EDTC 6433- Tech Integration Reflection

I believe I was successful in achieving my goals. I have taught students the importance of being a good digital citizen in regards to 2nd grade technology. We have learned how to handle equipment properly. When they are unsure, they help one another in succeeding, which has been a huge growth area for them compared to what they were able to do the year prior. They also learned about the importance of being safe online, how to create unique passwords, and why it is important not to share passwords with others (outside of getting assistance from their family or teacher). I feel that I was able to achieve more than what I thought I would, which was an important learning for me throughout this course.

With the age I teach, it is really important that students watch their teacher model exactly how to be appropriate with technology tools and create ownership and responsibility within the classroom. I was able to model (more than once) how to handle equipment, including carrying it to and from the cart, logging on, getting to where they need to go, shutting down, and putting away login cards and headphones properly. There were some re-teaching moments along the way where I had to show them again, but I used these moments to have student role models act out and show their peers how to handle the equipment, which I think was really powerful for my students. I also showed my students some BrainPop videos (they LOVE BrainPop). It was fun to watch them be really protective of their computer login cards in class. When helping one another, they were very respectful when teaching and showing their peers how to get to places online, but would back away to let their peer type in their username and password on their own before continuing to help. It made me realize how much of leaders they really can be at such a young age!

I plan to be a leader by continuing to be open when trying new things. Currently I am having my students try out new keyboarding programs, and being a part of learning new technology is something I plan to continue. I believe it helps to keep engagement high in class when students learn new things and feel a special ownership when they have to provide feedback. I think it will be important for me to believe that my students can do great things in regards to technology, even if I have to adjust accordingly so that it is more appropriate for primary students.

In my school's community, I am someone that teachers from older generations come to with questions regarding technology usage. I am the youngest teacher on my grade level team by 20 years, so they always look to me to provide support and new findings. I also help teachers outside of my grade level team, as I feel very comfortable with the technology platforms we use to teach, such as ActivInspire. I love to teach, even if it seems easy to me. When my students try new technology tools, they are excited, which excites and intrigues their parents. After emailing my 2nd grade parents about field testing new keyboarding programs this year, I received a lot of positive feedback. My students have been logging in daily at home to work on the new program and are excited to grow. My role in the classroom is to teach and encourage students in an engaging way, which I think can be easily done when trying out new technology!

EDU 6528 End of Course Reflection

Prior to starting the Teacher Leadership program, as well as this course, I wasn't as clear as to what made a teacher "accomplished." My assumptions included the length of one's teaching career, the number of leadership roles they took within the school, and the amount of knowledge they had about teaching practices. Although some of these assumptions were true, I loved learning that the longevity of one's teaching career doesn't automatically make them an accomplished teacher. Being a "new" teacher in the 3rd year of my career, it was encouraging to know that accomplished teaching and the number of years they have taught do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. 

Upon starting this course, it quickly became clear that reflection and collaboration would be strong themes. I felt that I was an effective reflector and collaborator, but wasn't aware of the research behind the different ways to do so. I often felt that I reflected internally on my own practices to make them better, but wasn't always sharing my thoughts with others. I learned that reflecting alone can be self-validating, but reflecting with others helps us not to perpetuate only our own thoughts (York-Barr, Sommers, Ghere, & Montie, 2006, p.107). This is powerful, because our thoughts alone aren't enough to make the most effective change in our practice. We must collaborate and work together to strengthen our teaching practices. This confirmed for me the need to have more PLC and collaboration time with other educators in our building. As Barr (2006) said, "Shifting from a culture of doing to a culture of learning and doing, however, is not easily accomplished," (p. 3). I found that working with a partner to collaborate and coach in this course was powerful in that we were able to help one another reflect and adjust according to our student's unique needs. Being able to plan, observe, and reflect with the same partner helped make the experience stronger than if I had done it on my own.

As I researched and read the assigned chapters throughout this course, I was made aware of the elements that can make the reflection and collaboration process more difficult: trust and time. In order to make collaboration feel comfortable for both parties, both members must come into the process with an open-mind, eager to learn. Barr (2006) says, "Trust...is more readily fostered. Trust and safety are always issues when interacting with others, especially when revealing one's questions and thinking," (p. 108). In order to gain each others' trust, it is important that both members clarify, listen, expand thinking, and coach one another. This helps to increase effectiveness (York-Barr et al., 2006, p. 110). In order to have these meaningful coaching sessions, we must be given the time to do so. As Berg (2010) stated, "When teachers do experience evaluation, supervision, and relicensure as supportive of their professional learning, they find growth-oriented feedback and opportunities for reflection can do more than help them improve their practice; it can have a profound effect on their sense of commitment and efficacy levels," (p. 196). Realizing and understanding the strong research to support these claims will be extremely useful as I move into administration and make sure my staff is getting adequate time to create partnerships and reflect.

I also felt that I grew in the area of researching the importance of having a positive schoolwide behavior plan, as I wrote about in my final paper. Having a schoolwide system in place goes hand-in-hand with collaboration and reflection. Not all schools have the same needs, and educators must be prepared to critique and cater their school's system in order to meet the unique needs of their students. Just as schools recognize the importance of early intervention in schools in regards to academics, using a schoolwide behavior system can be a preventative measure that can be used as early intervention as well, which compliments RTI (Tillary, 2010). I now have a deeper understanding of the importance of these systems and why they are so successful in schools. According to Scott (2003), “Schoolwide application of PBS has demonstrated success with approximately 85%-90% of a school’s student population,” (p. 2). If an entire school can have that positive of an impact by implementing a schoolwide behavior system, I believe one should be enforced, no matter the student population. Often times educators see these schoolwide systems enforced at needy schools, such as Title 1, but all schools can benefit from a clear, structured system. I hope I can continue to encourage this in my building as our small research team continues to study and determine the importance in our own school.

In large, my learning this quarter was very valuable to my current and future positions in education. I learned some new strategies and techniques in terms of collaborating and coaching, as well as the important research behind reflective practices. I am eager continue implementing these new learnings as I move forward in this program and my career. As a result of this, I plan to continue researching best practices and sharing them with my colleagues as we learn together. I hope I can help them to understand the importance of working together, as well as advocating for the time we need to do so. I hope that this will help to better myself, my colleagues, and most importantly, the students I work with every day.

References

Berg, J. H. (2010, June). Constructing a Clear Path to Accomplished Teaching. Theory
     Into Practice, 49(3), 193-202. doi:10.1080/00405841.2010.487754

Scott, T. S. (2003, September). Making Behavior Intervention Planning decisions in a
     Schoolwide System of Positive Behavior Support. Focus On Exceptional Children,
     36(1), 1-19. Retrieved November 25, 2016, from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.
     ezproxy.spu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2b7c73ea-3785-4988-90e7
     b0bd27af2bcd@sessionmgr107&vid=0&hid=118

Tillery, A. D., Varjas, K., Meyers, J., & Collins, A. S. (2010, April). General Education
     Teachers' Perceptions of Behavior Management and Intervention Strategies.
     Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 12(2), 86-102. Retrieved from
     http://pbi.sagepub.com.ezproxy.spu.edu/content/12/2/86.full.pdf

York-Barr, J., Sommers, W.A., Ghere, G.S., & Montie, J. (2006). Reflective practice to
     improve schools: An action guide for educators (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:
     Corwin Press.

Artifacts

EDU 6528 Final Paper

EDU 6528 Lesson Plan