Educational Leaders and Blogs

Educational leaders can use blogs to communicate with all school stakeholders.  A blog can be created which will allow leaders to make posts that include upcoming events as well as to post questions and concerns they may have within the community.  This will allow for school stakeholders to provide their input and communicate with the school leaders.  In addition, educational leaders can use blogs to collaborate with others leaders within the district as well as outside of the district.  The leaders can post problems and concerns and have discussions with others on possible ways to make improvements.  The leaders can share experiences to gain a better understanding of the issues that arise in other schools and areas.  It can allow for personal, professional and cultural growth.

Action Research

Action research is a process which allows professionals who have personal experience at the school level to determine areas of weakness.   Rather than an outsider, the professionals themselves can create and implement an improvement plan.  Action research is a process in which a person or team study a situation and create questions based on what they find.  These inquiries will point out specific areas that may need improvement.  The teacher or team can then research and create different development plans that will help rectify the issues.  Throughout the plan implementation the teacher must continuously study and question the results.  They must reflect on their actions and the outcomes and adjust accordingly.

 The process of action research is more focused on the teacher or team making an impact on their skills to improve the success of the school stakeholders.  This method seems to be much more effective that the professional development that I am currently exposed to.  When I have a professional development day it is a day in which I sit at meetings and forget half of what I was told.  Action research would get me involved and I would become a facilitator of my development.  I would like to integrate more technology into my classroom.  I think that using the action research model I would be more motivated to try different ways to incorporate technology as well as become more adept in doing so.  I also feel that the concept of self reflection is very important.  With the action research model you must continuously inquire on the outcomes and how to improve them.  This is a habit that I would like to instill in myself to allow me to better myself and my teaching skills.   

Course Reflections EDLD 5306

1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?

During this course I wanted to gain a grasp of what I am supposed to accomplish during this program.  I had a very vague idea of what I would get out of this program. After the assignments and the web conference I can see some of the skills and knowledge that I will learn.  In addition, I wanted to get a better understanding of the requirements of the program and how they are going to be implemented.   I knew that I was going to be taking one class every 5 weeks for 18-months, but there was little more that I knew about this program.  Through the creation of the internship plan as well as the principal’s competencies chart, I have a better grasp of the activities that I will complete. 

I also wanted to gain knowledge of different technological resources that I could use in my classroom.  Throughout this course we have used a few different resources that I was unaware of and I feel proficient in my abilities to use them.

2.   To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?

With the completion of the draft internship plan and the principal’s competency chart my potential tasks for this program are much clearer.  I will be incorporating these different tasks into my work at school.  I will be incorporating technology into my classroom as well as helping others in my school to achieve technological competency.  I understand the reasons for many of the tasks that I will complete and what it means for my understanding of the school system and technology standards.

The potential usefulness as well as dangers of technology use for education is very relevant for me.  I need to make sure that students are aware of how to use technology safely in order for me to incorporate it into my classroom.  Some of the technologies that we learned about in this course, such as the wordle, I cannot see myself using in a high school math class.  However, it definitely has potential in many other areas.

3.  What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?

As of yet, I have not incorporated technology any more into my classroom than I have before.  I would like to learn new ways to use technology in a math class to aid in the comprehension and development of the material.  Some of the technologies seem quite useful, but I have not been able to develop specific areas that I can use them in. 

 I have acknowledged that this class was more of an introduction to technology as well as ethical, safety and legal issues that go along with its use.  Throughout this course we learned a lot about technology itself, but not much about how we can incorporate it into the classroom.  It was a misconception of mine that the purpose of this specific course was to help implement technology into the classroom.  I think I would have had different goals if I realized that this course was designed to assess our technological abilities and expose ourselves to technology use.

4. Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

I was able to complete all of the course assignments.  The readings, videos, and assignments allowed a better and more complete understanding of the topics that were developed.  The assignments were laid out clearly and the step by step directions made certain tasks easier to complete.  The rubric made completing the assignments correctly must easier since I knew exactly what I was expected to do.  The directions were clearly modeled after the rubrics.

 I did have some issues with APA formatting.  In the book summary assignment my book was a kindle version which made it difficult to site.  I tried looking up the formatting for this type of book in the manual as well as online but I was unable site it correctly.  It has been a long time since I have had to complete many written assignments; it has been difficult to find all of the mistakes in my grammar.  

5.  What did you learn from this course…about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

The first assignment of this course was an assessment on my abilities and aptitude.  I have a good understanding and aptitude for technology.  I am a 21^st century learner; I grew up using computers and video games.  I have recognized that by having a good knowledge of technology it gives me a good base to succeed in this program.  I am excited to improve my technology integration skills.  I want to improve the learning of my students and I think that effectively incorporating technology will help. 

          I would also like to improve my leadership skills outside of the classroom.  I tend to be a little withdrawn when it comes to working with others and I would like to improve that throughout this program.  I feel comfortable taking control of a class, but I am not as comfortable being a leader of my peers.  I am looking forward to improving myself to better help others

Web Conference Wed 1/25 8pm

I found the web conference very helpful. There was quite a bit of information that I had questions about that the conference answered. I knew that there was some sort of internship requirements but I had no idea how many hours we had to do or where we got the hours from. The split hours 150 hours embedded in the courses and 150 hours of field experience make it seem much more manageable over the next year and a half.

It was also nice to have a general idea of what we are working towards. I appreciated the layout of some of the requirements of the final reports and goals in general. I was unaware that this program allowed for the possibility to take the principal certification exam as well as state technology. The location of the updated forms was also very helpful.

I have never used my webcam and it was interesting to see that it worked well in the web conference. It was also enjoyable to see a few of the faces that I will be completing this program with rather than just some random names posted on a screen.