Standard D1 - Reflecting on practice (10/11)
Benchmarks:
Instructional specialist’s reflection provides an accurate and objective description of practice, citing specific positive and negative characteristics.
Instructional specialist makes some specific suggestions as to how the support program might be improved
Overall Reflection: We have made so much progress in the past three years with technology integration. Our recent move to the Mac computers has had a huge impact on the program. Some of the areas of strength in the program are the the relationships I have developed with my teams, the energy and enthusiasm the teachers have for using technology, and the projects that the students have been creating. Having developed strong relationships and a sense of trust with my team members has helped open up the lines of communication and teachers feel safe to acknowledge areas of strength and weaknesses in their skills and trust me to be kind and helpful when teaching them new applications. We have open lines of communication and bounce ideas off of each other. Teachers feel safe with me.
One area I would like to continue to improve is to make a more cohesive curriculum involving technology. We should be spending more time on research skills and ways to use the Internet to increase student learning, especially at the older levels. We talk about Internet safety, but we can work on developing this area also.
This year, I have worked to document our projects and plan more closely and to reflect on what we have accomplished. I started with Atlas, but this was not the best tool for my purposes, so put it on a Pages document. My goal next year is to find a better way to document what we do, but for now the Pages document has been a quick and easy way to document what we have done and reflect on it. The grade 2 document is fairly thorough and the grade 4 document needs additional work. They are both complete through trimester 2.
For PreK/K we use many online sources and I recently started a wiki as a place to keep all of the information. This is a work in progress.
Standard D2 - Preparing and submitting budgets and reports (09/10)
Benchmarks:
Instructional specialist’s budgets are complete, anticipation all expenditures and following established procedures.
Reports are always submitted on time.
As a tech team, we work together across schools and campuses to organize the budget. We receive input from the classroom teachers and specialist as to the software they would like to see ordered and work with the other facilitators, Andy Torris, and Orion Weber to meet the Puxi ES hardware needs. In addition to hardware and software, we look at lab spaces and other technology needs throughout the ES. Once the budget has been submitted, we also work with the Pudong ES tech facilitator and decide on an image for the ES teacher and student computers. When additional hardware is needed schoolwide, we take stock of what we have and communicate our needs for installation. We also prepare end of year technology reports, surveys and any other reports necessary for the school.
Standard D3 - Coordinating work with other instructional specialists (10/11)
Benchmarks:
Instructional specialist initiates efforts to collaborate with other instructional specialists within the school.
All the TRF's work closely together and we meet monthly to discuss overall issues that have an impact on the entire school community. At our monthly meetings, we discuss technology initiatives for our students as well as for our teachers. We plan training events such as Out in Shanghai Days, Date Night with Your Mac, and Teachers Teaching Teachers. We also share some of the highlights of what we do in the classroom.
In addition to coordinating with TRF's from across grade levels, Simon Power and I share quite a bit of ideas about what we do with our different grade levels. During these meetings we discuss projects and ideas and at our recent Apple Conference we spent time discussing new tools and how they could impact our school.
Attached is a document that contains some of the emails that I have sent to Simon to initiate our collaborative efforts.
Standard D4 - Participating in a professional community (10/11)
Benchmarks:
Instructional specialist participates actively in school and district events and projects and maintains positive and productive relationships with colleagues.
I participate actively in our school community in a variety of ways. At the Puxi ES I try to attend concerts and assemblies for my teams as well as important academic events such as the artifact museum in grade 4. I also try to attend school-wide events such as the Thanksgiving celebration hosted in November as well as the carpet auction. I attend the shows that are offered at the MS and the HS level when I can. This year, I coordinated the school-wide visit by digital story expert, Jason Ohler. I met with teachers at all grade levels to discuss their needs, coordinated a schedule for teachers across the grades, trying to get the most impact from him in the classroom, and coordinated after school training sessions run by Jason available to all teachers. I worked closely with Simon from Pudong to create similar experiences on both campuses. I also help to organize and run Date Night events and participate in TTT each time it is offered. I am a member of the Digital Leader team which meets monthly to discuss the technology needs at our school. Most currently, I have been selected as a member of the Campus Structure Action team that will meet several times between now and next October. In addition to these academic commitments to the school I also coordinate the Halloween event for families with small children on our campus and attend most SAS social gatherings.
Standard D5 - Engaging in professional development (09/10)
Benchmarks:
Instructional specialist seeks out opportunities for professional development based on an individual assessment of need.
Since my arrival in Fall of 2009, I have participates in a variety of professional development opportunities. In addition to attending workshops and taking courses, I also use twitter, professional networks, and blogs to communicate with other professionals in my area.
List of courses/workshops taken:
SCIS workshop in Shanghai in Fall 2008
Apple workshop in Hong Kong in Spring 2009
Web 2.0 Tools course taken Fall 2009 from UW Stout for 3 graduate credits.
Professional networks I belong to:
SAS Digital Leaders Wiki
Apple Learning Interchange
Learning 2.008 Ning
SAS Professional Ning
Flat Classroom Project
Standard D6 - Showing professionalism, including integrity and confidentiality (11/12)
Benchmarks:
Instructional specialist displays high standards of honesty and integrity in interactions with colleagues and respects norms of confidentiality.
This is a tough one to show evidence for so this will be a reflection. Throughout the year, I attend team meetings and maintain confidentiality during and after the team meetings. When colleagues speak to me confidentially, I respect the confidentiality. When working with my colleagues, I try to be kind and respectful and when there is a conflict I approach it directly and with honesty. When speaking or emailing colleagues I use a respectful and kind tone, while keeping the emails and interactions simple and to the point. I have learned in my many years of teachers that everyone is different and have learned to interact differently with individuals to create a positive and trusting working relationship with my colleagues. I believe my colleagues trust me and feel safe coming to me when they need help with technology or with anything else that may come up in our daily ES or SAS lives.
Professional Responsibilities
Standard D1 - Reflecting on practice (10/11)
Benchmarks:
Overall Reflection: We have made so much progress in the past three years with technology integration. Our recent move to the Mac computers has had a huge impact on the program. Some of the areas of strength in the program are the the relationships I have developed with my teams, the energy and enthusiasm the teachers have for using technology, and the projects that the students have been creating. Having developed strong relationships and a sense of trust with my team members has helped open up the lines of communication and teachers feel safe to acknowledge areas of strength and weaknesses in their skills and trust me to be kind and helpful when teaching them new applications. We have open lines of communication and bounce ideas off of each other. Teachers feel safe with me.
One area I would like to continue to improve is to make a more cohesive curriculum involving technology. We should be spending more time on research skills and ways to use the Internet to increase student learning, especially at the older levels. We talk about Internet safety, but we can work on developing this area also.
This year, I have worked to document our projects and plan more closely and to reflect on what we have accomplished. I started with Atlas, but this was not the best tool for my purposes, so put it on a Pages document. My goal next year is to find a better way to document what we do, but for now the Pages document has been a quick and easy way to document what we have done and reflect on it. The grade 2 document is fairly thorough and the grade 4 document needs additional work. They are both complete through trimester 2.
Grade 2 Activities/Reflection
Grade 4 Activities/Reflection
For PreK/K we use many online sources and I recently started a wiki as a place to keep all of the information. This is a work in progress.
Standard D2 - Preparing and submitting budgets and reports (09/10)
Benchmarks:
As a tech team, we work together across schools and campuses to organize the budget. We receive input from the classroom teachers and specialist as to the software they would like to see ordered and work with the other facilitators, Andy Torris, and Orion Weber to meet the Puxi ES hardware needs. In addition to hardware and software, we look at lab spaces and other technology needs throughout the ES. Once the budget has been submitted, we also work with the Pudong ES tech facilitator and decide on an image for the ES teacher and student computers. When additional hardware is needed schoolwide, we take stock of what we have and communicate our needs for installation. We also prepare end of year technology reports, surveys and any other reports necessary for the school.
Standard D3 - Coordinating work with other instructional specialists (10/11)
Benchmarks:
All the TRF's work closely together and we meet monthly to discuss overall issues that have an impact on the entire school community. At our monthly meetings, we discuss technology initiatives for our students as well as for our teachers. We plan training events such as Out in Shanghai Days, Date Night with Your Mac, and Teachers Teaching Teachers. We also share some of the highlights of what we do in the classroom.
In addition to coordinating with TRF's from across grade levels, Simon Power and I share quite a bit of ideas about what we do with our different grade levels. During these meetings we discuss projects and ideas and at our recent Apple Conference we spent time discussing new tools and how they could impact our school.
Attached is a document that contains some of the emails that I have sent to Simon to initiate our collaborative efforts.
Standard D4 - Participating in a professional community (10/11)
Benchmarks:
I participate actively in our school community in a variety of ways. At the Puxi ES I try to attend concerts and assemblies for my teams as well as important academic events such as the artifact museum in grade 4. I also try to attend school-wide events such as the Thanksgiving celebration hosted in November as well as the carpet auction. I attend the shows that are offered at the MS and the HS level when I can. This year, I coordinated the school-wide visit by digital story expert, Jason Ohler. I met with teachers at all grade levels to discuss their needs, coordinated a schedule for teachers across the grades, trying to get the most impact from him in the classroom, and coordinated after school training sessions run by Jason available to all teachers. I worked closely with Simon from Pudong to create similar experiences on both campuses. I also help to organize and run Date Night events and participate in TTT each time it is offered. I am a member of the Digital Leader team which meets monthly to discuss the technology needs at our school. Most currently, I have been selected as a member of the Campus Structure Action team that will meet several times between now and next October. In addition to these academic commitments to the school I also coordinate the Halloween event for families with small children on our campus and attend most SAS social gatherings.
Standard D5 - Engaging in professional development (09/10)
Benchmarks:
Since my arrival in Fall of 2009, I have participates in a variety of professional development opportunities. In addition to attending workshops and taking courses, I also use twitter, professional networks, and blogs to communicate with other professionals in my area.
List of courses/workshops taken:
- SCIS workshop in Shanghai in Fall 2008
- Apple workshop in Hong Kong in Spring 2009
- Web 2.0 Tools course taken Fall 2009 from UW Stout for 3 graduate credits.
Professional networks I belong to:Standard D6 - Showing professionalism, including integrity and confidentiality (11/12)
Benchmarks:
This is a tough one to show evidence for so this will be a reflection. Throughout the year, I attend team meetings and maintain confidentiality during and after the team meetings. When colleagues speak to me confidentially, I respect the confidentiality. When working with my colleagues, I try to be kind and respectful and when there is a conflict I approach it directly and with honesty. When speaking or emailing colleagues I use a respectful and kind tone, while keeping the emails and interactions simple and to the point. I have learned in my many years of teachers that everyone is different and have learned to interact differently with individuals to create a positive and trusting working relationship with my colleagues. I believe my colleagues trust me and feel safe coming to me when they need help with technology or with anything else that may come up in our daily ES or SAS lives.