As I consider my first goal, being fluent in technologies, the more it occurs to me that I do not know. Does this make sense? Technology is like an onion, the more you peel back, BAM! there is another layer underneath. For starters, I would like to make an inventory list of the digital tools and technologies: 1) I utilize often 2) I feel I use effectively 3) Impact on students’ performance. I would also like to review some rubrics used by teachers when evaluating their own teaching and then modify to meet my particular needs. Concurrently, there are several strategies that I have pondered, for instance, locating more professional development classes/sessions, talking with colleagues, and spending more time exploring/creating/experimenting. So far I have signed up for a technology conference in April and have already participated in an iGoogle webinar
For my second goal of conveying relevant information to students, parents, and colleagues through technology, I have spoken to some of my colleagues and inquired about using technology to achieve this goal. I discovered that several used emails or teacher web pages when outreaching to parents, and they also used emails and blogs for colleagues. As I plan to create a centralized location for both students and parents, I have started gathering and organizing links that I want to include. Also, I have emailed my principal and requested time to speak with her about a workshop for parents to help them access teacher/school information via technologies. At the same time, I have already sent a couple of emails to special education coordinators to ask for specific guidelines when contacting/communicating throughout my district.
Kim,
ReplyDeleteI once had a professor who told me, “If your education is working, it’s teaching you how much you don’t know.” Perhaps that should encourage you; if you’re recognizing what you don’t know, it means you’re making progress!
While you’re inventorying your own tools and technologies, you might want to consider reaching out to someone in the school who could compile a list of available tools and technologies. It might be a teacher specialist, a technology expert, or the media specialist. In my school I occasionally come across tools I didn’t know we had—and we certainly can’t use what we don’t know exists. I recently found a self-guided, self-paced grammar program installed on our server. It’s a perfect activity for students to turn to if they finish early in the computer lab. I checked with the reading specialist to make sure my students could use it, and she didn’t know it existed! I think sometimes resources are bought for a specific purpose or program, and then, when they’ve fulfilled their purpose, they’re forgotten about. If you start digging, you may find resources you didn’t know you had.
Your goal of finding appropriate rubrics to modify is a great idea. Our students all seem so technologically savvy that it is easy to forget that technology can create another barrier, especially for our special education students. The “simple” act of reading online, for instance, is a prime example, as the Web introduces a separate set of cueing systems in addition to those we association with traditional print resources (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). The increased workload this brings to an assignment needs to be considered, and adapting the rubric is an excellent way to do so.
References
Eagleton, M. B., and Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.