EDLD 5352 - Final Reflection

Technology Skills and Knowledge

     I am glad for the existence of EDLD 5352, as it provided an arena for us to learn about and experiment with cutting edge technologies that are being touted as the next big thing by educational technologists, experts in learning differences and accessibility, and teachers of gifted students among others. Technology has not been one of my weaknesses as an educator in quite a few years.  Still, this course provided the opportunity to explore powerful tools like Live Binder and Google Drive in the contexts of student teamwork, leadership, and professional development.  Each of these tools, for example, can provide an archive for active collaboration or the publication of an individual’s work to a wider audience. As a result of this course, I feel recharged to enter the next school year using technology tools to the utmost in order to help myself and my colleagues work smarter instead of harder.

     One of the more interesting lessons I learned regarding technology and how it can facilitate collaboration was more of an offshoot of the lessons rather than a direct objective.  In working with my colleagues on the group projects, we learned to leverage Facebook messaging and email to build and sustain a team that was able to meet our deadlines and accomplish tasks despite occasionally being a little unsure of exactly what the expectations for those tasks were. In the midst of this work, I realized how easy it would be to put together a group on Facebook, develop a hashtag for a group's work on Twitter, or (if you were working with a small enough group) appointments on Adobe Connect in order to reach out to and work with colleagues regardless of distance of circumstance.

Campus-Supervised Internship Activities

     At this juncture in the program, I feel confident that I can accomplish all of the remaining goals built into my Internship plan.  During the 2012-2013 school year, I logged enough hours in a handful of competencies to satisfy the requirements completely if they were spread out across the board.  Now I just have to make sure that each competency and skill is covered  in order to meet the requirements for the Internship.

     Over the summer, I have logged more hours in activities that I already covered during the last school year like writing curriculum and facilitating staff development.  A couple of changes have occurred this summer, however, that have led to opportunities to fulfill other areas in my plan and that will continue to lead to more opportunities this school year.  I was promoted by my principal to the position of Reading department chair. This promotion resulted in my participation in interviews for faculty positions for the coming school year.  From sifting through resumes, calling possible candidates, interviewing them with the help of the English department head and our Curriculum Coordinator, and providing feedback to our principal, I was completely invested in the process.  This experience provided n excellent opportunity to complete my activity for Domain II, Competency 06, Leadership Skill #27 – Personnel Procedures.

Additionally, during the next school year, my new position will allow me to conduct classroom observations (Domain II, Competency 04, Leadership Skill #18 – Supervision of Instruction/Instructional Strategy) and to present professional development material in the form of refereed journal articles to my peers during department meetings (Domain II, Competency 05, Leadership Skill #21 –Learning/Motivation Theory).

Action Research Project

     My Action Research is essentially complete.  At this point, I am still collating data from the various sources I used to monitor student progress and to understand where to what extent my students were improving under our program.

     It is very difficult, obviously, to diagnose a situation when one is struggling with a dearth of data, but I am learning that it is likewise difficult to draw clear conclusions amidst a preponderance of data, especially when some of the data conflicts or does not accurately demonstrate the reality it purports to describe.  Still, based upon the state assessment scores alone, I have documented evidence of student improvement among an overwhelming majority of my students.  On looking further into the data, it is clear that all of my students increased their ability to comprehend fiction in the course of the year, but many of them did not move forward as rapidly as I had hoped they would, and we will revisit the structure of my courses as a result of these data.

     In short, the portions of my report on this Action Research Project drafted earlier this summer are ripe for the ending.  I must use this last week of downtime as the summer wanes and try very hard to establish the data and draw my conclusions so that the report can be completed and filed for the end of the program.  I am in a very good place with my project having completed the work with the students and moving on to implement changes based on what I learned.  This is all the more reason to make the time in the coming days to articulate what I have learned  so that I move forward in the right direction.