Embedded+Assignments

=**Week 1:**=

//**5306-**// This assignment seemed very daunting at first but after getting into both the Long-Range Plan and the TA TEKS I realized that they are the perfect documents for the first assignment in this program. It is very important to know that the state is doing its best to set out standards so that all schools will be heading in the same direction in the every changing field of educational technology.

I did not have the other portions of this week's assignments when I was in the course in November 2008.



//**5333-**// To be honest, at first I was completely bored with this course as a whole and did not see why it would be relevant to this program but after completing this assignment, I realize how technology can help improve the data that is studied in this program. The African-American scores that I decided to focus on received a major push at our school and technology actually helped to raise the scores of a majority of our students. A computer program called Study Island is now used not only in math but in science also and I look forward to seeing how much the science scores improve this year after a year of our campus utilizing the program.



WEEK 2:

5362- I found this course very informative because of all of the background information I received from the district employee I talked to about our SMS. One thing I disagreed with this employee about is that enough training was happening on the campus level. "Four key ideas continually surface when it comes to making the most of the SIS technology: leadership, communication, training and more training " (Sausner 2003). As a teacher, I feel that more training could happen so that we can use all of the special things the SMS can do with regards to reports and lists. These could make our job easier and could possibly provide another way to look at testing data. "Suddenly, reports on adequate yearly progress, highly qualified teachers and other topics have focused the spotlight on SIS and the companies that make them." (Sausner 2003). I feel this assignment helped to teach me about three different standards. Having an effective SIS can help increase professional productivity (Standard V) for those in education because having a student's contact information, discipline records, attendance, etc. in one place makes tasks like contacting parents and planning behavior strategies easier. Protecting a student's personal information in a secure SIS is part of Standard VI. Knowing what is private information and what is public information is wise for anyone who deals with other's information on a computer. Lastly, learning what it costs my district to run our current SMS made me more aware of Standard VII.

Resources- Sausner, R. (2003, November). Making paperwork fulfilling. District Administrator. Retrieved on 2010, from: @http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=103&p=1).



5364- This was one of my favorite courses because it involved exploring actual strategies and tools that can be used in a classroom and not just the theories behind these tools. Creating the book was the assignment I enjoyed the most because I could see so many different ways a teacher could use this. "The work of Goleman (1995) shares the UDL perspective that motivation is at least as important for school success as the capacity to recognize and generate patterns" (Rose & Meyer, 2002.) I feel that this tool could be used to keep high school students motivated by having them create children's books online instead of actual instead of actual books and then younger students would be motivated to read and learn from these books because they are different than the rest of the books they have read before. Learning about the different aspects of planning that it takes to create an appropriate and successful technology lesson was very eye-opening for me. As a dance teacher, I do not use much technology but I know that many teachers in my school do and I look forward to helping them. "Using technology for technology's sake isn't a good application of instructional time or funding, and is unlikely to improve student achievement. It is essential that teachers design a quality lesson plan first and then select the most appropriate technologies to support that lesson." (Pitler, etal. al (2007). I see this as the number one goal of a technology facilitator. Even though I feel most of the standards were touched in this course, it mainly focused on Standard III. Using varied technology to maximize all student learning was the main topic of this course.

Resources- Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology Web site. Chapter 6. Retrieved on October 5, 2009, from [].

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 41-58, 217-225.