Field-based+Activities

November Field-Based Activity Reflection I was given the opportunity in November to spend three days working on two different activities. The first day was an English IV team meeting. We met in a workroom for curriculum planning and devising our senior English classes to be conducted almost 100% online. Our school is on a 1:1 laptop initiative and we have some really amazing technology available to us. The tough part was to make sure that our curriculum and class activities were adjusting to the technology available to us. We have access to a Learning Management System that can make our jobs so much easier. The trick is getting all of the teachers in the department to use it. We spent the entire day working on developing all of our activities, assessments, and discussions to be done online. I found the day very rewarding but I am curious to see if administration will hold accountable all teachers for using the LMS. The other two days were spent teaching new software to all of the teachers on our campus. I was familiar with the software so I was asked if I wanted to help run the professional development classes that all teachers would have to take. I taught mini-classes all day long and they were great. I did have to make sure that I slowed down enough for everyone to understand me. I have a bad habit of talking too fast and most of the time I don’t realize that I’m doing it. It was a great day, but I do have to admit that I found myself getting frustrated with several teachers that didn’t pay attention and then wanted to ask multiple questions that had already been addressed.

January Field-Based Activity Reflection This month I was given the opportunity to spend a day shadowing our two Campus Instructional Technology Specialists. This was a great activity for me to use as hours since this is the job that I would like to have someday! I spent the entire day running around campus with Adam and Alyssa. They were helping teachers with a myriad of problems. There were some very difficult issues to deal with and there were some very minor ones as well. Three times we were sent to a classroom where the only thing the teacher needed to do was turn off their projector and restart it. We addressed several valid questions that had to do with the LMS and cheating. It was an interesting day and it allowed me a glimpse of what a future job might hold for me. I was selected to be a group member of faculty that were put together to come up with an online survey whose purpose was to test the validity of the Advisory Program. We had to come up with an online only survey that was fair and would provide accurate results. I was put in charge of the actual creation of this survey and making sure that the data would aggregate in a manner that was easy and readable. The last activity I was given this month was a half-day monitoring job. I was sent to run the DyKnow software for a state TELPAS exam. This is an online exam and I monitored the computers of 40 students taking this exam. I was monitoring for any online cheating, and to make sure that the students were making adequate progress. This was a fun assignment and I wish more teachers would use this tool that is available to them. It’s amazing and allows the teacher to control the student work 100%.

March Field-Based Activity Reflection This month I was allowed two class days to work on internship activities. The first day was spent with the English IV team in online curriculum development. This particular day was very rewarding because we made some serious progress in two of our most reluctant team members. Two team members that had previously refused to let their students use their laptops as anything other than a word processor finally agreed to try a photostory project! Our team is small, only five members but we were excited when the last two finally got on board. We worked hard in outlining the rest of the semester online. I personally entered all of our assessments into the online testing center. This enables us to review our common assessment data in a much easier way, and we can keep the cheating down to a minimum. I spent the second allotted day shadowing Adam and Alyssa, the two CITS personnel at our school. This time we spent a large amount of time working with the technology personnel over at central office with an issue that we were having with our LMS. The situation was finally solved when the district devoted another server entirely to the backup of the courseware system. This was a very technical day, and I enjoyed learning about some of the hardware issues and how they can be solved.

May Field-Based Activity Reflection May brought an entirely different internship activity for me. I was allowed to spend three days working with Chris Ruggerio, our assistant principal in charge of tablets. May 21st was tablet pick-up day. This meant spending one day to collect all 3800 tablets and accessories from each student. This was a very carefully planned day. The students all stayed in their second period class for three hours. During this time period the teacher had to call up each student, check their tablet for damage, make sure they had all of the accessories, and document any fees. Each class was assigned a specific time to show up at a designated area and drop off the collected tablets. We then had to take all of the tablets and place them in crates for them to be taken to a storage facility where they will be wiped and readied for next year. The logistics took a long time to plan out, but the entire process went very smooth. The entire technology staff for the district was at our campus for the day and we had over 100 parent volunteers to help. I wish the entire process had been recorded just to prove how effective proper planning can be.