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My game plan has been coming along but not as quickly as I would have liked. I have been able to find lessons that I teach that would work nicely with technology. The only issue that I have is that a lot of sites that I would like to use with my students are blocked. I am tired of using Power Point and Word as my technology pieces but that seems to be the only type of technology that my school district is allowing for me to use. With creating tutorials for parents on my website I must admit that I have been slacking on that part of the game plan. It is not that I do not have the resources to complete this part of my plan because I could always get onto the sites at home and create them there to publish on my webpage, but the fact that I can never find time. This is something that I am going to have to make time for and figure out a way to make it work.
When looking over my game plan I think I might modify sending out progress reports to parents. I would like to modify this by sending home monthly progress reports instead of quarterly reports. It seems that even though I send home Friday folders with students graded work in them parents still like that communication with teachers. So at the end of each month I will send home a report that gives the students behavior, current grade, upcoming assignments, and events. This way parents will feel up to date. I could always get these out during my planning time and for those students who do not have internet access I could send home a hard copy for their parents to sign and return.
The one thing that I have learned so far is that you may start out with an amazing plan, but something will always have to be changed or modified. This goes along with teaching as well. No matter how great a lesson can be for one group it will more than likely need to be changed for the following group of students. Same with my game plan. Depending on how knowledgeabe my students are about technology next year will determine how quickly I can get into lessons with technology in them. If the students are unfamiliar with technology then I will need to take some time to teach them the basics before getting started. I also learned that your colleagues are a great resource. I have spoken with many of my colleagues who are having the same struggles as me. It is nice to know that I am not the only one out there who is frustrated with not being able to get on certain educational sites. Hopefully we can ban together to get something done about it.
Does anyone else have similar struggles as I do with sites being blocked? If so how did you manage to incorporate technology into your lessons? Are there other technology devices that I may still use without the internet that I am unfamiliar with? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
In my district, when sites are blocked, there is a password we are able to use to bypass so we are able to get on the site. Is that at all a possibility for you?
ReplyDeleteSending home monthly progress reports is such a good idea. I have started sending them home every 2 weeks only because this group I have seem to always forget to turn in homework! So it is nice for them to get reminded of missing and late assignments.
Do you have a Promethean or Smart Board in your classroom? Another type of technology the Special Education teacher uses in my school is iPods. He uses these for fluency and other learning games he has downloaded applications for. VoiceThreads are also another fun way for students to share learning, but this does require access to the internet. I hope this helps in some way.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI agree with it being tough to find the time, and I mentioned that on both my blog and someone elses who feels that way. I have been thinking about how we can find more time to work on these projects. What I am suggesting to my administration is that we perhaps use professional development time to work collaboratively with colleagues who teach similar classes to create these activities and lessons. It seems like often times, professional development hours are all about information, and not about application. Maybe that is how we can find the time to create these lessons.
Thanks for all your input. Unfortunately we have no technology in our school! I have a overhead projector and that is the extent to my technology! And as far as passwords to unlock sites our principal is the only one who can unlock it and she is very strict on what she will unlock. Another teacher asked to have his University unlocked because he needed to look up something for his masters class and she said no. My school uses its professional development days to look at student data. We look at student data until we turn blue.
ReplyDeleteIt is a travesty when principals are closed minded to progress. If you were asking for questionable sites, I could see her having a problem with it. Let's face it; some people have no common sense! In our system, we have a technology department at the board of education. If we want a site accessible and it is blocked by our filtering system, they review it and if it is deemed educational (which it always is since we only ask permissions for those types of sites) it is unblocked, period.
ReplyDeleteI have gotten into the habit of sending progress reports more consistently as well. It is a double edged sword; one to keep the parents informed and two to protect my own butt. I know we have all had the parent who says, "I had no idea my child was failing." With the advancements in technology in our system, parents have no excuse anymore. We have Powerschool which allows them to sign on and check their child's progress at any time. Teachers additionally have the ability of printing out a progress report in a few short mouse clicks. Information is always readily available.
In reference to pouring over student data during professional development time and lack of time, I feel your pain! There are just some aspects of the educational field that are constant challenges.
Having an unsupportive, stagnant administration can turn even the greatest classroom teaching job into a nightmare. I have had a similar experience in the past. Is your school's lack of technology a trend across your district or is your school an anomaly? Same question for your district's administration: Is just your building's administration this unsupportive or is that typical within your district? Depending upon the answer to these questions, do you have the opportunity to transfer to a more encouraging and progressive school?
ReplyDeleteI have also had similar experiences with educational websites being blocked. In order to get access to them I went directly (in person) to the instructional technology specialist at my school. I did not have to speak to my administrator. Sure, I had to "brown-nose" a little to get speedy access to the sites I needed, but I believe that it was for the good of my students.