CED0 565 Week 2 Reflection

For class this week, one of our assignments was to read the next two chapters (ch. 2 & 3) in our text, How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader. I loved reading Chapter 1 as it described many leadership roles that a teacher could select besides the one role that most teachers think they must choose to be in a leadership position - administration. Chapter 2 was more difficult for me to be really excited about like I was in Chapter 1; Chapter 2 was all about "assembling your team" which really boils down to finding and interviewing candidates. The author really stressed making sure that teacher leaders are part of the interview team and even suggests that the teacher leader(s) should run the interview. The analogy that Gabriel uses is this: "The front office and ownership make suggestions, and many of them can be fruitful, but it is the coaches - who are not as distanced as management because they are on the field with the players day in and day out and best understand what must be done - who make the logical personnel decisions" (Gabriel, pg 26). I could really relate to this analogy, and it drives home the importance of teachers being involved in the interview process since the teachers are the ones who will be working with the newly hired individuals the closest. The next part of the chapter is where I started to question if this is completely relevant in today's economy and teacher career environment...the part about "expanding the applicant pool". Is it necessary, in order to get enough and a variety of applicants to apply for a position, to go out and recruit for applicants at places as the author suggests - practicum & student teachers, professional memberships and conferences, churches, bazaars, & community events, etc? Any friend or colleague that I've ever talked to about the applicant pool when he/she would send in a resume for an opening says that there are always SO many applicants in the running. A few years ago a friend of mine who teaches at the elementary level, said that she was told that there were 300 applications put in for ONE position! That leads me to think that "expanding the applicant pool" might not be as necessary as Gabriel makes it out to be. It seems like posting a position on WECAN, DPI, the school website, and maybe an email out on a professional organization listserv will probably do the trick of getting the word out to more than enough people. Am I off base when I say this? Again, on page 41 Gabriel starts off his "Placing Your Hires" section with this: "With such high turnover in education..."; is this true? I don't see the education field like this.



Chapter 3, entitled "Interpersonal Leadership - Communicating Your Leadership" was a lot of the same principles that I teach my Intro to Business students about softskills/employability skills. One of the first paragraphs of this chapter talked about work-related email being formal in nature and that the format should reflect that (Gabriel, 47). In regards to this statement, I couldn't agree more. When sending a work-related email I think it should always start with a greeting and end with a signature. It is a HUGE pet peeve of mine when an email is sent when the email just jumps right into the message without evening saying my name or "hi" in the beginning or when it just ends promptly without the sender saying his/her name. The text goes on to talk about being a responsive leader and responding to emails within a 24 hour timeframe. This is what is expected of us at school. With so much of the communication taking place between people taking the form of email or some other digital medium, the expectation is that the messages should be professional and timely. I look down highly upon messages that are so obviously sent without much thought, time, or respect for the recipient(s) but instead in haste. It is all part of the job to be an effective, respectful communicator 100% of the time.

The last part of the chapter talks about setting goals and creating a mission statement to help provide some direction to the leadership of the group/department/committee. This suggestion is such obvious advice but something that I would really like to bring to my department as well as to the Tech Committee and the 1:1 Committee. Especially with the Tech Committee, I felt like we were spinning our wheels last year without a whole lot of leadership, guidance, or direction. It was difficult to feel really productive after leaving the meeting; we always would have really good discussions but it would often end at that. Establishing three SMART goals and drafting a mission statement would definitely help this group of people see the end in mind and then be able to create some action steps towards attaining the goals. We have a meeting on Tuesday so I'm excited to suggest this to see what their response is. Whenever we are talking about a topic, money is usually the driving force behind whether we do it or not. If we wouldn't focus on the obstacle but instead on the goal, we can then put together an action plan of how to make the goal attainable.



Keyboard pic: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1208426
Football goal pic: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/241906

Reflecting on Today - Day 1 of Teaching Tech Grad Class

Today was day one of two teaching a grad course for UWGB on technology integration. After 8 hours of learning new technology tools and applications, many of the individuals taking the class were completely overwhelmed. With about a half hour left in the class for the day, I could see them starting to have a complete meltdown...without saying anything, I could see it on their faces that they couldn't handle learning or thinking about technology for even one minute more. I have been there and can sympathize with feeling overwhelmed when faced with something new...kind of like how I felt at the start of CEDO510 (Computer Systems & How They Work) and CEDO540 (Decision Making Using Data Collection & Analysis). When trying to think of a lighthearted video to start tomorrow (day 2) out with, this is what I've come up with. I think many of the people in the class will be able to relate to the dad in the video but will hopefully come tomorrow with a good night's sleep and a fresh outlook and ready to learn more with an open mind.

Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy

I thought this YouTube video was applicable to the Leadership course I'm currently taking. I've used this in inservice presentations before but just remembered it and thought I'd share. During the inservice presentations on technology, I said this to my audience "Are YOU ready to be the "dancing guy" in your department or school in regards to technology integration? Come on...Let's all join in!"

CEDO 565 Week 1 Reflection

I really enjoyed the first chapter of our text, How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader, by John G. Gabriel. While reading the chapter, I tried to relate what Gabriel was saying to my school environment and culture. I found it very interested when he said, "Leadership roles should not be determined by seniority. Therefore, if standardized results are marginal or a teacher's leadership is questionable, a change is warranted. Don't be afraid to make changes; change, along with its potential for struggle and conflict, is often an essential ingredient of success." (Gabriel, pg. 4). In our school, as far as I know, the department chair is given to the person with most seniority. I agree with Gabriel's statement that it should automatically go to the person with the most seniority but instead to someone who has shown the skills and characteristics of a positive teacher leader.

As the chapter goes on to describe, there are many other leadership roles besides being an administrator or department chair that teachers can jump into. One that is of interest to me is the "Peer Coach", which is "similar to a mentor except that with this pair, both teachers - not necessarily novices - function as mentor and as protege." (Gabriel, pg. 7 ). Instead of doing a traditional student teaching placement, I opted to do an internship during my undergrad work. While I was still technically being supervised by a veteran teacher, I had my own classroom and classes 100% on my own. I didn't have the opportunity to observe my supervising teacher or have her observe me to get tips & tricks, best practices, etc because we taught classes at the same tim as each other. I feel like I missed out on some important mentorship because of this. I would love to find a partner to do some Peer Coaching this year; I have several teachers in mind who I'd like to do this with. I look forward to talking to a few to see if they want to try this out this year!

One last quote from chapter one that stuck with me is "Obstacles do not slow down a good leader; they are opportunities for him to flex his problem-solving muscles" (Gabriel, pg. 17). I love it! :)

This past year I really felt like I spread my wings and became much more active within my school system. I was an active member on many committess including the Technology Committee and the 1:1 Initiative Committee, as well as several professional development orgranization committees (WI Business Education Association District 3 Rep and Convention Planning Committee). I've always enjoyed being in leadership positions, even as far back as high school student council & class president. During my first few years of teachers I felt quite overwhelmed with all of the new things that come along with starting out in the teaching profession, and last year I finally felt confident in my performance and like I had a handle on all of the different aspects of the job that teachers juggle so decided to get actively involved with the committees mentioned above. At the end of the school year at our faculty end-of-the-year cookout, my principal thanked me for being an integral part of many technology initiatives going on in the school and system. For him to say "thank you" to me spoke volumes and boosted my confidence in being a leader in the area of technology.

My Tech Coach position also allows me to serve in a leadership role and help others learn about technology tools and resources. I LOVE this part of my job and hope someday that it turns into a larger % of my contract. I really enjoy helping the teachers learn something new and see the enthusiasm they have after learning about a new tool that they can use in their classroom or have their students use. To see them re-energized gives me a boost of energy and excitement as well. I often lack that excitement from my high school students when I teach them about Gross Domestic Product so to get that feedback from my teacher students makes me smile! :)

Picture source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/904406

CEDO 555 Reflection #3

After meeting with Kris via Skype for our one-on-one chats, I felt much better about my Culminating Experience Proposal project idea. I was really struggling with what to do it on, but then it was like a lightbulb went on and I knew exactly where I wanted to go with the project. I've decided to really focus my project on sharing my instructional technology knowledge with parents, students, and staff. I am going to posting weekly to my blog about a new technology application that teachers can use in the classroom as well as hosting a parent/student technology night once a term. I'm excited about both parts of this project and look forward researching it and implementing the plan.

Working on the portfolio has also been going much better than I thought it was going to. I do still wish this project would have been explained at the beginning of the program so we could at least keep up with the course reflections as well as thinking about which artifacts to be included for each course in the portfolio. It has been challenging to think back to some of the courses that were taking over a year ago and remember all of the projects to choose from.

I'm excited to use my MEIT portfolio as a model for my PI34 portfolio. Using Google Sites has been much easier than I thought it was going to be as this is the first time I'm actually building a site with this application myself. I'm also excited about sharing my experience and my portfolio with my administration so they can see how I've used these web tools to build my portfolio. We (the system I work for) are looking to have students complete eportfolios but we haven't been really sure what form we want these eportfolios to take. Last year we adopted Google Apps for Edu so using the Google Tools like Docs & Sites would be perfect, especially at the middle and high school level.

CEDO 555 Reflection #2

The question for reflection this week is "What big picture issues related to ePortfolios are you still missing?" While thinking about it, I'm having a difficult time coming up with anything that I'm struggling with or have questions about. I guess that's a good thing, right? The main struggle/frustration right now is having to think back to each class and come up with a reflection as well as figure out what assignment(s) to put down for the artifact. I would have really appreciated a general overview of this portfolio experience during the first day of the first class (or maybe that orientation class we did before we actually started with our first class) so we would have a general idea of what was going to be asked of us at the end. It would have been WAY eaiser to do a course reflection & select an artifact upon completing each class rather than try to sort through everything and come up with a reflection months to a year later. I don't think the quality of these reflections are as great as they would have been if I would have completed them immediately upon completion. Anyone else feel the same way?

I am also feeling so lost in the "Culminating Experience Proposal" assignment. I think and reflect on it every day and I'm still not really sure what to do....mostly because I don't truly understand what is expected of this project. I feel like I'm going at this one blind, and it is such an important assignment so that is adding more stress on top of an already anxious feeling. If anyone would like to bounce ideas around, I'd be very open to that! Sometimes that best ideas come out of a bit of collaboration. Let me know!

CEDO 555 Reflection #1

How have you or your schools utilized ePortfolios? I haven't utilized an eportfolio yet but am excited to create my online portfolio using Google Sites. I've started working with Google Sites to lay out the outline and rough draft of my eportfolio. This is the first time that I'm actually creating a site in Google Sites. At first I was really nervous about the tool; I was having a difficult time finding my way around. After making a few errors and figuring out how to undo them, I think I now have a good handle on the basics of Google Sites. I plan to watch some tutorials online to learn about some of the intermediate/advanced features of Google Sites that I might be able to use for my eportfolio as well. My school system is currently researching student eportfolios so this course comes at the perfect time. I'll be able to share my firsthand experience with creating an eportfolio with the Technology Committee and provide guidance with this new endeavor that we are trying to implement K-12. The portfolios would be for students to demonstrate their mastery and experience with ISTE's NETS for Students. This is a huge shift for our system from assessing very specific technology objectives (like "copy" and "paste") to 21st Century skills that the NETS identify.

Reflect on the applications shared and whether they are applicable to your situation.
So far, I like how Google Sites is taking shape for my eportfolio. A few other applications that I could see fit well with eportfolios include blogs and wikis. There are so many different gadgets that can be added to a blog to make it more functional that just basic posts. Also, a wiki could be created to act like an "online binder" with various categories that would house artifacts, etc. I have the most experience working with wikis as I use them for each of the classes that I teach as well as any professional development sessions/workshops that I put on but I'm excited about having this course opportunity to "force" me to use Google Sites so I have experience with this tool.