Standard C1 - Collaborating with teachers in the design of instructional units and lessons (09/10)
Benchmarks:
Instructional specialist initiates collaboration with classroom teachers in the design of instructional lessons and units.
I regularly attend team meetings and am on the agenda for all grade 2 and grade 4 team meetings. In addition to attending team meetings, once or twice a month, I try to meet individually with each teacher to discuss ideas, book times, and organize projects. This is new this year and it has worked very well. After my individual meetings, I share the information with the team.
In addition to individual meetings and team meetings, I am in the process of putting all my integrated units, lessons, handouts, and reflections in the Collaborative Technology section of Atlas. I started half way through the year and am in the process of summarizing the activities and sequence of lessons for each unit of study. At the end, I am planning to write a reflection of what worked and what could be done better. When these units are complete, I will share them with my teams so they can add them to their own units.
Standard C2 - Engaging teachers in learning new instructional skills (11/12)
Benchmarks:
All teachers are engaged in acquiring new instructional skills.
Technology is constantly changing and our teachers are acquiring new skills every year. At the elementary school, we try to offer a variety of opportunities for our teachers to learn these new skills. Over the past years, we have offered training sessions not only in new applications and online sites, but also in classroom management strategies that can be used in a laptop classroom. Some examples of training we have offered our teachers to keep them engaged in acquiring new skills are:
Date Night with Your Mac
At these nights I have offered a variety of short tutorials including topics such as organizing your mac, creating movie trailers, using Pages to create newsletters, making slideshows with iPhoto and many more.
Out in Shanghai Days
These full day sessions for our new teachers include many topics to help our teachers become more familiar with different technology opportunities we have at SAS. This training includes an introduction to the mac and specific training in mac application (iMovie, Pages, Keynote), an introduction to our online databases, classroom management in the laptop classroom, as well as some time to brainstorm technology lessons and programs with team members.
Orientation
At orientation, we try to introduce our new teachers to the basics they will need to function at our elementary school. Topics for our new teacher orientation include managing email, using our school network, printing basics, and setting up the class blog.
After School Training
We have offered several after school training opportunities, especially as we moved to the mac computers and also as teachers began creating their online portfolios. We try to offer these sessions on several different days so we can meet the needs of all of our teachers.
After School Drop-in Sessions
We have offered several after school drop-in sessions for help on a variety of topics. Some of these sessions have specific needs we are addressing while others are open for any topic. At these sessions, Jeff and I are available in the lab to help and answer questions as they arise.
"Just In Time" Training
The most helpful type of training is the training that goes on constantly. Teachers will stop by the office or set up an appointment to "talk tech" or to learn specific skills that they are ready to learn. This type of training seems to be the most useful as it is more meaningful for our teachers to learn something right when they need it.
Standard C3 - Sharing expertise with staff (09/10)
Benchmarks:
The quality of the instructional specialist’s model lessons and workshops is uniformly high and appropriate to the needs of the teachers being served.
Training Sessions
We offer several training opportunities for our teachers throughout the year. At the beginning of the year, we focus on blogging as a refresher for returning teachers and as a new communication platform for our new teachers. This year, we provided our teachers with opportunities to learn about their new Mac computers as we made the transition from PC's to Macs. Throughout the year, we offer tech help and less formal sessions on a variety of topics on Mondays and Thursdays. During this time, we sometimes focus on a tech mini lesson or we allow teachers to drop in with their individual tech questions. During our Teachers Teaching Teachers days, I have offered several sessions for the entire school population. On Date Night with Your Mac I also offered sessions on organizing your Mac, creating simple slideshows, and other mini sessions. At the beginning of the year, I attended half of the "Out in Shanghai" sessions to help support the 1-1 program at the middle and high schools. I also helped out at the middle and high schools when the Apple Educators came to our school and helped to organize sessions specific to the elementary school during their February visit.
Samples of my training sessions are below.
Beginning of the year introduction to blogging for our new teachers at the elementary school.
During both Teachers Teaching Teachers sessions (October and February), I offered sessions in iMovie, blogging, iPhoto, using movies from your flip camera, and other topics.
Standard C4 - Locating resources for teachers to support instructional improvement (11/12)
Benchmarks:
Instructional specialist locates resources for instructional improvement for teachers when asked to do so.
This year I created a ES Tech Resources wiki so that I could have one location to gather resources to share with teachers. This wiki is divided into pages and on the resource page I have created tables with sites related to each of the content areas. I add resources to the wiki as I find sites that will work for our early childhood students. I have also created pages to add our lessons and projects for our classes PK, K, 2, and 4. This is where I write the lesson up and reflect on the lesson. Grade 2 has been finalized and passed on to the teachers. This is a work in progress and not all grade levels are complete. All necessary documents and links are included. In addition, I sit in on team meetings and send them links that may be relevant.
Standard C5 - Demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness (10/11)
Benchmarks:
Instructional specialist makes revisions to the support program when it is needed.
Using a flex schedule allows me to be flexible by the very nature of my job. I work with teachers at times that meet their needs and will schedule as many consecutive sessions as I would need to support them. In addition to flex scheduling I also work with each of my teachers as not only a part of a team, but also as an individual who may have a different style than their teammates. I am able to work with each teacher to differentiate the lessons and projects based on their particular needs. I also try to be as flexible as possible when fitting in last minute requests. I understand that not every teacher can predict what they will be doing in advance and am usually able to fit them in and reschedule them without too much notice.
In addition to being flexible with my schedule, I also am flexible with the approaches I use in the classroom. Working with the teachers, I try to accommodate my style to fit more to how they work within the classroom. As we team teach quite a bit of the time, I try to be open to different classroom management techniques and support the teacher in the way she/he chooses to run the classroom.
I believe the responsiveness I have to my teachers is excellent. I always return email within a day. In addition to attending team meetings to better understand the curriculum and specific needs of my teams, I also meet with my teachers individually to plan the project or activity for them and to make any adjustments to the steps that they feel is necessary. I also listen to what they are having problems with and offer appropriate after school help sessions to meet their needs. Sometimes these help sessions are drop in for a variety of help or specific to meet the needs of a group of teachers.
Delivery of Service
Standard C1 - Collaborating with teachers in the design of instructional units and lessons (09/10)
Benchmarks:
I regularly attend team meetings and am on the agenda for all grade 2 and grade 4 team meetings. In addition to attending team meetings, once or twice a month, I try to meet individually with each teacher to discuss ideas, book times, and organize projects. This is new this year and it has worked very well. After my individual meetings, I share the information with the team.
Emails sent to teams:
In addition to individual meetings and team meetings, I am in the process of putting all my integrated units, lessons, handouts, and reflections in the Collaborative Technology section of Atlas. I started half way through the year and am in the process of summarizing the activities and sequence of lessons for each unit of study. At the end, I am planning to write a reflection of what worked and what could be done better. When these units are complete, I will share them with my teams so they can add them to their own units.
Standard C2 - Engaging teachers in learning new instructional skills (11/12)
Benchmarks:
Technology is constantly changing and our teachers are acquiring new skills every year. At the elementary school, we try to offer a variety of opportunities for our teachers to learn these new skills. Over the past years, we have offered training sessions not only in new applications and online sites, but also in classroom management strategies that can be used in a laptop classroom. Some examples of training we have offered our teachers to keep them engaged in acquiring new skills are:
Date Night with Your Mac
At these nights I have offered a variety of short tutorials including topics such as organizing your mac, creating movie trailers, using Pages to create newsletters, making slideshows with iPhoto and many more.
Out in Shanghai Days
These full day sessions for our new teachers include many topics to help our teachers become more familiar with different technology opportunities we have at SAS. This training includes an introduction to the mac and specific training in mac application (iMovie, Pages, Keynote), an introduction to our online databases, classroom management in the laptop classroom, as well as some time to brainstorm technology lessons and programs with team members.
Orientation
At orientation, we try to introduce our new teachers to the basics they will need to function at our elementary school. Topics for our new teacher orientation include managing email, using our school network, printing basics, and setting up the class blog.
After School Training
We have offered several after school training opportunities, especially as we moved to the mac computers and also as teachers began creating their online portfolios. We try to offer these sessions on several different days so we can meet the needs of all of our teachers.
After School Drop-in Sessions
We have offered several after school drop-in sessions for help on a variety of topics. Some of these sessions have specific needs we are addressing while others are open for any topic. At these sessions, Jeff and I are available in the lab to help and answer questions as they arise.
"Just In Time" Training
The most helpful type of training is the training that goes on constantly. Teachers will stop by the office or set up an appointment to "talk tech" or to learn specific skills that they are ready to learn. This type of training seems to be the most useful as it is more meaningful for our teachers to learn something right when they need it.
Standard C3 - Sharing expertise with staff (09/10)
Benchmarks:
Training Sessions
We offer several training opportunities for our teachers throughout the year. At the beginning of the year, we focus on blogging as a refresher for returning teachers and as a new communication platform for our new teachers. This year, we provided our teachers with opportunities to learn about their new Mac computers as we made the transition from PC's to Macs. Throughout the year, we offer tech help and less formal sessions on a variety of topics on Mondays and Thursdays. During this time, we sometimes focus on a tech mini lesson or we allow teachers to drop in with their individual tech questions. During our Teachers Teaching Teachers days, I have offered several sessions for the entire school population. On Date Night with Your Mac I also offered sessions on organizing your Mac, creating simple slideshows, and other mini sessions. At the beginning of the year, I attended half of the "Out in Shanghai" sessions to help support the 1-1 program at the middle and high schools. I also helped out at the middle and high schools when the Apple Educators came to our school and helped to organize sessions specific to the elementary school during their February visit.
Samples of my training sessions are below.
Beginning of the year introduction to blogging for our new teachers at the elementary school.
Day 1 handout from our Mac orientation at the beginning of the year.
Handout from our training for the new version of Word.
During both Teachers Teaching Teachers sessions (October and February), I offered sessions in iMovie, blogging, iPhoto, using movies from your flip camera, and other topics.
Standard C4 - Locating resources for teachers to support instructional improvement (11/12)
Benchmarks:
This year I created a ES Tech Resources wiki so that I could have one location to gather resources to share with teachers. This wiki is divided into pages and on the resource page I have created tables with sites related to each of the content areas. I add resources to the wiki as I find sites that will work for our early childhood students. I have also created pages to add our lessons and projects for our classes PK, K, 2, and 4. This is where I write the lesson up and reflect on the lesson. Grade 2 has been finalized and passed on to the teachers. This is a work in progress and not all grade levels are complete. All necessary documents and links are included. In addition, I sit in on team meetings and send them links that may be relevant.
Resources that I share with my teachers can be found in the following locations:
PK/K Online Resources
Tools to Try in the ES
ES iPad Apps/Descriptions
List of links used throughout the year in PK, K, and 2
Standard C5 - Demonstrating flexibility and responsiveness (10/11)
Benchmarks:
Using a flex schedule allows me to be flexible by the very nature of my job. I work with teachers at times that meet their needs and will schedule as many consecutive sessions as I would need to support them. In addition to flex scheduling I also work with each of my teachers as not only a part of a team, but also as an individual who may have a different style than their teammates. I am able to work with each teacher to differentiate the lessons and projects based on their particular needs. I also try to be as flexible as possible when fitting in last minute requests. I understand that not every teacher can predict what they will be doing in advance and am usually able to fit them in and reschedule them without too much notice.
In addition to being flexible with my schedule, I also am flexible with the approaches I use in the classroom. Working with the teachers, I try to accommodate my style to fit more to how they work within the classroom. As we team teach quite a bit of the time, I try to be open to different classroom management techniques and support the teacher in the way she/he chooses to run the classroom.
I believe the responsiveness I have to my teachers is excellent. I always return email within a day. In addition to attending team meetings to better understand the curriculum and specific needs of my teams, I also meet with my teachers individually to plan the project or activity for them and to make any adjustments to the steps that they feel is necessary. I also listen to what they are having problems with and offer appropriate after school help sessions to meet their needs. Sometimes these help sessions are drop in for a variety of help or specific to meet the needs of a group of teachers.
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