Web Conference

The web conference was a useful tool that helped us to interact as a class and respond to each other’s questions. The overall learning experience was about Web 2.0 tools. I never realized how important these tools are in developing technology within the classroom. The only difficult area that I find is our district filters many sites and we are not allowed to use many of the search engines. This district has purchased many programs that can help us to teach our students the use of technology, but I often find them difficult to access or not what I want to use. There are many times I find great YouTube videos to use as engagement and find that I cannot use it on campus. It is even difficult to access teacher tube. I believe that the district has the filtering because the district is really big and hard to control so many students on the Internet is difficult. I believe that my best resource at this time to encourage the use of technology and teach our students to use what the district is offering, its better than nothing.

Transforming American Education

As educators we can all agree that education is important and that we also have goals to help students achieve academic success for their future. I believe that if we did not believe in the importance of education we would be failing our students. In the executive summary of Transforming American Education plan it states that education is the key to America having the opportunity to grow and prosper our economy. In order for our future to be successful and grow it is necessary that students graduate from a four year degree or a two year degree college. It is also important for students to achieve this regardless of their background. The goals are stated and are clear if we are to accomplish this by 2020. The part that I find challenging is how are we supposed to reach these goals when they state is making so many cuts financially to include having less teachers, more students in the classrooms and less funds for resources. The fact that we want to improve education and we are taking away does not make sense. I do agree with the fact in order to better our education we need to be held accountable and have clear outcomes we the hope to achieve. We have to collaborate to make changes and continually monitor and measure performance. With all the changes and teachers losing their jobs how are we supposed to make this gap come to a reality. I will continue to do the best that I can in my area, but I do hope we can make these goals a come to life.

Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology

In an overview of the progress report from the Texas Education Agency we can learn that students need the technology in today’s society not only to be successful for the future but to become engaged in the classroom. Students need the technology to be interactive in the classroom and to have a true learning experience. Our students come from a society where everything is quick and technology based. Often times there is not a student who does not know how to use a form of technology. The overall progress of the reports showed that through the teaching and learning process we are showing a vast improvement. We have well advanced from an early tech classroom when the teacher used very minimal technology in the classroom. The reports indicate that we have advanced and are showing higher results in advanced tech classrooms. This is good news because we can see that we are growing and building technology in our schools. We still show to be far from hitting that target area but it is hopeful especially if we can se progress from the earlier stages to growing in other areas. The overall purpose of the program is to ensure that students and educators gain and apply digital knowledge and skill across the curriculum. In reviewing this report I am glad to see that Texas is advancing and understanding the importance of applying this knowledge to our students and educators. The overall state plan will help our schools to become better prepared and to give our students the opportunity to be successful in the classroom and have true learning that accommodates them.

Texas Long Range Plan 2006-2010

The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology 2006-2010 is a plan that was created to prepare all learners, teachers, leaders and parents to develop their skills in the area of technology. This plan includes areas that have developed specific skills in all areas to help accomplish this long term goal.  In the area of teaching and learning the goal states that all students in the state of Texas will develop technology skills by eighth grade. These skills are started in kindergarten and continually applied standards each year. It is also the teachers responsibility to engage the students with technology through the learning process in all subject areas. Students will learn to use software and applications to become fluent in technology. This is a plan that has been around for several years and as years progress we can see some growth in this plan. In our campus we have acquired new equipment and trained our teachers to become better prepared for this technology plan. Even though we are trying to implement this long range plan I often feel that we lack more in this area then we are growing. Often times teachers are just afraid to learn how to use technology, therefore do not take the time to use it in the classroom. I think that teachers should just take the risk and go with it. The only way they will learn is to just use it and if we do not know how to use it often times the students will help us and this in turn prepares them.

Texas STaR Chart Presentation

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Star chart

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Instructional Leadership

Interesting to say the least, I am glad to be learning always new and different things! Just posted really quick so my page won't look so boring!