Be a Hero: My Digital Story

Digital Story

I typically choose not to share much of my personal life. Perhaps it is because there has been so much trauma and sharing brings up emotions I'd rather not think about.

However, the events that occur in our lives also occur in other people's lives. Our story can serve as inspiration to others who may be experiencing challenges or similar circumstances (Lambert 2013). I chose to share a story about how I became a teacher.

Teaching is more powerful than most people realize. It impacts students, their families, and most of all, those who teach. Becoming a teacher saved me from a life of monotony. Teaching also gave me joy and taught me that love is the most powerful gift of all.

Sources:
Lambert, Joe. "Center for Digital Story Telling". http://www.youtube.com/user/CenterOfTheStory

Possible Challenges

With change comes opposition. My action plan centers on getting all teachers to base competency levels with technology programs that are essential for communication, data tracking, and resources. The second piece is to challenge all teachers to implement at least one Web 2.0 program or other student used technology in their classroom.

Foreseeable challenges vary from teacher apathy to the need for constant assistance. Some teachers lack basic computer skills and will need more one on one time. Depending on the member and level of teacher need, time constraints may present a challenge. Recruiting additional staff to act as mentors should allow time constraint factors to decrease by sharing the load.

Another possible major challenge is teacher apathy toward trying something new in their classrooms with Web 2.0. The initial surveys will allow teachers to select programs of interest. Hopefully by allowing teachers to choose their own development and proving assistance, apathy will be avoided.

The last major concern is network and technological availability. We have had network issues which limited the number of students who could be online at one time, and there is a limited number of computers available. This summer our complete network infrastructure was upgraded which should alleviate network overload. As for computer availability, the campus IT person is reimaging, fixing, and locating all COWs so that we have a true view on availability.

Why focus on TEACHERS?

Teachers at Lanier have a history of low technology fluency compared to other campuses within the district. Many teachers are unaware or claim to be unfamiliar with pulling reports, aggregation of data, ability to post/collect documents from googledocs, and lack of ability with many other tools which are critical for success of students. The deficiencies are a culmination of several factors. Lack of training, newness, infrequent use, and even unwillingness to change procedures.   Therefore, the goal of my action research plan is to provide professional development and mentoring for teachers who self identify as being deficient in these areas. In the past, there has not been a person or program to support technology growth of teachers.

The action research plan begins with teacher self-assessment of proficiencies with programs and interest in Web 2.0. Focus groups will be held to determine why teachers feel they are deficient, what they feel would be the best method of support, and which programs they are most interested in developing. Once data has been collected and analyzed, I will be meeting with the administrative team to develop mentoring/ professional development schedule. At the end of the year, focus groups and surveys will be administered again to determine teacher felt growth. During the year, mentor and administrative observations will be made to monitor development of teachers who identify as the highest need.

I hope to learn methods of supporting and preparing teachers for success in utilizing technology and database programs so that they can effectively use data available to address student needs, as well as encourage use of technology to make learning more engaging. I want to increase student achievement by increasing achievement of teachers.

Based on findings of this research project, I hope to establish a campus which feels more supported and confident in their ability to use technology for student learning. Success of the project may also lead to recommendations that will better prepare new teachers to use necessary programs at the beginning of their career. They are typically left to learn technology programs on their own while facing an already challenging learning curve of being a teacher.

Action Research Plan

SCHOOL VISION:

 

The school vision is to have all teachers meet base competency levels with technological programs needed for instruction, communication, and compilation/dissemination of data to improve effectiveness and efficiency of teachers.

Action Steps	Person(s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Desired outcomes
1. Initial survey of teacher competencies	Medina Willis Campus teachers	Start: 8/19/2013 End: 8/30/2013	·         google survey ·         Teacher compliance	Collate results of proficiency and need
2. Focus group sessions	Medina Willis	Start: 8/19/2013 End: 9/13/2013	·         Survey analysis ·         Teacher volunteers	Determination of support needed by teachers
3. Survey analysis and results meeting	Medina Willis	Start: 8/23/2013 End: 9/20/2013	·           Administrative team ·         Proficiency and needs analysis	Determination of which needs to focus
4. Implementation of Professional Development and Mentoring	Medina Willis Administrative team	Start: 9/16/2013 End: 05/2/2014	·         Teachers ·         Administration team ·         Schedule	-Increased proficiency in required technology -Increased use of Web 2.0 tools in classroom for student learning
5. Peer Observation and Walk Throughs	Medina Willis	Start: 9/16/2013 End: 05/2/2014	·         Teachers ·         Schedule	-Increased proficiency in required technology -Increased use of Web 2.0 tools in classroom for student learning
6. Final Evaluation surveys and Focus groups	Medina Willis Campus teachers	Start: 5/5/2014 End: 5/30/2014	·         Google survey ·         Teacher compliance	Analyze teacher viewed outcomes of additional supportand PD

Revised Idea for Action Research

After speaking with my campus site supervisor, head principal, and assistant principal over technology initiative,  we have determined that Flipped Classroom implementation poses major challenges with action research on my campus due to socioeconomic background of many students. We are still going to implement it within the freshman science classrooms, but to a lower degree to account for issues of technology available outside of the classroom and because implementing Flipped classrooms throughout campus would not be best for the entire campus.

On the other hand, there is a real lack of support and training for teachers to develop technological confidence. As a result, most technology usage on campus is by the teacher via PowerPoint, document cameras, and projectors.

I will be targeting all teachers on campus, but primarily focusing on core subject area teachers. All teachers are expected to be proficient in basic technological usages which are critical to data tracking, communication, and resource banks. Each teacher will also be required to select at least one program of which will be utilized to enhance learning through student use. Examples for student use are StudyIsland, Evernote, Twitter, or Glogster.

All teachers will be included due to the campus-wide initiative to drive student used technology for learning. Teachers will be surveyed at the beginning of the year using a Likert scale system regarding proficiency and comfort level with 8 software programs which are considered to be base competency, support for technology, comfort level for implementing student used technology, and access to hardware. They will also be given a menu of student utilized programs, including a brief description of each, to choose the top 2 which they have interest. The choices will be used to set up professional development and mentoring schedule.

At the end of the school year, we will survey teachers again regarding core competency programs, comfort level of student used technology, access to hardware, and support for technology. The goal is to have more teachers being fluent with technology programs and confident in implementing technology usage for students.

1st Idea for Action Research

The purpose is to determine if technology will increase student engagement and learning.

After meeting the campus principal I’m interested in using the Study Island program as possibly a method of Flipped classroom. She described Flipped classroom as where students take notes and get basic instruction on their own before units to introduce themselves to topics. Then during instructional time, teachers are able to spend more time on clarifying, discussing, and applying concepts. Study island provides a summary and information where students can take notes and quiz themselves on understanding. Then in class we can spend more time doing labs or practicing STAAR questions.

Both students and teachers will benefit from the action research study. I plan first to teach students how to process information using Mind Map to take notes. Many students are only accustomed to copying information from PowerPoint and not having to decipher information on their own. The note passages in Study Island are more rigorous than copying from PowerPoint. So students will also benefit from having to process the more advanced reading. STAAR requires them to be able to decipher information from more difficult readings than they have been exposed to in class. Students also will benefit from the ability to know their weaknesses from the beginning of the topic,   have time and ability to go over the information again. Instead of only quizzing students after all learning has occurred, Study Island allows students to retake quizzes with different questions over the same standards.

Teachers benefit from the action research study by allowing them to use technology to track student success. Having Flipped classroom allows more time to revisit and concepts that majority of students missed. Also for my campus, teaching students how to process information using Mind Maps will increase student autonomy. Many students feel that they cannot do if the teacher does not explain everything. Giving them the skills to process on their own from the beginning of the year should promote accountability on their own.