Winding Down

When this course began I was really excited to learn more about what technology could do to help me in education. I had a notion that I knew what the class was going to be about. I was also excited to see that there were no test. I was concerned that the class ran through Thanksgiving. This is a time where I actually get to spend with my family. Little to my knowledge we had a super assignment that would take two weeks to complete and time with the family was lost. I really wanted to get deep into this class but I had trouble connecting with the material. We spent many days listening and reading about what we need to do to educate the 21st century learner. I agree that education is changing and we need to change with it. My personal problem is that we never talked about how this was going to be paid for. We can have great ideas on paper or in a blog but in the end somebody has to pay for it. I do feel that you are able to educate better when technology is available to you in your school. This class also opened my eyes to notice more technology that was being used at other districts. I went to a private school and looked at their GIS training materials. I also recently interviewed for a job where the teachers provided the students with podcast in case they missed something in class. I did feel that this class was a bit more of a grind than previous classes. I think this was because of the amount of reading and discussions that we were required to do. I did get much information from many of my classmates. It was just a little time consuming. I also had never blogged before in my life. Truth be told I don't think that I ever would. I always viewed blogs as an outlet for people who didn't have anybody to talk to. I have learned that blogs can be used for a variety of things. I felt that the assignment were easy and did not take to much to do. I did have a little problem getting some of my stuff added to my blog page but the instructor helped me out on that. I feel that blogs if put in the right setting would be beneficial to the 21st century learner. Students like things that they know how to use. I would have a problem doing this at my school with all of our students because most of them come from poor families and the only time that they use a computer is at school . I am still a little hesitant about having my students blog about their work. I would need to look further into the policies that the district has set up before I took that extra step. I will however probably create a blog for my powerlifting team. We will add pictures and video from our meets and I will write about how they are doing and our personal success. I have already recruited a girl to video the meets and to take pictures for us. This course did teach me a lot about myself as well. I learned that I am able to do and apply some of the most modern technology to my classroom to educate the 21st century learner. I also feel that I was more prepared to educate students with a background in technology than I had thought. Overall what I gathered about this course is that technology will continue to be a driving force in our world. We as educators must do what we can to make sure that they are successful in that world. We must change our habits and grow with the children and yes we will have to take a couple chances as well.

Understanding The Texas S Ta R Chart

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Understanding The Texas S Ta R Chart

View more presentations from guest261807.

Texas Star Chart

The Teas STaR Chart was created to help schools evaluate technology in schools. With schools moving to education 2020, there has to be a move within the school districts to improve technology. The area hat I would like to focus on is Infrastructure for Technology. In Mabank since 2006 this has been our biggest area of improvement. We went from an 11 of a possible 24 points to 18 of 24 in three short years. In our school we have many computers that are accessible by the students. We promote a 4:1 ratio of computers to students. This has been improved by the creation of a new computer lab and the addition of computers in classrooms. Another strong point about our school is that we have computer access in every room that school is taught. This is an advantage to the teachers as well as the students. Also in each classroom we have a drop down projector that is linked to the computer so that you may show slide shows, videos, or anything else that might aid in the educational process. At Mabank we have a technology supervisor at each campus. At the high school she is always available to help out and usually gets things fixed the same day as request. I feel that we have made great strides in technology at Mabank. But I also feel that technology is something that you cannot rest on. It is ever changing and new ideas are put out every day. It is easy to move from an advanced school to a developing school within the year.

TEKS K-2

After looking at the TEKS for students in the Kindergarten it is apparent that things are changing in education on all levels. Students are required to do things in kindergarten that I did in the 8th grade. We are preparing our students ever earlier to be dependent upon technology for education. This I believe is an effort to create learners that will continue to learn after high school. Also this will eventually help our economy since we have moved to a global market with most transactions taking place through the internet.

Long range plan breakdown

After breaking down the long range plan. It is eveident that we as teachers need to prepare ourselves for the 21st Century learner. We need to plan to educate ourselves in the areas of Education 2020. We need to understand that the days of teaching all kids the same out of textbook are over. We need to make our information more accessable to the students so that they can continue thier education passed the walls of a high school.

Week 1 Assignment

This is my first time to ever create a blog. I have always that blogs were for people who either didn't have anybody to share their ideas with or could tell them to a real person. I have learned through this activity that it is a great way to get the news out. In the first technology survey that we took, I did very well I knew what many of the features that were mentioned were and how to use them. At our school we are often required to make power point presentations to teach lessons. We are also give a number of multimedia tools to help students learn the presented material. I am also a coach and we are constantly required to make spreadsheets to keep up with player stats, make workouts, and help student athletes with recruiting. In the SETDA Teacher Survey, I learned that we are doing a good job of trying to create the 21st century learner. We could always do better but where we are is a great starting point. As far as the assignment I feel that this was a good way to see if we could follow instructions. It was not as complicated as I first thought that it would be.