OPL Blog Entry

The CoSN Framework of Essential Skills for K-12 Technology Leaders focuses on three professional category areas: Leadership and Vision, Understanding Educational Environment, and Managing Technology and Support Resources (Consortium for Social Networking, 2015). 

The following paragraphs focuses on my experience as an observer, participant, and/or leader based on the standards addressed in the Framework. My experience is also documented in my O-P-L Record. 

Leadership & Vision

1E: Leverage appropriate relationships (opportunities) between emerging technology resources and the education process. 

• Knowledge of: focus on effective, challenging, and engaging learning for all; value of new technologies. 

This is my fourth year as a special education teacher. I utilize technology on a daily basis to ensure on academic and behavior needs are met for every student. While working toward my Ed.S. in Instructional Technology, I completed a research project to determine how apps will influence student engagement and/or on-task behavior for students with varying disabilities; how apps will influence critical thinking and/or higher order thinking skills in relation to math for students with varying disabilities; and how utilizing apps during math instruction will increase student achievement for students with varying disabilities. A pretest, weekly tests, and summative assessment during the first unit served as baseline data. Students did not use apps during the first unit. During the second unit, apps were used during daily math instruction in a small group setting. Apps used in the study included Show Me and Educreations. Both apps allowed students to record their voice while solving fact-based problems and real world problems. 

                              Mean Student Scores for Unit 1 and Unit 2

Quantitative and qualitative data were used to measure student growth for students with varying disabilities with the use of iPad apps during instruction. According to the data from the study, students made steady gains on the weekly and summative assessments. A matrix was used to measure higher order thinking skills from level 0 to level 4. Based on the data from the matrix, unit two shows more growth in higher order thinking skills from the pretest to the summative.
                             Higher Order Thinking Skills Percentages

A matrix was used to define observation including as raising hand to answer questions, appropriate student response, looking at board/teacher, providing input/sharing ideas with peers, and requiring one prompt or less to complete tasks. Students were consistently more engaged during instruction in unit two compared to unit one. Students progressed the most in providing input and sharing ideas with peers.

Strategic Planning

2C: Align technology team activities with the school district goals.

• Knowledge of: Aligning resources such as people, capital, and expenses; goals and performance evaluations aligned to district goals; relative priorities of competing demands. 

During the 2015-2016 school year, Shelby County Schools expanded Google Apps for Education to include K through 12th grade. I teach in a K through 5 school. Before the beginning of the school year, the majority of the teachers did not utilize Google Apps in the classroom, and many needed assistance logging into their Google account. I led two Google training sessions on a professional development day for K through 2 teachers and 3 through 5 teachers. The training included an overview of Google applications, specifically Google Docs, with a hands-on component to learn about key features of Google Docs. In addition to the training, I created and shared a Google Basics Training folder that included the presentation on Google Slides, a handout, web resources, and several Google tutorial videos. Based on the feedback I received from the training session, many teachers requested additional Google training. Throughout the school year I taught several training sessions based on the needs of individual grade levels or teachers. 

Instructional Focus and Professional Development

4C: Empower staff to reach a proficient level to meet the ongoing demands of their jobs. 

• Knowledge of: Staff proficiency assessment; alignment of job roles to technology resources; resource availability or need. 

Shelby County Schools recently adopted the use of Google Apps for Education. I coached a special education teacher in the area of writing utilizing Google Docs. The special education teacher is fairly new to the classroom as a teacher, but has several years of experience as a para educator. Before focusing on a topic, the teacher completed a personal profile to determine the most beneficial area to select a growth goal. After completing an observation during instruction, she decided to focus on using an outline during the research process on Google Docs. She also wanted to teach the students how to use some Google Docs features such as the research, spelling, and definition tool. Before the teacher implemented Google Docs into instruction, I showed her some of the basic features, such as how to create a new document, how to upload a document or import a document from Microsoft Word, editing and research tools, and how to share a document. Throughout the semester, I met with her in one-on-one sessions to discuss her progress. I also observed her utilizing Google Docs during writing instruction to monitor her progress and provide more meaningful strategies specific to her classroom. For example, the teacher has several learning needs. One student was not familiar with typing, and took a long time to type a sentence. She tried a speech recognition add-on for the student. While the add-on was not perfect, it motivated the student to remain on task, and he was very engaged while working on the outline. Once the teacher successfully implemented outlines in Google Docs to her writing instruction, we progressed to observing students’ responses. The students were very engaged during writing instruction, and made significant progress during the coaching period. Students were excited to share their work with the teacher, as well as share their documents with other students.