AnneSingletary

Proposal

Contract

Time Sheets

Annotated Bibliography

Final Reflection

Final Presentation


 * My Reflections:**


 * November 22 Reflection**

I spent a week implementing School Fusion with ALL fourth and fifth grade students at Aiken Elementary. They all learned how to log in, change their code name and send a message. I walked them through this step by step on the SMART board before allowing them to go to the computers. Of course they did not get in the computer lab and things were smooth sailing…….things happened. I had firewall issues with the district. What a mess. I found out how to get around all of the pop-ups. The computers wanted to run Active X plug in. You have to run the computers without it if you do not want a lot of pop ups in our district. Some computers would not default to the Aiken County Public Schools Site. The students did not know how to type in the search box “Aiken County Public Schools.” I was often one person in a room of 28 students trying to put many fires out. I quickly found out that we think that students are technology savvy. Not necessarily in the way we think. This age of student is easily frustrated and do not know how to solve computer problems on their own. For example the search box for those computers that did not default. The students honestly did not know what to do to solve the problem.

Once students logged in to School Fusion, things went relatively smoother. There were a few caps lock issues, but other than that things went well. Many of them enjoyed making up a code name for themselves and spent a lot of time doing so. Many of them messaged teachers. I did spend time discussing message etiquette. I wrote several examples of messages that were acceptable and unacceptable. I explained that good grammar and capital letters should not go away since we were on the computer. I explained that this was not a telephone and texting language was not something we do on blogs or e-mails. The students loved the fact that they can comment on blogs and e-mail teachers.

Several teachers have commented to me that they have received messages from students about misunderstandings of content in class. The teacher would have never known if the student had not written them a message. I had another teacher tell me that a light bulb went on about how the web site was an extension of her classroom once she saw the students interact with it. I personally have received several meaningful messages from students. One student has a hard time talking to teachers day to day. He messaged me that he played guitar. I wrote him back to look up some Beatles tabs for the guitar. That opened a door for us to communicate and we have spoken several time about that. I had another student ask for help to find “her singing voice.” I would have never known she was concerned if she had not messaged me.

All in all this was a successful implementation with the fourth and fifth grade students. I did learn these points as I went along training them.

** #1 - Before introducing a new tool, play around with it enough to figure out where you think your students will struggle the most. ** This will help you step in at the right moment and predict problems your students may have. ** #2: Don’t try to teach too much at one time. ** For instance, the first time you use a tool or a website, choose one or two learning goals (i.e. logging in or uploading a photo). If you ensure mastery of the little things by every student before you move on you will save yourself a huge headache. ** #3: Let students who master the goals quickly help others ** or allow them to explore the tool/site more deeply. ** #4: Use your students as a resource. ** If you have a particularly bright or tech savvy student train them in a task to teach others. Got a student who is ‘done?’ Anoint him or her as another teacher who can help students who need help or who can sit at the classroom computer to guide students through the activity or lesson. I still have work to do I realize and this will go far past the basic training of students. The real challenge will be keeping the interaction with student and teacher going. Teachers cannot allow their page to lapse or become stagnant for long. They will have to keep current information and blogging opportunities fresh. This will be the test of how successful the web site truly is in the long run.

Testrakker Training

The training for Testtrakker was postponed due to overbooking activities at my school. I did not get to train the faculty. It has been delayed until after Thanksgiving. That is frustrating. I do not have control over those types of things and have to roll with the flow, as what else can I do? I do have my materials ready and I have learned my audience from prior trainings. It is almost approachable from what I have learned form the students. The current plan is to give a very brief training on the Wednesday after we return from Thanksgiving Break, November 30. I will then go into more detail on the early release day in December.


 * November 8 Reflection**

Full school implementation is much more involved than I realized at the beginning of this journey. Of course circumstances are slightly different as this is not my full time job. If it were, things would be more succinct and the progress would happen more rapidly. I have done a parent training on conference day. I realize that many parents are probably not using the web site. HOWEVER, I think that I have started an ace in the hole. I have decided to take my music class time and take 4th and 5th grade students down to computer lab and have them learn how to login and navigate the web site. Each student has their own account through School Fusion. They have an account number and password. I am showing them how to login in my room on the SMARTboard. We then journey to the computer lab to proceed. I wish the computer lab had a SMARTboard projector. It does not. It would make things a lot easier at this age. I am happy to say that I have gotten all students to login successfully. Most students have also learned how to send a message to a teacher. There are many other features on the web site as well. Each student has an e-mail feature and file storage. It is going to take second training to get students fully accustomed to the web site. I also believe that teachers will become more active in updating and keeping their web site more current as students access it more and message them in blogs and an e-mail fashion.

It has been interesting to watch students in the lab. Many use the track pad on the laptops even though there is a mouse. District pop-ups (i.e. do you want this password remembered and you are leaving a secure site) come up often. These slow down the process a lot. They are quite annoying actually, as students do not want to make a mistake on them. I am giving up my music class time to do this training. I do believe that it is worth it in the long run. I am doing it with 4th and 5th graders. Developmentally, I am going to have to divide and conquer. I, of course want to say all will be trained. That is not reality. I would say down to 3rd grade showing e-mail and blogging features of School Fusion. I would not mind showing 2nd grade how to login. Realistically, I do believe that is as young as I would train.

Behavior has been deplorable in the computer lab. I have had to put my foot down. I do not have that problem in the regular classroom. Is it because it is a change? Do they think that it is a game on the computer?

Testrakker – I had not planned on doing Testrakker as part of my internship. It has crept in. My administrator has insisted on it. I have spent quite a lot of time developing tutorials for her and the faculty and staff. I am posting those artifacts below. It is rather concerning as Testrakker is akin to the elephant in the room. Everyone dreads it, hates the thought of it, and cam think of nothing positive about it. I am heading into this training adventure next week on a Wednesday. In December, on the early release date I am to train the faculty more in depth. I have learned to keep the initial training short and sweet as it occurs after school when everyone is wiped out. On the early release date, I can then go more in depth. I do feel some trepidation as I am not nearly as knowledgeable about Testrakker as I am about School Fusion

[|Teacher Tutorial for Testrakker]

[|Administration Tutorial for Testrakker]


 * October 25 Reflection**

Since mid-term a lot has occurred in my internship. I have conducted several trainings and began to implement the new School Fusion Site at my school. The first training was slightly tumultuous. My principal and I agreed that I would conduct two trainings. The first would be a short tutorial for teachers on how to activate their web site and establish a welcoming “profile.” Teachers would then adjourn to the computers and begin their experience within School Fusion. A famous quote from the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck says, “The best laid plans of mice and men go oft astray.” That quote applies to what happened. My principal cancelled the meeting for the next week, making it optional. I had a one shot training instead of two. Instead of having a short tutorial with some hands on time with the program, I decided to show all of the main features of the site in one sitting as I did not think I would get another chance. I do need to mention that this was at the end of the day, in the second portion of the meeting and everyone was tired and already overwhelmed. Not the ideal circumstance to put a positive spin on a program. I tried my very best to act positive and excited about the School Fusion program, as there are some great features within it. I did conduct a formative survey after the training to see what the attitude and responses were about the program. I did this hesitantly, but I had to get a feel of what I could do to correct the situation I was in. I received all sorts of responses from very positive to people who minced no words about they felt about it. I did have some very valuable responses such as “I am sure this is out of your control, but a training in the morning instead of the afternoon would be of more benefit.” “It was a long training and no hands on time.” These responses made me begin to brainstorm on how I could rectify the situation. I needed another training with computer time where teachers could apply skills and I could assist as needed. We had a teacher workday approaching. If only I could get some time with the teachers in the morning where they could create their own classroom pages and I could be there as “support.”

I approached my principal about having some time on the teacher workday to assist teachers. She agreed and thought it was a good idea. We planned to have grades K-2 and special ed meet from 9 to 10 and grades 3-5 and exploratory subjects meet from 10-11 in the computer lab. Of course, the server went down. The district sent a tech out and it was an AT&T problem. Long story short, the server came back up and I was able to train grades 3-5 and exploratory subjects at the said time. Grades K-2 trained also but just later that afternoon. The difference in technology ability with the faculty was VERY interesting. There were some teachers that are very technology savvy and competent. They had already started their web sites and some had completed them with the tutorial sheet that I had sent out prior. There were those that had not even activated their accounts. Some were very comfortable uploading images and creating links. There were those that had to be shown every click of the mouse. Strangely, I received more satisfaction helping those that really had deficits then those who were proficient. I felt like they “got more” from my assistance and I made a bigger difference.

Teachers present at the trainings updated their web site and posted information and material. I did feel like I was standing over them somewhat. That was uncomfortable. It makes me wonder how am I going to ensure that each teacher updates and uses their web site to its fullest? How do I reinforce that this is a tool for parent/home communication? Is this a part of my job as classroom teacher? Yes, I know that I am the web master and that I am implementing this program. But, is it my job to make sure that the web sites are being maintained properly in the months to come? If some do maintain their web sites and some do not, what should I do? I do feel that administration should have a role in reinforcing this. Parent Training occurred on Parent/Teacher conference day, October 24, 2011 from 12 until 7pm. I sent out information about the release of the new web site to the oldest child of each family. Please see the parent handout artifact on this reflection. I opened up the school computer lab and turned on several computers for parent use. Parents trickled in all day. I walked all of them through on how to find their classroom pages, access and use the calendar feature, explained the RSS feed, how to obtain a RSS reader and how to use the student’s login and password feature of the web site. Again, it was interesting about the different levels of ability in adults. You had those that were very savvy, knowing what an RSS feed was and how to use it. Most did not; this was something new that they had never heard of. Some did not know how to find the district page and had to instruct on how to use the Google search box to type in Aiken County Public Schools. Most parents were receptive and thought the web site was an improvement over the previous one made through Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. I think parents that I trained will utilize the web page as a tool and source of information.

@https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K8pv_3ZE1IC9V2AFVr1NwKCMVRy-vBpUsjzPVhZHeQI/edit?hl=en_US This the letter sent to parents about School Fusion and the training help on October 24.

The transition from the old site to the new site is complete. I will not continue to use both sites. That was a hard transition and there was a point where neither site was fully functioning. However, we are no longer in limbo and the new site has been officially launched.

(link to Mid-term report)
 * October 11 Mid-Term Report**


 * September 27 Reflection**

A lot has taken place in the past two weeks and really in the past few days. I am closer to being completely done with the navigation tabs and links with the new web site. I also have established classroom web pages for all teachers (See Classroom Pages on the side navigation bar.) I am getting slightly ahead of myself as I did conduct a needs assessment via Google docs. I kept the survey short and sweet with only five questions. I felt that anymore questions than that would be a deterrent considering how much classroom teachers already have on their plates. Please see the link below for the survey. [|https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dHMyb3FZcldIVU1xcEFncnZybTd3Nmc6MQ#gid=0] Here are the response summary from that poll:

Question #1

It seems as if the faculty feels relatively comfortable with technology IF they were being honest with themselves and me. I have a feeling that some of the classroom lessons that some may be using are rather dated as far as technology is concerned.

Technology is being used in our school to communicate. However, is it being used in the most efficient manner? School Fusion gives the option for parents and teachers to instant message the teacher (without it being seen by the public.) This would take training of the parents to do and almost a societal shift in communications as it is so common place to e-mail.
 * Question #2**

Question #3

It is good to see that blogs and wikis were a popular item. They can be very interactive and fun. I think that parent involvement could sky rocket if that is the case. I do wonder thoughif I should have included the question "Do you know how to use a blog/wiki?" Slideshows were also very popular.


 * Question #4**

This is slightly concerning as how much of this is "lip service?" Were only two people honest here? It makes me think of the old saying "You can bring a horse to water but you cannot make him drink." I am apprehensive about this, to be honest. Am I going to be able to effectively train those who do not want to be trained? And if so, how do I proceed? I do think it will be hard to manage. I know if they have not embraced technology so far, I certainly am not going to magically sell them on this idea. But, I would like them to open their minds just a little....

I did meet with one of the district technology coaches and had an extended two hour training session on School Fusion. She was most helpful and actually gave me the confidence and know how to go ahead and give the teachers their login information. A few of the teachers have jumped right in and have already started playing with their profiles and web pages. I have had to put out a few "login fires." But, that has given me really good experience in patience and trouble shooting. I have decided to host an "early bird" training this Thursday (9/29) for those who are interested. It will be interesting to see who attends......


 * September 13 Reflection**

I had two of ideas regarding my internship in EDET 650. One was creating tutorials and helping to teach a beginners SMART Board class. The other, which is what was decided one, was implementing School Fusion. School Fusion is the new web based site host for all of Aiken County Public Schools, and is compatible with Power School, another Aiken County software choice. I began redesign on the current site, which currently is designed through Dreamweaver. This was actually thrilling for me as I have never really loved the layout of the current site. It was designed by another school teacher whom I inherited webmaster job from. A lot of pages were created needlessly and remain static. A school web site in my opinion should not remain static, except for perhaps the handbook and a few other forms. It should show the growth of the school through the year and be instrumental in parent and community communication. One of the features of School Fusion that I am excited about in this manner is the RSS feed. I created navigational links for: clubs, classrooms, school information, school awards, PTA, menus, bus routes, faculty profiles, clubs and special area teachers.Please see the following links.

The first is the old web site created with Dreamweaver:

[]

The second is the new web site created through School Fusion:

[]

I am not done with the navigational redesign of the web site. The teachers today (9-13-11) just got their login information so they can set up their own page though School Fusion. This is what I have been waiting on in preparation for training. Teachers can create their own classroom page through School Fusion. Their classroom page can have blogs, podcast, slideshows, etc... along with basic information. Quite honestly, I have not been trained on all of the features that the classroom teachers can implement. I have asked for help from a school district technology employee to make sure I am competent before I go on. There was one training on School Fusion at the end of last year in May. That has been a long time ago for me to successfully implement this program for the teachers at my school. I need more.

I met with my site supervisor during this to decide on exactly what should and should not be on the school web site. She was in agreement that things should be kept simple with pages that would not remain static and pages that would not rely on other people to update constantly. We also decided that the grade chair should be the one to update the grade level announcements each month. She felt that every teacher should have a separate classroom page in addition to the grade level announcements to facilitate full parent communication through the web.

We also discussed how we would get parents more involved in utilizing the web site. We decided that once it was created, notes would be sent home, stickers would be stuck on clothes, and posters would be flown at carpool! As I look forward into this project, I realize that I am going to have to work with each teacher closely to help them as we all come from different backgrounds in technology. A needs assessment is going to have to be developed by me for all teachers. I do not want them to feel policed or dictated to. I want them to see the possibilities of this new technology tool. I am going to have to see what their needs and wants are. I will not be able to meet them all. But, I do need to get a better feel of the attitude and needs of the web site for the teachers.