ blogs to see how their action research plans are going. I will continue reading information online and in the text that was required for this course, but we did not read due to time constraints. After my initial action research study is completed for this internship program, I would also like to partake in more action research that I think will benefit my campus. When choosing a topic for my action research study for this course, I brainstormed many ideas and a number of them my site supervisor felt would be of interest to our campus. I hope to be able to delve into those areas after the current action research is finished.
On another note, I am in the process of setting up the initial introduction of my action research plan to the faculty. That should be happening within a week or so. I have already been collecting data because so much is shared with the entire campus when benchmarks are done. I'll post more next week on the initial introduction and how that plays out!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Challenges....they are all around us!
Last week I posted my Action Research Plan. I want to thank those of you that took time to comment on my proposed study. I look forward to looking over many more of your plans and leaving comments as well.
Now, this week, we had a discussion board that I think started some great conversations amongst our learning community. The questions were: What specific challenges do you foresee in implementing your action research study? How you plan to address those challenges? Both questions lead me to think about the leadership book I read for our first course, The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon. This book is great! It's an easy read and while it's not set in a school setting, all the principles can be applied to your school today! I am going to post the leadership book summary below. I hope you enjoy reading it and that it encourages you to read the book itself.
The leadership book I chose to read for this assignment was The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon. The book outlines 10 rules that are designed to help you lead a more meaningful and productive life filled with positive energy. The author chooses to write this book not chapter by chapter explaining what each rules means with examples that the reader cannot relate to, but in the format of a story.
The two main characters of the story are George and Joy. George can be described as a miserable individual, who starts out in the story unhappy with his job, has a strained relationship with his children, and his marriage is heading for divorce. Joy on the other hand is the complete opposite. She loves life and loves her job, which is as a city bus driver. George and Joy encounter each other after George’s car gets put in the repair shop for two weeks and he becomes forced to take the city bus. When George first meets Joy, he is immediately turned off by her happy disposition and positive attitude. He wishes he had never met her. However, that very same day he takes his first ride on the Joy’s bus, his boss tells him that his job performance is not meeting the expectations that were set for him. He is in jeopardy of losing his employment. George realizes then he needs Joy and her “energy bus”. He begins taking the bus every day to work and on those morning rides, Joy and few other energy bus riders begin to lay out the plan that will in the end up changing George’s life. During the two week period, Joy introduces George to 10 rules that are essential for creating and maintaining positive energy. She enlists the help of fellow bus riders that share with George how the rules can be applied and examples of how they have worked for them. The story continues with George utilizing all the rules and seeing great change in all areas. In the end, George is a changed human being and thanks Joy for giving him the ride of his life. He presents her with a sign that lists the 10 Rules so future passengers will know that this is not your ordinary bus, it’s an energy bus!
10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy
1. You’re the driver of your bus.
2. Desire, vision, and focus move your bus in the right direction.
3. Fuel your ride with positive energy.
4. Invite people on your bus and share your vision for the road ahead.
5. Don’t waste your energy on those who don’t get on your bus.
6. Post a sign that says NO ENERGY VAMPIRES ALLOWED on your bus.
7. Enthusiasm attracts more passengers and energizes them during the ride.
8. Love your passengers.
9. Drive with purpose.
10. Have fun and enjoy the ride. (2007, p.157)
The Energy Bus is very relevant to educational leadership. It could lend itself to principals who are struggling with staff or to jump start a school year. In the back of the book there is an action plan that all leaders can use in order to fuel their own bus ride. This plan could benefit any school and turn it into a campus where everyone is proud to work there or send their children to school there. It will definitely FUEL your life!
Now, this week, we had a discussion board that I think started some great conversations amongst our learning community. The questions were: What specific challenges do you foresee in implementing your action research study? How you plan to address those challenges? Both questions lead me to think about the leadership book I read for our first course, The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon. This book is great! It's an easy read and while it's not set in a school setting, all the principles can be applied to your school today! I am going to post the leadership book summary below. I hope you enjoy reading it and that it encourages you to read the book itself.
The leadership book I chose to read for this assignment was The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon. The book outlines 10 rules that are designed to help you lead a more meaningful and productive life filled with positive energy. The author chooses to write this book not chapter by chapter explaining what each rules means with examples that the reader cannot relate to, but in the format of a story.
The two main characters of the story are George and Joy. George can be described as a miserable individual, who starts out in the story unhappy with his job, has a strained relationship with his children, and his marriage is heading for divorce. Joy on the other hand is the complete opposite. She loves life and loves her job, which is as a city bus driver. George and Joy encounter each other after George’s car gets put in the repair shop for two weeks and he becomes forced to take the city bus. When George first meets Joy, he is immediately turned off by her happy disposition and positive attitude. He wishes he had never met her. However, that very same day he takes his first ride on the Joy’s bus, his boss tells him that his job performance is not meeting the expectations that were set for him. He is in jeopardy of losing his employment. George realizes then he needs Joy and her “energy bus”. He begins taking the bus every day to work and on those morning rides, Joy and few other energy bus riders begin to lay out the plan that will in the end up changing George’s life. During the two week period, Joy introduces George to 10 rules that are essential for creating and maintaining positive energy. She enlists the help of fellow bus riders that share with George how the rules can be applied and examples of how they have worked for them. The story continues with George utilizing all the rules and seeing great change in all areas. In the end, George is a changed human being and thanks Joy for giving him the ride of his life. He presents her with a sign that lists the 10 Rules so future passengers will know that this is not your ordinary bus, it’s an energy bus!
10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy
1. You’re the driver of your bus.
2. Desire, vision, and focus move your bus in the right direction.
3. Fuel your ride with positive energy.
4. Invite people on your bus and share your vision for the road ahead.
5. Don’t waste your energy on those who don’t get on your bus.
6. Post a sign that says NO ENERGY VAMPIRES ALLOWED on your bus.
7. Enthusiasm attracts more passengers and energizes them during the ride.
8. Love your passengers.
9. Drive with purpose.
10. Have fun and enjoy the ride. (2007, p.157)
The Energy Bus is very relevant to educational leadership. It could lend itself to principals who are struggling with staff or to jump start a school year. In the back of the book there is an action plan that all leaders can use in order to fuel their own bus ride. This plan could benefit any school and turn it into a campus where everyone is proud to work there or send their children to school there. It will definitely FUEL your life!
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