Visionary Leadership-Staying Organized

I am excited to explore how the "Delicious" website can help me organize and track my various bookmarks from my school to my home computer.  I know I have a great deal of bookmarks on my school computer that I need to clean-up and tag according to the different content areas and support areas.  I hope that with exploring the "Delicious" options I can take what I already have on both computers and make one list in simple, easy steps.  

I have just started to use the Google Calendar option, which is basic and I need to play around with the options to see how to link my email notes and calendar to the Google =Calendar.  Hopefully, down the road I can figure out how to send the calendar reminders to my families phones, so I don't have to write our weekly schedule down in multiple different areas every week.  As I am working on different committees the calender will help with organization of meetings and deadlines for completing work.

What can I do to be a visionary leader?

As I review the NETS (National Education Technology Standards) standard in the area of Visionary Leadership, I see a significant difference from my schooling, to how my daughters and the next generations will be educated.  The first subcategory ~a. inspire and facilitate~ I see this becoming apart of our school through our new data entry and reporting system: DataWise.  By working with the teachers to use the pre/post test analysis in DataWise, our teachers will be able to teach to the specific and unique needs of the students across content areas.  I see technology as a tool for teachers to use their own inquiry to explore topics in relation to curriculum, and then to take those exploration opportunities to the classroom for their students to develop and share what they have learned with their peers.  In reviewing the next subcategory~b. engage in an ongoing process to develop, implement, and communicate technology-infused strategic plans aligned with a shared vision~I believe blogging and sharing documents through Google documents will make teaching more interactive in and out of school and sharing documents will allow more collaboration between teachers.  When teachers have a strong understanding of their School Improvement Goals and can articulate them across their content areas the depth of knowledge the teachers and students will gain will be amazing. When everyone in a school has the same goals and focus, the movement forward is so much stronger than everyone focusing on individual goals and expectations. Finally in reviewing the last subcategory ~c. advocate on local, state, and national levels for policies, programs, and funding to support implementation of a technology-infused vision and strategic plan~  I believe and have heard several times over that teachers do not do enough to promote and advertise the goodness that is happening with in our schools and classrooms.  So to support this last subcategory, we as teachers need to publish more class and school focused websites that are interactive for our students, families and communities.  We need to let our representative know how things are and are not working within our schools according our budgets and resources they have provided for us.  We need to share our real life statistics of our scores and our classroom demographics, which will help the representatives understand what we are experiencing everyday in the classroom.  As previous discussions within the TLA, information was shared that if business' want to change the new hires coming in,  then the business' and the community have to work with the school systems to map out what the new hires need to bring with them from school to have a success career.  I see community and school partnerships as a key element in developing all the learners going into the 21st century.  These standards will encourage a variety of new ways to research, develop and deliver the curriculum to all our future students coming through our classrooms.

Leadership Theory and Instructional Leadership Tools

I am excited to explore the website http://www.grantwrangler.com/ for programs and grants to support our School Improvement goals. Our budget is always limited in how we are able to support the teachers knowledge development, hopefully through the grant opportunities we will be able to offer a variety of book study options to help teachers in the areas of reading, math, writing instruction. Also as the Secretary of our local Reading Council, one of my responsibilities on the Executive Board is to provide information to the members on available grant opportunities. This website will provide a basic resource to begin collecting information to share with the council members.

As I explored the resources incorporated within the Instructional Leadership tools I came across the following book: Leading Strategic Change: Breaking Through the Brain Barrier by Black & Gregersen, 2002.  In support of our change project within the TLA, I am very interested in what ideas this book has to offer in helping with redefining a culture in a building.  My change project deals with using a new technology data base focusing on student progress and instruction. The ideas presented within this book would help me work through the barriers of change and to help the me help the others see the usefulness of the technology and how the data program will benefit instruction through pinpointing the needs of the students.

My vision for my school

“If I ran our school system...”

Students will have technology devices

 (laptops, Ipads, phones, internet, digital cameras,                      

smart boards, printers, projectors and Skype)

AVAILABLE EVERYDAY, ALL DAY. 

Students will continue to focus on Literacy, Mathematics, Writing, Science, Social Studies, Arts, Music and Healthy Living/Recreation to understand how all these areas apply to life outside of school and beyond.   In a time when students can connect to the world through unlimited access, I need to provide a window to all that is available.

At times, I may not be the only teacher in the “room”. 

At times we may be watching, listening, and observing real life situations through Skype from a business or in another classroom across the wires.

The “teachers” will be young and old, where students and teachers can experience the many opportunities to reach out and explore the world.  

The students, no matter what age, 

will always need teachers to direct, 

encourage, guide, push, challenge, 

question and validate their learning, 

so they can continue to reach a 

deeper understanding in all content 

areas.  Assessments will be delivered 

through standards based assessments, 

calculating accomplishment of a 

standard by an online data 

management collection system.  

Teachers, parents and students will have 

continuous access to student progress, 

assignments and resources which support their continuous growth and learning. My school will be technology literate and reach all styles of learners and 

all learners will continuously work through the Taxonomy for Thinking daily or weekly in multiple content areas.

TLA TAL – Getting Started #2

Blogs are good when they provided helpful information to the reader.  A blog can be a journal of thoughts, a list of ideas commonly shared by others around a familiar topic.  Across the different blogs I have read the authors opinions and thoughts are what drive the information from post to post.  As a new member to blogging, I am still developing an understanding of what should be in a blog and what is the useful information that others would want to read in a blog. 

I can see blogs enhancing a teacher's school web presence by allowing teachers and students to share their analysis of material across multiple day discussions.  Teaching teams can comment on books they are reading in relation to strategies or assessments they are using in the classroom.  When teachers reflect on a lesson, it is typically on their way home or in the evening when they have had a opportunity to step away from the hustle and bustle of the school day, which means that they are not right next to their teaching partner to be able to bounce ideas and talk through new ideas, where blogs can be a wonderful tool for reflection.  When they have a chance to share the information across a blog teachers can deepen their knowledge by writing, reading and responding to their peers comments and insights.  Teachers and students can start a conversation in the classroom and the students analysis and justification of ideas can be expanded and developed across several days on a blog.

I believe blogs are a way for people to self-publish.  Self-publishing needs to be thought out as to what they want others to know and understand about the publisher.  Since blogs can be so public and feeds can pick up topics within the blogs there has to be caution as to how information is shared and what information is shared.  Everywhere you look on business websites, if you do a topic search, or throughout various random websites blogs are part of what is listed as their options for following staying connected or sharing information.  So, yes I believe blogs are an easier way  for people to self-publish, and through that all publishers are making their digital footprint by what they share.

TLA TAL – Getting Started

Welcome!
As part of the Kent ISD Teacher Leadership Academy, this summer I will be participating in the Teacher as Learner online course. As I completed my end of the year Teacher Evaluation, I noticed that every domain referred to technology and enhancing curriculum instruction with technology.  Over the years, I believe I have kept up with the changing elements of technology, but I have not done enough to "enhance" and expand my students and colleagues knowledge of integrating technology effectively into the curriculum.  I am excited to have an opportunity to explore the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers/Administrators, where I will have the opportunity to experiment with technology. Throughout these summer sessions of exploration, I hope to gain the knowledge to help bring our teachers and our students into a technology rich, college going culture.

Angela K