Course Reflections: Instructional Leadership EDLD 5352

What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned?

At first, I thought this class would be more related to instructional administration. Even with the title Instructional Leadership, I thought of being the instructional leader, more along the lines of what we learned in Curriculum Management. I was not sure how relevant the course would be to my current position as a special education program coordinator, but it did prove to be relevant, valuable information. I learned about the STaR chart in depth, something I did not have more than surface knowledge of in the past. I also learned more about how technology is planned and developed than I ever knew before. I found it interesting to read the Texas Long Range Plan and the district technology plan. I had no idea the great amount of money dedicated to keeping us in technology. The course was not exactly what I expected it to be, and I feel it was valuable information that I will need to know as a building level or district administrator.

To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not?

The main outcome of the course for me is that I have a much deeper knowledge of technology than I ever had as a teacher or coordinator. The articles, while numerous and time-consuming, contained important information. I found most of them very interesting. It is very fitting for me to understand technology at a deeper level because in my work at the school, I need to be able to support teachers in their implementation of technology and provide them chances to learn about how to integrate technology into their content area lessons to maximize instruction. I work a lot with special education, and there are many times when technology makes the difference for the student to communicate with others, to be able to access a text or trade book, or write a story. I need to understand how the technology works and how we go about choosing appropriate technology to use with our students so that I can help teachers make strong recommendations to help kids learn.

What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them?

This is not really a course outcome, but I have not completed the technology proficiency tests for my district. Ironically, I was made aware of the requirement while interviewing the Director of Educational Technology for this course. I knew teachers had to take the test, but did not realize the requirement extended to all certified staff in my district. I have made arrangements to start taking the assessments. As far as course expectations, I am sure I completely understood the action plan. I completed the assignment, but was confused about exactly the way the it should look and what should be included. I read the week 4 overview, completed the interviews, read the articles, and watched the videos, but still it was not clear.

Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments? If not, what prevented or discouraged you?

I completed all course assignments. I was discouraged when weeks 1 and 2 were not graded and posted for quite a while. It was mid-course, and it was time to submit week 3, but there was no feedback from 1 and 2, so I was uneasy. I had a difficult time with the action plan because while I knew what my plan was, I was not sure I was writing the assignment the way the instructors wanted it to be. I worked through it, and did my best. I think it might have helped to have a table to fill in for part of it or some type of structure to guide our responses. It was helpful to me when the coach sent the weekly overview earlier in the week. I had become a little frustrated by finding out new information after I had already done parts of the assignment in previous weeks. I think many of us have to complete our work on a schedule of sorts because of our jobs and other commitments, so we like being able to know that the overiew is not going to change mid week.

What did you learn from this course…about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes?

I learned about the Texas technology plan, the district technology plan, and especially the STaR Chart. I also learned that the Campus Improvement Plan is not particularly aligned with the District Improvement Plan when it comes to educational technology. Looking at the two documents side by side with the STaR chart nearby allowed me to see that the Campus Improvement Plan needs to be updated to include the needs from the STaR Chart. I also learned how my school and district organize teacher staff development in the area of technology. My campus does not offer many trainings that are campus based for some reason. I plan to work on this so that training can reflect teacher needs. I learned that I have some underlying beliefs and attitudes about technology. I am not sure I was seeing the value of kids having cell phones and IPods with internet in our classrooms. I can honestly say, I am feeling a little more open to the idea now than I was before.

What is the educational value of blogs and blogging to the 21st century learner?

Last summer during our June Leadership, we were required to create a blog. I did that, but had not thought about it much since then. When we created one for this course, I learned a lot about posting different kinds of documents and realized how easy it was to use them. I can really see how using a blog in the classroom or for home assignments would work well. I can see how information can be shared among teachers, students, and parents. I would like to work on my work blog so that I can post important information related to the district and school so that teachers can learn new information and make comments. Kids love to be on the computer and they love to give their opinions, so using a blog would be something valuable that they might even enjoy. It reminds me of those old commercials talking about food that kids like that is good for them, but the adults don’t tell them it’s good for them, so they will still eat it.

What are the concerns of blogs and blogging in education?

I think with blogs and blogging the concern is that in education there has to be a gatekeeper so that entries can be filtered. I think adults and kids should be able to say what they think, as long as their responses are appropriate as far as language and sometimes content. Like anything else we have students do, we have to set expectations, teach and model appropriate responses. I would recommend sharing some of the articles with teachers, so that the staff can have powerful discussions about acceptable use policy, using tehnology devices in the classroom, and other relevant issues affecting schools in the digital age.

How can you use blogging to communicate with school stakeholders?

I think creating a campus and district blog would be a great idea. Schools can get parents, teachers,and students to read information and provide their own input. This is a great way to survey the stakeholders informally without having a meeting. Nowadays, with most children living in homes where both parents work, it is more difficult to get parents into the school to attend meetings. I think using technology is a great way to make sure everyone is included in the process. There can be face to face meetings and blogs so that the digital immigrants can feel comfortable, too.
I am thinking of using the blog to pass along important information related to dyslexia and Section 504 via the blog. That way, teachers and administrators can access the training information 24/7, and they can add their own input.