Chevon's Blog Spot!!
I have created this blog to shine a light on my life and the wonderful things that I love. “You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.” ― Brigham Young
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Soup
Today is starting off great. This is the first time that I have ever had UDON Soup. It was so good!!!
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Reflective Blog Entry 3 EDUC 638
Reflective Blog Entry 3
In the reading of The
Technology Director’s Guide to leadership the power of great questions
chapters 5 through 8 by Don. Hall. Integrating technology into district
leadership, management and operations will empower people to do their jobs more
efficient and effectively. Information, content and resource management systems
can help leadership team and school. To be an effective technology leader, you
must model innovative uses of technology and empower educators, parents,
students and the community with technology solutions. Embracing technology can
and will illustrate commitment to changing the culture of education in any
school district. And a chief technology officer or chief information officer who
reports to the superintendent can help districts keep technology front and
center and manage the critical components of the district’s technology
strategy.
In reading Educational
Leadership and Planning for Technology by Anthony Picciano chapters 7
through 13. Picciano talks about the impact on professional development and how
important it is to have programs in place for teacher to get technology
training and to have members of staff well aware of the districts polices. Being
very new to the school system I can agree that professional developments has
and will continue to com e in handy for me and others I work with. Another key
point that Picciano talks about is hardware. Hardware has become a big part of the school
system. Repairs, maintenance and upgrades are very vital to any ITRT and IT
Directors. What I have seen working in a
new school is some of the same issues that older school may have which are
repairs and maintenances. What must be
seen is that regardless of how the district and or school plan for replacement
of devices, the effective manager should look towards the replacement of
technology devices before it is a necessity. (Picciano, 2011, p 240.) What has
also been talked about by Picciano is how financial planning is important.
Financial planning effects the how technology programs are expanded though out
school districts. Picciano states that financial planning should not be the only
thing that drives the IT department but it should be something that is consider. In many school systems I have hear that they
may not have updated technology due to the lack of funds where they live. What I
have seen that a school system where I live had brought all new computers to distribute
to the school in their area but they never give any of the computer out to the school
that they were supposes to. A school spokes persons later said that they
never knew that the computer where sitting in the warehouse. So for over a year the IT department
had to keep they older computer working even though the equipment they had was
very old and out of date. Here is a link to that story City school computers remained unused in warehouse http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/article_c8d79ae7-af5d-5a5f-9dab-18c621b1944e.html?mode=image&photo=0
References
Hall, D.
(2008). The technology director’s guide to leadership, the power of great
questions. ISTE. Washington, D.C.
Picciano, A.
(2011). Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology (5th ed.). Upper
Saddle River: Pearson.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Reflective Blog for EDUC 638
Reflective
Blog Entry 2
In the reading of The Technology Director’s Guide to leadership
the power of great questions chapters 3 and 4 by Don.
Hall. The mission of the technology department
is to provide leadership, guidance, assistance, support, through the
coordination of information management, computing, media, and telephone
services enabling students, faculty, and staff to address the diverse
educational needs of the school to meets of the school system as a whole.
According
to Hall a key responsibility of any leader is the development and management of
an organization’s or team’s vision. The presence of a powerful vision is what
allows an organization to reach its goals.(Hall, 2008). Hall
states that it is important to provide clear leadership when developing a
technology vision for your organization. (Hall, 2008) There are three components
that technology leaders must have when designing a vision for the district or department:
feedback and ownership, publicity and ongoing communication and monitoring and
evaluation. The vision for my school system’s IT department is to use
technology effectively in the classroom which means transforming the classroom,
teaching, and learning. Productive use of technology does not mean using it
solely to help slow students catch up, to occupy quick achievers, to reward
good behavior, or to baby-sit. Where technology is yielding results, the
classrooms are student-centered, with teachers as coaches and guides. Outside
resources come to class and students go outside the classroom. Technology
allows engagement, review, and especially assessment in broader, deeper ways.
In reading Educational Leadership and Planning for
Technology by Anthony Picciano chapters 4 through 6. Picciano talks about the
three major software components that are utilized in most business and school
IT environments; the database, the electronic spreadsheet, and office automated
software. (Picciano, 2011) According to Picciano data collecting and data searching
skills are being taught by having students use the World Wide Web to access
databases maintained by government agencies, universities, and research
institutions. It is very important for students to be able to use databases
when working on research projects, this allows the students to build their own databases with
information that they have collected on from the World Wide Web on animals,
weather, states, famous people, minerals, places, and ect. With the uses of spreadsheet programs being
used in mathematics, the sciences, and business education classes. Spreadsheet can
be particularly effective in instructional applications where data collection
using a database is combined with data analysis. Word processing software makes
revisions easy and avoids the chore of handwriting or retyping extensive
amounts of text. Many students at various grade levels commonly use Microsoft
word processing to do writing assignments. One of the most important lines out
of chapter six for me is “Integrating technology into the curriculum is
therefore closely tied to professional development, which is therefore one of the
critical components of any technology-based plan, along with hardware,
software, facilities, and finances.” (Picciano, 2011). In order for the student
to be educated in technology the teacher must first get the education.
The person that I have chosen
to interview this week is Ms. Tracy Lancaster, ITRT of Henrico High School in
Henrico County Virginia. During my interview I asked ten question regarding the
advantages and disadvantages for educational technology for teaching and
learning. What I have found out about
the technology program surprised me. The
mission of Henrico County Public Schools is to "inspire, empower and
educate every student to be prepared for success in the 21st century."
This
is accomplished by creating 21st century learning environments in which the instructor
is a content expert, provides engaging, student-centered 21st century
instruction, and where 21st century technology tools are available for
instruction. Henrico County Public Schools was one of the first
school districts in the United States to distribute laptop computers to
students, during the 2001 school year. The Department of Instructional
Technology works with teachers, principals, and content specialists to identify
and implement digital resources and supporting technologies that will ensure a
solid 21st century learning experience for Henrico students. ITRTs provide
training and resources for teachers for their own edification and to use with
the students. Teacher can subscribe to resources through iTunes U if desired
but also have an online course to use with their students. Training is also
provided at faculty meetings and by using quick tips and email to bring
attention to Internet safety throughout the year. I have learned so much more
now than before about the 21st century learning initiative. I feel that it is
very important to have technology in the classroom as well as for the students
to have access to it on a daily biases. However when was never mentioned to me
is the cost of all of the smart boards and the laps that are being used at the
three newest school in the county. When the school I worked for did not even
have enough money to buy books. Genesis
11:6 “And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one
language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that
they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
References:
Hall, D. (2008). The technology director’s guide to
leadership, the power of great questions. ISTE. Washington, D.C.
Picciano, A. (2011). Educational Leadership and
planning for technology 5th edition. Pearson Publishing. Boston, MA.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Reflective Blog for EDUC 638
Reflective
Blog Entries 1
The first book I would
like to reflect on is by Don Hall, The Technology
Director’s guide to leadership the power of great questions. In reading
chapter one I find myself really connecting with the main character Max seeker.
Max was technology leader on a wireless development deal that had run into a
few problems after it was developed. (Hall,2008) I have found myself planning a
lesson for my students that seemed great but, when I had my class try it, it did not go the way that I expected it. I would
have to step back and take a second look at what I could do to make it better. I
have only been teaching three years so I am sure there is still a lot for me to
learn in my teaching career. However, I’ve already learned a lot in these three
years. One of my biggest lessons is about preparation. One evening I searched
online all evening trying to figure out what we were going to do the following
day. Things had changed big time with my lesson plans and I needed a great one
day lesson. After much research, I finally found a great lab to do with my
students. I even had all the materials that I needed in my classroom. I printed
it off, ran copies the next morning, and got everything ready. The students got
started and about half way through this not so clean lab, we realized it didn’t
work. I needed a specific kind of dirt. Go figure. With that and a few similar
situations before, I learned always do the lab before you have students to do.
This allows you to work through all the kinks.
The Author Don Hall
Breaks down the three leadership styles which are Sage, Sensei and Oracle. All three
have both a positive and a negative side. Sage represents a strong controlling
leader who wants it their way and only their way. When you see this type of
leadership, you see it in people with executive jobs or military men who take
have a higher power ego. The Sensei rule combines two different leadership
styles, mentoring and facilitating. Someone with this type of leadership would
be more like a little league coach or a big brother/sister. The Oracle
leadership style likes to see others succeed in their goals. They do not mind
giving responsibility to others they have trusting relationships with. The most
important thing we can gather from this reading is this question, “How can I
benefit from the experience of others ( Hall, 2008)?” Hall lets us reflect on
the leadership pyramid, which shows how data evolves into wisdom.
In the second book, Educational Leadership and Planning for
Technology by Anthony Picciano, chapters one through three; it discusses
the integration of technology in schools have been slow throughout the year.
Many employers today expect high school graduates to be knowledgeable of how to
work with computers and their systems. The modern business
community is expecting the employee to have a significant technology background,
and use technology to perform the basic tasks of the job. (Picciano, 2011). One
example of how integration has been slow over the past few years is that many
school systems believe that they are empowering teachers by providing them with
a wide variety of teaching tools and resources, such as laptops and over-head
projectors. Many school systems do not realized that most children do not have
internet connection to utilize these technological advances given to them after
they leave the classroom. Despite their disadvantage outside the classroom, the
county makes it possible for students and teachers to have access to
content-rich lesson plans developed by their county teachers and specialists
References:
Hall,
D. (2008). The technology director’s guide to leadership, the power of great
questions.
ISTE.
Washington, D.C.
Picciano,
A. (2011). Educational Leadership and planning for technology 5th
edition.
Pearson
Publishing. Boston, MA.
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