RobbieMcKenzie

Robbie McKenzie AEET 650 - Fall 2011 Reflections Time Sheets | Annotated Bibliography | Midterm | Final Report | Extra Duties | Tutorials

Final Reflection For my internship, I wanted to provide instruction for the educators at Silver Bluff High School in an area that would benefit them for the 2011-2012 school year. The teachers at Silver Bluff had varied levels of technology skills, so instruction was varied from screencast tutorials, written text instruction, as well as individual one on one instruction. This has been a very entertaining and eventful semester. It has given me the opportunity to learn a lot about the skills and abilities of the teachers at my school. I have enjoyed my internship tremendously, although at times it has been very frustrating. I have found through this experience that teachers are difficult to help at times. I also found that implementing new technology to teachers that have set routines can be time consuming, and their motivation for learning new things is relatively low. The overall idea and focus for this internship was due to the fact that the Aiken County School District was implementing two new programs to help teachers use technology effectively in their classroom. TesTrakker 2.0 is a software program that enables teachers to post lesson plans and apply those plans to the appropriate standards for each class. School Fusion is an interactive website development program for individual teacher classroom websites. Very few of the teachers in my school new anything about either of these programs. Through this internship I developed beginner tutorials, as well as handouts to assist teachers with these software programs at Silver Bluff High School in Aiken County. I also used one on one direct assistance for any faculty member at Silver Bluff High School who requested help. As teachers used the tutorials to develop their classroom websites and TesTrakker 2.0 page, I monitored and assisted with any issues the faculty may have encounter. Most of my time during the final third of the semester was used to help teachers make corrections by given helpful advice to specific concerns. To reflect on the work and efforts that went into this semester I am going to use my contract as a guide for the objectives that were met, not met at all, not met completely, changes that should have been made, and areas that worked well. //Learning Goals and Objectives// - Attend training sessions for both TesTrakker 2.0 and School Fusion provided by the school district - Coordination of new technology into an existing program - Designing and managing effective screen-cast tutorials - Implement text based directions into logical steps - Learn evaluation techniques for teacher pages for improvement
 * Due to budget cuts and changes at the district level I never attended any formal training for either TesTrakker or School Fusion, because they were cancelled. Most of what I learned from either program I gained from my own experiences from using them, or was informed by my school coordinator.
 * My coordination of new technology was limited throughout the semester. I completed all of my tasks, but getting the entire faculty to use the tutorials and view the handouts was nearly impossible. When I needed something implemented I had to first present it to my school coordinator, and she would choose who and to what extent it would be implemented.
 * This was one of my most effective areas during the internship. The tutorials that I created were helpful for the teachers that used them. They are also tutorials that can be used again for all future new teachers, as well as existing teachers that are in need of a refresher to both programs.
 * For both TesTrakker and School Fusion I created handouts for teachers to use to guide them through all of the initial functions of each program. During the implementation of each program there were very few teachers that used these handouts. For future instruction I will implement these handouts before using the video tutorials. These handouts are easy to use and provide meaningful information, by providing pictures along with captions for each beginner step.
 * This was an area I would have loved to get into more during the semester. TesTrakker took precedence over School Fusion, due to administration requests. Total teacher implementation of School Fusion won’t be required until January. About 1/3 of the teachers at Silver Bluff have created some form of a classroom website, some of the teachers I have helped a lot, others very little. This will be an area that I will continue to investigate during next semester, as all teachers will have websites up and running.

//Responsibilities and Tasks// To achieve my learning goals and objectives I will: - Work with my technology coordinator to ensure that teachers are getting the help they need to integrate TesTrakker 2.0 and School Fusion into their teaching - Individually work with each teacher to ensure they are correctly aligning course standards with their course, uploading lesson plans and files, and updating settings within TesTrakker 2.0 - Evaluate teacher websites to ensure teachers can update settings and web information, attach files and pictures, and are attempting to learn advanced website design options - Provide surveys for each of the screen-cast videos and text directions to evaluate what is helpful or what needs modification within the tutorials
 * Most of my time, because of the changes with the School Fusion timeline of implementation, lead to helping teachers implement TesTrakker first. Teachers that chose to also set up their School Fusion account and website also required assistance from time to time. I sent a mass email at the beginning of the semester to explain what I was doing and how teachers could get help. My school coordinator would also direct teacher’s individual questions to me for help as well. These methods seemed to be very effective, as large amounts of my time was spent answering individual questions.
 * Most of the teachers through using the tutorials had little trouble aligning the correct standards. Throughout the semester I had to individually assist seven teachers with these types of TesTrakker tasks.
 * Most of the teachers that decided to setup School Fusion, decided to do it on a voluntary basis. Implementation of both TesTrakker and School Fusion had confusing dates of implementation, because they continued to change throughout the beginning of the semester. My administration decided to allow teachers to start teacher pages, but wait for a mandatory implementation until January. I will continue my internship assignments into January to not only assist teachers with School Fusion account setup, but also evaluate pages after they are created.
 * One of the most helpful areas for the success of my internship was the development and implementation of the surveys. These surveys were instrumental for finding out what teachers needed, and how my instruction could be improved in the future. Overall I had mixed results. Many teachers were comfortable with what was being presented, but others were still struggling after receiving help.

//Deliverables// What I will generate to demonstrate achievement of the learning objectives? - Screen-cast tutorials for TesTrakker 2.0 and School Fusion - Text based directions for teachers to follow during setup - Teacher survey information from tutorials - 3-10 page paper that reflects on internship experience

All of these deliverables were created and given to my supervising teacher, other than the final reflection of the internship. I created more tutorials than I originally planned for, due to the fact that teachers continued to have problems with certain tasks. I wanted to create tutorials that were pin-pointed at the areas teachers were struggling to understand.

//Schedule and Milestones// My original schedule turned into an overview of events that were reached at some point throughout the semester. Due dates, training times, and implementation dates continued to be adjusted and changed throughout the semester, which made following a specific plan very difficult. Weeks 1 – 3 - Work with teachers with general technology questions - Help teachers with PowerSchool and gradebook setup - Attend TesTrakker 2.0 and School Fusion Training - Develop TesTrakker 2.0 screen-cast and text tutorial

Weeks 1-3 were extremely eventful, trying to get everything for the upcoming semester up and running. This was also the time during my internship that I realized the importance of having a person on staff that strictly dedicates their time to technology within a school setting. For a teacher to teach an entire class load and also focus their small amount of remaining attention to all technology concerns in a school is a challenging task. My supervising teacher has this problem, and my focus during these first weeks of school was to help her reduce this load. Weeks 4 – 6 - Implementation of TesTrakker 2.0 tutorial - Teachers must have TesTrakker 2.0 page complete by September 16th - Individually guide teachers who need extra setting up TesTrakker 2.0 - Develop TesTrakker 2.0 tutorial survey - Evaluate teacher survey data regarding TesTrakker tutorial

During weeks 4-6 TesTrakker and School Fusion setup surfaced. Due dates and implementation dates continued to change throughout this time, as well as during the semester. Teachers who wanted initial help with the programs asked for assistance during these weeks.

Weeks 7 – 9

- Develop School Fusion screencast and text tutorial - Teachers must have School Fusion classroom website setup by October 12th - Individually guide teachers who need extra setting up School Fusion website - Develop School Fusion tutorial survey - Evaluate teacher survey data regarding School Fusion tutorial

School Fusion implementation for the entire faculty was put onto the back burner, and TesTrakker became the major focus during weeks 7-9. Most of my attention during this time was spent individually helping teachers that struggled using the program completely. Weeks 10 – 12 - Evaluate individual teacher TesTrakker and School Fusion pages - Assist teacher with TesTrakker and School Fusion site mistakes/problems

Weeks 10-12 were the only weeks that fit the schedule of events. During this time I evaluated survey results to obtain for future changes to handouts or tutorials.

The two new programs, School Fusion and TesTrakker are used to help teachers use technology effectively in their classroom, but also to enhance the preparation and guidance abilities for students and parents. TesTrakker 2.0 is a software program that enables teachers to post lesson plans and apply those plans to the appropriate standards for each class. School Fusion is an interactive website development program for individual teacher classroom websites. Both of these programs use technology such as calendars, blogs, and online quizzes to keep students engaged at all times. The journals articles that I found helped me look deeper into how these investigate the use of technology to enhance learning.

**September 13, 2011 - Reflection** For my internship, I wanted to provide instruction for the educators at Silver Bluff High School in an area that would benefit them for the 2011-2012 school year. The Aiken County School district is requiring all teachers to import lesson plans and correlate those plans with state standards using a software program called TesTrakker. Very few teachers know what the program is or how to use it. My school technology coach, Jennifer Warner saw this area as a major need for instruction, which made developing a proposal and final contract easy. The teachers at Silver Bluff have varied levels of technology skills, so instruction will need to be varied from screencast tutorials, written text instruction, as well as individual one on one instruction. I have an understanding of TesTrakker, but I will attend a formal training session with Jennifer Warner to gain a complete grasp of the capabilities of TesTrakker. The first several weeks of the internship have progressed slowly, due to the fact that the training session has been pushed back. After meeting with Jennifer Warner and my school principal we decided to fill the requirements of my internship with other useful tasks for our faculty, while waiting for the training. We have 10 new faculty members and there have been many questions about setting up grade books within PowerTeacher. A large amount of my time has been assisting in setting up gradebooks and answering questions related to PowerSchool. My high school principal also asked if I would do a technology presentation of something useful for the teachers during a faculty meeting on September 7, and possibly other presentations in the future. I decided to present the teachers with a how to, options, examples, and ideas of using screencast tutorials in their teaching. I titled it, “Everyone has to be absent sometimes.”

My final project/contract has been approved. My school coordinator and high school principal believe the project is huge need for our faculty, and something that will benefit all teachers. We have decided to break my internship into two significant parts, because two separate tutorials are required to assist the faculty in two different technology implementations. The outline of the first part that Jennifer Warner and I decided on is the following: I began designing the TesTrakker tutorial based on previous knowledge of the program from a brief training session last school year. There have been some changes to the program since then, so a more in-depth training will be needed to complete my understanding of the program. There has been no official date set for the training or an implementation date of the program in our school, so I am in limbo over the final presentation of my TesTrakker tutorial.My next step is to attend the final training, and meet with Jennifer Warner and my high school principal to decide on a final implementation date for TesTrakker. Until then I will continue to assist where needed with my role as PowerTeacher question taker and technology presenter at faculty meetings.
 * Assist teachers with PowerTeacher questions and gradebook setup
 * Screencast tutorial presentation
 * Attend TesTrakker training
 * Design TesTrakker tutorial
 * Implement TesTrakker tutorial
 * Assist teachers with TesTrakker questions

**September 27, 2011 - Reflection** The demands of the last two weeks have slowed down compared to the first two weeks of the internship. The project is still a huge need for our faculty and something that will benefit all teachers, but the timing of implementation has been an issue. These issues have been due to district level changes and timing concerns of implementing too much at one time for our faculty. My school principal and technology coordinator want to add tasks slowly to the teaching staff, instead of all at once. Our decision to break my internship into two significant parts is still the plan. The only change is which area will happen first. School Fusion website tutorials will now take place before TesTrakker tutorials. The original plan was the following: I continued assisting teachers with gradebook questions throughout the last 2 weeks, although gradebooks have been completely setup. Questions have been minimal and relatively quick to answer. Teachers have appreciated the input greatly. The training session for TesTrakker was cancelled, and several changes took place which has caused the timing change from TesTrakker to School Fusion. My school supervisor wants to implement TesTrakker into a small group setting first to evaluate possible problems. This small group will use my tutorials to assist during setup. Our evaluation of this group will help alleviate issues during total staff implementation. Due to the problems with TesTrakker implementation, my high school principal decided to implement School Fusion teacher webpages first. The district updates were finalized on Friday, September 23 so teacher website construction can begin. The outline of current and future tasks has now changed to the following. I am really looking forward to discovering the usefulness of my tutorials. I hope my teachers find them helpful. The next reflection will explain some of the results.
 * Assist teachers with PowerTeacher questions and gradebook setup
 * Screencast tutorial presentation
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Attend TesTrakker training
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Design TesTrakker tutorial
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Implement TesTrakker tutorial
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Assist teachers with TesTrakker questions
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Assist teachers with PowerTeacher questions and gradebook setup
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Design School Fusion tutorials
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Implement School Fusion tutorials
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Assist teachers with School Fusion questions
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Design TesTrakker tutorials
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Work in small group concerning TesTrakker

**October 25, 2011 - Reflection** This stage of the internship has been enjoyable. The work from the first four weeks has been put to use over the last 2 to 3 weeks. The last two weeks have been productive, as well as entertaining. I have been able to watch the teachers in my school integrate both School Fusion and TesTrakker into their daily lives. Many teachers have had struggles, with constant questions and assistance needed. But, most of the faculty has been successful with their implementations. They have found the programs very user-friendly, and major concerns have not been an issue.

Like usual there is the population of teachers who refuse to use the technology or complain about being forced to use it. To get these teachers to gain any interest at all you literally have to do the tasks for them. One of the teachers at my school that usually falls into this category has really taken any enjoyment to his School Fusion website. He is a veteran teacher that complains about technology. He constantly tells me, “I was taught by teachers that stood in front of the classroom and talked, and you had to write what they were saying with paper and pencil, and I learned just fine!” I have been helping this gentlemen add files, images and videos to his website for the last two weeks. He has mentioned to me that he is enjoying adding to it. I believe he has enjoyed this technology task because he has made the website fit his personality, and he enjoys making it his own.

Over the next couple of weeks I will continue to assist teachers with questions or concerns with their TesTrakker and School Fusion implementation. I will also survey the teachers to see if their understanding of the two programs has changed.

**November 8, 2011 - Reflection**

Teachers are now required to upload all lesson plans to TesTrakker and correlate those lesson plans to their specific subjects state standards. Before the full implementation of TesTrakker teachers were slowly investigating the program on their own, and with my assitance several teachers were attempting to upload lesson plans. The faculty at Silver Bluff has been overwhelmed and annoyed by the implementation of TesTrakker. From my experience the program is not the most user-friendly, and it requires important steps to ensure that the lesson plans have been submitted properly. I have dealt with teacher frustrations and refusals for nearly two weeks. Lesson plans were submitted by teachers, but because important steps were missed their plans are missing somewhere in cyper-space. Our administration sent an email the beginning of last week that showed every teachers name and how many lesson plans they had submitted using the program. Many teachers had zeros beside their names. Before school started that morning I had several teachers requesting assistance and answers because they were certain their plans had been submitted properly.

I decide to make another TesTrakker tutorial addressing the common problems teachers were having with the program. Many of the teachers were either not dating the lesson plan, not titling the plan, or not uploading the lesson plan template properly to their TesTrakker calander. I wanted to make this tutorial to not only elleviate the massive amount of questions I have been bombarded with the last 2 weeks, but also to help reduce the workload my technology coach has to endure. Since both TesTrakker and School Fusion have been fully implemented, trainings, questions, and constant help has been a huge part of her day. I feel like she has been overwhelmed with this increased workload. I have stepped in over the last two weeks to take on questions, and have taken the initiative to assist the teachers that require overwhelming amounts of help.

Because TesTrakker has been the latest implementation for our faculty, School Fusion has been put on the back burner for many of our teachers. Questions for School Fusion have been very minimal. In my opinion School Fusion is more user-friendly than TesTrakker, and teachers can figure out many of the tasks alone. Implementation with School Fusion has been far easier compared to TesTrakker.

**November 22, 2011 - Reflection** The last two weeks have been very similar to the previous two weeks. TesTrakker is fully up and running. Teacher demands have been steady, but have definitely decreased. Many teachers are starting to understand the procedures of running the program, and have gotten through many of the headaches of missing a step when submitting lesson plans and the lesson plans being lost in cyberspace. During one of the 1st all faculty lesson plan submission weeks a mass email was sent to the faculty. The email contained the names of teachers who had submitted lesson plans and those who had not submitted plans using TesTrakker. My name was one of the teachers who had not submitted, not because I didn’t, but because I dated the plan incorrectly. One of the more challenging to work with faculty members was quick to voice his opinions about the program by saying, “If the tech guy can’t do it, then how can I do this.” This was a great teaching opportunity for me to express the importance of following each step perfectly, and checking to make sure information is titled, dated, and saved before you are certain you have finished.

The other areas of concern the last two weeks was re-surveying teachers about School Fusion, and performing an initial survey for TesTrakker knowledge. I have enjoyed evaluating the information to find areas of the tutorials that were effective, but also areas of concern. The data has shown teachers have nearly mastered all beginner level tasks. The teachers who are still struggling to master those tasks; I am spending a majority of my teacher question time with these special teachers.

Over the last couple of weeks of the internship I really want to dedicate my focus to compiling a user-friendly system of tutorials and handouts to help new faculty and all first year teachers with how to properly get started with, as well as use both TesTrakker and School Fusion. The tutorials and handouts should be used as a reference tool by all teachers, but new teachers would greatly benefit in the future. It could reduce the amount of time another teacher would have to dedicate to help just one or two teachers.