Practicum Journal Summer 2011

June 15, 2011

Discussed practicum: o Expectations o Tasks that need to be completed o Discussed distant learning-through IU o Discussed timeline of events Went through maps of district and placed red dots on the rooms that will be receiving new phones in their rooms Worked on questions to ask IT director, administrators, and SPE Director

June 17, 2011

Worked on Technology Plan for ShalerArea School District Aligned the goals, strategies, and activities draft with the ShalerArea Technology Plan and provided descriptions of each

June 20, 2011

Discussed the On-Hands Program: o Looked at students scores and how the program allows for teachers to view everything from behavior to grades to test scores all in one location o Looked that various usages for the program Worked on creating a Blackboard course on The Whole Child: o o o o o placed blogs onto site placed news articles on site placed examples of the whole child on site embedded video clips about what whole child is on the site placed information about the whole child on the site

June 22, 2011

Today in practicum we spent most of our time reorganizing and adding material to the Blackboard Course: The Whole Child. After we spent some time with Bryan OBlack and had a question and answer session about the security maintenance of the technology system at Shaler Area.

July 6, 2011

In our practicum today, we worked on improving the strategic plan for Shaler Area School District. We spend our time adding in the goals, strategies, and the activities that were associated with the plan. We spent some time reviewing, organizing, and implementing the pieces onto the PDE website.

July 11, 2011

We had the opportunity to sit down with Kara Eckert, Jeffery Elementary Principal. We discussed with her the technology she has available in her school and how the equipment was purchased. She stressed with us her PTO purchased most of the technologies and how they are very fortunate to have them. She has discussed her vision for technology in her building. As the day continued, we made revised to the ShalerArea Technology Strategic Plan on the PDE website. We have to correct mistakes such as wording, phrasing, and dates that were either incorrect or needed fixed. After, our focus was on Blackboard. We added videos that will be used in the Fall for Teacher Professional Development Day. We searched the web for webinars that would fit into categories for the Development Day. After, we found the videos we implemented them into Blackboard for teachers easy access.

July 13, 2011

In practicum today, we started our day off with visiting the middle school. At the middle school, kids were doing the ESY program. We walked into a computer lab where students where using PowerPoint to make a presentation about themselves. From there we went to the high school. At the high school we saw 3 different rooms of middle school and high school students who were working on a variety of courses. The kids there had failed a subject and were making it up at summer school. The summer school day lasts from 7 until 3. When the kids finish completing their work, they are done with summer school. Our last stop was at Jeffery, an Elementary School in Shaler Area. At Jeffery we walked around and saw the different technologies they had in place. The most recent are the Promethean Boards and soon will be adding mounted projectors.

In the afternoon, we spent our time focusing on whether the district should purchase iPads or Kindles for their schools. We researched and made comparison charts depicting the pros and cons of both devices. We will continue to research our findings and add more descriptive details to our results.

July 18, 2011

During practicum today, we had the chance to sit in on a technology staff meeting. Some of the items that information technology specialist discussed were their issues and concerns within each building, the progress that each they have made in each building, and their future tasks in regard to make sure the start of the school year is a smooth transition. One of the major topics discussed was the implementation of the new phone system. It was discussed whether to install them before the school year or to wait until a holiday break such as Thanksgiving or Christmas. After the meeting, our time was focused on time and attention on completing the final piece of the Education Technology Plan.the budget! We split up the task of putting all the numbers into the plan and finished up some other smalls tasks such as making sure the person in charge was listed as Bryan O Black and also edited a few minor typing errors. The document is now completely finished! The next step of the morning was to review the PATI survey (Pennsylvania Technology Inventory). While we were reviewing the survey, we were focused on finding areas in need. The need areas easily stuck out to us because it was coming from both administrators and teachers. Some of the needs we addressed were students assessment of technology and their technology literacy, staff development of technology, employ technology coordinators to run each building, and also consider the provider students access to a mobile device that would either come from home or be supplied by the school district. Our visions for the needs were then outlined through a PowerPoint Presentation. The last part of today, I focused on updating my Glogster EDU page. I upload more documents to Scribd and added more links to my Glogster page that focused on my PowerPoint Presentations.
July 20, 2011

During the beginning part of Practicum today, I spent my time updating the finals part to the Education Technology Plan. A few dates needed to be fixed along with some spelling mistakes. After, I had the opportunity to go to Shaler Area Elementary School and meet with the Assistant Principal about an enrollment concern for next year. We went through each computer lab in the building and tried to reconfigure the room, so next school year there would be enough computers

for each child in the classroom. As easy as it sounds, there was limited space to put the computers. A final decision has still not been made as to what they will do. A couple different scenarios that were discussed were removing a large cabinet, taking out a piece of the desk that was used for storage, or using laptops to make up for the computers they need. When we returned, I spent the rest of the time updating the Academic Standards and Assessment Midpoint Review. I had to add Bryans name to each activity and also switch the status from not started-overdue to either completed or ongoing. I also had to add a few descriptions to various activities and fix spelling mistakes as I went along. This process took the remainder of the day.

July 25, 2011

In the beginning of Practicum today, we had the chance to shadow one of the districts IT men. He works between 4 buildings, but spends most of his time at Scott Avenue Elementary School. During our time there, we helped him to prepare the laptops for the upcoming school year. Our job was to add printers to each computer and clean them. He also showed us the program he uses called Fog to erase old information and then upload the newest information onto all the laptop at once. We had the chance to ask him some questions about his job and learned that he oversees 30 different laptop carts along with desk top computers between all 4 of his buildings. After we returned, we put the final touches on the Academic Standards and Assessment Midpoint. We had to add in a section on the Graduation Project and revised any mistakes that were previously made. Then we worked on our Kindle vs. iPad PowerPoint Presentations. We are continuing to search for applications and discover what the better solution for school districts to buy is.

July 27, 2011 On our last day of practicum, we spent our time finalizing out last minute items. I finished my research on the Kindle and was able to find some valuable applications for schools to download on the Kindle, some that were free and other that cost money. The next part of the morning was spent on finishing up all the interviews that we had done over the time we spent at Shaler. We were able to finalize those and upload to our sites. We touched up our Blackboard site and were able to have a completed site before we left for the incoming teachers to use for their In-service days.

Overall, the experience at Shaler was amazing. I have learned a great deal to take with me as I continue learning about technology and its effect on education. I feel that I am able to take a lot back to school with me and share what I have learned with others.