Saturday, October 15, 2005

Level of Tech Support in My District--San Lorenzo

Stacy asked me a really good question:

"Who at your school supports the technology?  I know that it's a boring question, but I wonder who maintains the laptops, etc.  At our middle school, I end up doing much of this work, and although I am happy to help support this technology, I do wish that I had more time to teach students and that our school had better tech. support."

Well, your timing is interesting.  Before yesterday I would have said that our CMS--computer media specialist--maintains the laptops and assists teachers while they are using laptops in their classrooms.  She was hired to work 20 hours per week and is paid with the money we received through the EETT grant--Enhancing Education Through Technology.  Sound great, right?  Well, the problem is that Irena quit yesterday; next Friday will be her last day.  So here we are in the second month of the school year, I am supporting 6 new sixth and seventh grade teachers, and our CMS is leaving!  I'm hoping she will be replaced soon so that I will not have to take on the tech end of this grant effort.

Now I'll talk about some of the other structures our district has in place to support school and district wide technology.  Every teacher has a desktop computer in their classroom.  In addition, any teacher who has taken our district Intel Teach to the Future technology class receives their own laptop to use for the remainder of the time they teach in San Lorenzo. 

At our elementary school sites, the fourth and fifth grade classrooms have a full set of Dell laptops available for full time use.  All computers are wireless so students can go on the internet at any time.  Each teacher has an LCD projector to support instruction.

At the middle schools, we have laptop carts that teachers share.  Each year we add more carts, but it's still a struggle some days when many teachers want to use laptops with their students.  That's really good news though, when you think about it.  That just means teachers are starting to see the value of using technology on a regular basis.

Regarding tech support, we have an Information Technology department at our district office that services all schools as needed.  Whenever a laptop is faulty or something isn't working in your classroom, you email a Helpstar request and eventually a tech person shows up in your classroom to fix it.  Depending on how many service calls are ahead of you, that could take a couple of weeks.  Other things that are major issues can get fixed sooner though.  Even so, I think this type of support is not what is typical in most districts, so I try to be patient and appreciate how good I've got it in San Lorenzo.

# - Department: TI Reflection - 10/15/05; 12:57:03 PM - Discuss

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The Power of the LCD Projector

As a literacy coach whose job is to support the sixth and seventh grade teachers with tech integration in the language arts curriculum, I find myself doing a myriad of things that I wonder how they relate to the teaching of reading and writing.  And yet, I keep coming back to the fact that this is tech integration is still fairly new stuff and how it is the little things along the way that will make the difference.  Here's one sample of what I mean.

On Thursday, I delivered three LCD projectors to the three seventh grade language arts teachers at my site.  Two of the three teachers were there when I walked in and presented them with their early holiday gift.  They were thrilled!  You would have thought I had handed them a million dollars.  "This is for me?  I get to keep this in my room to use all the time?" one said beaming at me.  "Shut up!  You're kidding me!" another exclaimed.  Their enthusiasm was wonderful, and it felt great being the bearer of such a gift. 

Reflecting on that afternoon brings me to a deeper appreciation of those small interactions.  I find myself wondering why a teacher would be so excited about receiving an LCD projector... it can only mean that she is beginning to see the power that one machine can bring to her instructional practices.  Otherwise, why would it matter?  The past few years our site has increased the number of LCD projectors we have on campus, but it wasn't until the end of last school year that teachers began using them.  Now that they have, many more want one in their classrooms to use as the 21st. century version of the overhead.

More to come on the power of LCD projector...

# - Department: TI Reflection - 10/15/05; 11:40:42 AM - Discuss

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Sunday, October 9, 2005

New Idea for My Tech Inquiry for TI 2005

Okay, so this idea I had with focusing this year on technology that a literacy coach would use isn't coming to fruition.  It's not something that I feel will make the impact I want both for myself and for other teachers. Instead I have a new idea.  Here's some background on what my job is as a literacy coach hired to help teachers integrate technology with language arts instruction:

As a second year literacy coach working with the EETT teacher participants (Enhancing Education Through Technology), I am responsible for coaching the new team of seventh grade teachers as well as the old team of sixth grade teachers who are continuing their grant work.  Since that translates to ten teachers, I am having to rethink my role as a coach.  I can no longer go into each classroom each week and model lessons etc.  Instead, I have got to find ways to make the most impact in less time.  So far I have been using email to send attachments of lessons to the teachers, but I'd like to explore other ways of making our tech integration into more permanent records.  For example, all of our schools have their own server and we have a Shared folder available where teachers can access one another's lesson plans.  I think that it might make sense to set up a technology integration folder where teachers dump their lesson plan ideas into it for other teachers to access. 

The other thing I'm noticing is that since I am not available to go into classrooms on any regular basis and demonstrate the lessons, teachers aren't waiting for my direction.  After having one full day of staff development on some ways to integrate the technology with the language arts adopted textbook, teachers are jumping in and using technology on their own.  Not only are the students using the laptops, but teachers are finding new ways to use technology to enhance their instruction.

That said, here are my new inquiry questions:

1- In what ways are language arts teachers using technology to enhance their instructional delivery?

2- In what ways are students using technology in their language arts classes?

3- How can I as a literacy coach use technology to help create and sustain a network for sharing technology, both at the teacher and student level?

# - Department: TI Reflection - 10/9/05; 3:01:52 PM - Discuss (3 responses)

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Saturday, September 17, 2005

Idea for TI Focus

Last week I videotaped a third year teacher doing a lesson on text structure.  She did some explicit instruction first but then engaged the students in a meatagnotive process where students worked in pairs and upon seeing a new piece of text launched into a think aloud on text structure.  I am a complete novice with the video camera and have this fear that when I go watch the lesson I will have totally messed up.  The entire time I was videotaping there was some icon flashing on the screen and I had no idea what was wrong.  I stopped and tried to fix it a few times, but I didn't want to miss capturing anything from her lesson on tape, so I gave up and just kept videotaping (or so I think). 

Now what I hope to do is go back and edit the 40 minute lesson by capturing key moments and putting them into some format that I could show to teachers--both experienced teachers who would like to know more about this teacher's practice and new teachers because the lesson was so well taught that there are many tips on classroom management for new teachers to benefit from.  What I might explore this year is how to use this form of technology so that teachers can benefit from the wonderful lessons taught behind our classroom doors.

If anyone has ever done this work before, I would love to get together with you and discuss this.

# - Department: TI Reflection - 9/17/05; 1:11:44 PM - Discuss (1 response)

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Exciting Saturday Plans

After this class I will be going home to doing my Applied Statistics homework.  Doesn't that sound like fun?  I know you're jealous!

# - Department: Just for fun - 9/17/05; 12:11:04 PM - Discuss

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Cool new technology

I think I am starting to get this.  The only problem is that if I don't use it, I'll lose it.  Hopefully enough will stay with me.  One good thing is that I am overcoming my fear of all of using the blog.  Yippee!

# - Department: TI Reflection - 9/17/05; 11:59:29 AM - Discuss

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Reflection Questions

Click the headline to read the guiding questions for the year. (If it is too much effort to cursor to the headine, then click here.)

# - Department: Reading - 9/17/05; 11:31:38 AM - Discuss

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Crime Committed at First BAWP Tech Training

On Saturday, September 17, 2005, a BAWP TC from the TI 2005 community committed a crime like no other.  Cheryl Wozniak, an innovative teacher, who abhors being "just like everyone else" and is committed to the right of individuality, changed the theme of her weblog to "jellybean" rather than the default setting of every other BAWP TC (except one--Sonny Kim--her accomplice).  Within minutes, Patrick Delaney, head BAWP TC Techie, apprehended the culprit and chastized her in front of the BAWP community.  Being the BAWP TC that she is, Cheryl forgave him.

 

 

# - Department: Just for fun - 9/17/05; 11:24:45 AM - Discuss (1 response)

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Thursday, August 11, 2005

Building BAWP Through Digital Storytelling

It's been eight years since my summer writing institute (TAWP--Toledo Area Writing Project), and I had forgotten how rewarding it is spending a week with teachers who care about writing as much as I do.  As we wind down and approach our final publication date--our authors' celebration--I feel a sense of camaraderie amongst our group.  Yes, we are the team that has gone from a state of wonder, awe, and enthusiasm (Monday and Tuesday) to a state of overwhelming chaos and panic (Wednesday through Thursday at noon), to a state of "Hey, I can do this; I'm gonna make it!" (Thursday afternoon), to what I know will be a day of joy and great sense of accomplishment (Friday).

To my table buddies--Claire and Jenn--I thank you for keeping me sane by providing me with help when I was lost and a sense of humor when I needed to laugh (even at myself).

To Carol and Patrick--thank you for planning this week.  It has been a great learning experience, and I'm looking forward to our work this year around integrating technology with the teaching of writing.

And finally, to our Pearson Partners (Friends)--David, Peter, Claron, and Michael--I thank you for your knowledge, expertise, and enthusiasm but even more so for your patience.  I hope you will take away fond memories of your work this week as I know I and my BAWP colleagues undoubtedly will.  I look forward to the opportunity of working with you in San Lorenzo this school year.

# - Department: Writing - 8/11/05; 9:16:46 PM - Discuss

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Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Classroom Application

I went into this project with an idea of how I see this multimedia enhancing instruction in the writing classroom.  As a literacy and technology coach in my school (Bohannon Middle School in San Lorenzo), I will be working with the seventh grade teachers on how to integrate technology in their classroom.  This spring we hope to bring our science teachers on board and do a combined research project on a health topic of each student's interest where the humanities teachers handle the writing instruction and the science teachers support the health content.  I foresee using the multimedia presentation as a means of summarizing the highlights of the students' research.  It will be an exciting way for students to practice their reading and writing skills as they sort out what information is most necessary for their audience to get the key message.  Not to mention how much more enjoyable it will be to listen (and view) their presentations rather than simply listen to students stand in front of the class and read their research reports aloud!

# - Department: Reading - 8/10/05; 4:10:09 PM - Discuss (1 response)

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