Practicum Weeks 11-12

3/9-3/12

During this week, things were moving pretty quickly as COVID-19 and preparations for school closing got into full swing.  Our week began with general ideas for what we would do should school close on Monday.  By Wednesday, we were full on preparing for a shut down that was to come.  I spent a large portion of my hours helping to create a spreadsheet that our school would use to inventory student Chromebooks.  My administration granted my request to assist other teachers with breaking down their Chromebook carts, removing the charging cords and bagging them up for student to take with them.  I spent the better part of the day helping teachers with this prior to our schools closing.  I originally planned to deliver my face to face staff development during our in-service day on March 13th, but our day was committed to preparing our grade levels and subjects for the shutdown that was announced.  I am uncertain if I will ever encounter a week like that one, and the subsequent to that week again in my teaching career.

4/6-4/10

With schools being closed, I had to get creative to complete my hours.  Luckily, I am married to the person who runs the technology integration team for Dalton Public Schools.  This allowed me to easily get in some hours from the comfort of my home.  I was able to take a break from my work for my job, to work with them.  Most of the day was spent building online courses via Canvas for teachers.  Kellie (from the instructional technology team) held conferences with district math and language coaches via Zoom to share content and discuss what the coaches wanted in the district courses.  Dalton chose to build the courses for teachers to ease with the transition from in-person to online learning.  Kellie also took part in Zoom meetings with district leaders including the Director of School Support, Director of Student Services, and many other stakeholders at the district level.  Many topics were covered during the meeting including when to end the current school year, reacquiring devices from students, how digital learning was going, and contingency plans for next year should school start as digital learning.

The rest of my week was spent supporting my students through digital learning.  I collaborated with teachers who I teach with to answer student questions via Google Classroom and sometimes through a Google Meet.  Google Meets were held with our grade level teams to discuss planning for the coming digital learning weeks.  We also collaborated to identify students who were not completing online assignments and divided out the responsibility of contacting those parents.  We also held Google Meets with administration to discuss school wide expectations for digital learning and updates from the district.  Google Meets were also held with our district special education department to cover how to address students with IEP services through digital learnign. 

Practicum week 9-10

3/4-3/9

During this week, I helped teacher throughout the building with technology needs.  I assisted teachers in setting up ELMO projectors, connecting a new desktop to a SmartBoard, and doing some routine printer maintenance.  The printer maintenance was essentially replacing toner cartridges that were empty or that had gone bad.  I also had the opportunity to set up an additional monitor for our In-school-suspension teacher.  This allowed him to monitor what students were doing on their Chromebooks using the program Netops while completing work that he needed to complete.  During this period, I was also able to make basic repairs to student Chromebooks, mainly replacing missing keys.

Practicum week 7/8

2/24/20

Today I worked during my planning period helping teachers with technology needs.  One teacher was having trouble with their printer so I had to troubleshoot it.  The toner was low on one, so it had to be replaced.  I also worked to change the default printer for another teacher.  Another teacher needed work on her Chromebook cart.  The chargers on some of the ports had become lose and had to be ran again in order for students to be able to charge their Chromebooks.  Each of the Chromebooks are numbered so that students are able to identify their Chromebook.  I added numbers to the charging cords so that students can easily tell which cord corresponds with their device.

I also met with the teacher who I will be working with on the collaborative unit.  Options for what should be covered were discussed.  Chromebook care and digital footprint/citizenship were the areas that we thought students would get the most out of a lesson.  Our middle school students are rough on their Chromebooks, both on purpose and accidentally.  Therefore that would be a good topic to cover.  Most of our students are on some form of social media whether it is Snapchat, Instagram, or TikTok.  A lesson on what to post and what not to post, in terms of digital citizenship would be valuable as well.  Ultimately, it was decided that digital citizenship would be the most beneficial

2/25/20-3/2/20

This week I spent at my 3rd site location, Westside Elementary School.  I worked with the media specialist in the media center.  The media specialist were gearing up for Dr. Suess Week the following week.  Each day, a different first grade class came in during my visits.  The same plan was used for all three days.  Students came in and checked out books with the media specialist while I assisted students checking out books.  This allowed me to become familiar with Destiny, the program they use in the media center for cataloging, checking books out, inventory etc.  After the students checked out books, the media specialist would read Fox in Socks to the students.  Then I would run a Kahoot quiz on the book, helping  students get to the app on their IPads and logged into the game.  Most of the students had never used Kahoot before, so it was a blast getting to see their amazement and the fun they had.  My last day there was a Makerspace day of sorts for the first grade students.  They were able to use a variety of blocks (e.g. Lego, magnetic blocks, Kinex) to follow a pattern of what to make, or make whatever they wanted.  It was interesting to watch their problem solving ability, communication, and teamwork.

Kahoot

Kahoot on IPads

I also had the pleasure of interviewing the site supervisors for my second and third placements, Westside Elementary (Ashley Henderson) and Heritage High School (Chris Douglass).  It was interesting conducting both interviews so close together.  What stood out to me the most is how much the role of media specialist evolves from the elementary setting to the high school setting.  In elementary, they are very focused on the literacy side and spend a lot of their time supporting instruction through reading strategies, exposure to books, and getting the students interested in reading.  At the high school level, it functioned more like a quasi-college library setting.  Students come in and work independently and take care of many of their needs on their own.  Mr. Douglass at the high school spends infinitely more time on the technological aspect of the job, handling many issues and needs that arise for staff and students. 

Practicum Weeks 5&6

2/10-2/14

This week I had the opportunity to work with Chris Douglass, who is the media specialist at Heritage High School.  On the first day working with Chris, we installed a new microphone jack in the schools auditorium.  This involved removing trim from around the stage (both on the floor and on the stage) in order to hide the wires.  Holes were drilled into the trim at the top of the stage in move from the floor to the top of the stage.  We then ran the wires and connected them to an electrical box located just off the stage.

Chris and I also went out to the school's baseball field to adjust speakers, test the sounds system, and install microphones.

 We also had to assemble metal cabinets that were going to be used in the school's media center to house Chromebooks and other technology supplies.  After we completed building the four cabinets, we went to the auditorium to test wireless microphones for the upcoming talent show.

On Friday, we had an in-service day.  Administration did not have anything planned for us that day, so I took advantage and spent the day with our media specialist.  We started our day by opening and setting up a new touch screen television that the school had purchased.  We tested some of the functionality including video play and drawing.  We determined that the television needed a speaker mounted on it, as it did not have an internal speaker included on it.  The rest of my day was spent working on student Chromebooks that needed work.  Many had issues that were above my level of expertise, but many had fixes that were more easily solved.  I replaced keys, ran updates, replaced keyboards and several other easy fixes.  I saw first hand how daunting the task is for our media specialist and technology specialist to keep up with the revolving door of issues with only two of them and over 900 student devices.

2/13/20

I set up our VR lab for a 7th grade social studies teacher and facilitated the use of it through the duration of the class.  Initially, it took setting the teacher up with what she wanted for her students to see areas of Asia that they had been studying.  From there the teacher ran most of the lab with some help from me along the way.  Once the teacher caught the hang of it, she led the Google Expedition and I provided support for students who had issues with the headsets.

2/17/20

I spent the day with the Technology Integration Team with Dalton Public Schools including Nick Sun the Director of School Support and Kellie Erwin the Technology Integratiron for DPS.  Kellie and Nick discussed having a single sign on for students and the feasibility of using Clever for that.  There was an issue with Infinite Campus having student ID numbers that are too long for Clever to recognize.  Nick and Kellie also discussed budgeting for sending teachers and media specialist to conferences.  They also discussed implementing a system so that more teachers are able to attend.  A mandated reporter course was built in Canvas for teachers to complete their mandated reporter training online.  Kellie, Nick, and I looked at Everfi.  This program allows students to learn more about money management and finances, health and wellness, and social emotional skills.  We then looked at Gizmos which allows students to online lab simulations in science and math.  It was determined that we liked the program. However, the price for a subscription is rather expensive.  More research is going to be conducted to determine how many teachers use it, and if that it will be worth the cost. 

2/18/20

A teacher in my school was interested in trying Gimkit.  She had previously used Kahoot and Quizizz, but was unfamiliar with Gimkit.  She gave me the questions that she wanted as a review.  From there, I created a Gimkit and walked her through part of the process.  I spent an hour with her in her first class of the day setting it up and running it.  We used the classic version to begin with, but Gimkit has brought back humans vs. zombies game that existed before I used it.  We also did a trial run with that game mode with her class.

2/19/20

I set up our VR lab for a 7th grade social studies teacher and facilitated the use of it through the duration of the class.  Initially, it took setting the teacher up with what she wanted for her students to see areas of Asia that they had been studying.  From there the teacher ran most of the lab with some help from me along the way.  Once the teacher caught the hang of it, she led the Google Expedition and I provided support for students who had issues with the headsets.

Practicum Weeks 3&4

Weeks 3 & 4

Placement meetings 1/28/20 and 1/31/20

I started weeks 3 and 4 trying to track down a school that would have me for my practicum placements.  After a few emails and no response, I drove over to the high school where I will work and met with the media specialist.  We discussed an overview of the class requirements and they type of help I could provide.  I also had difficulty finding an elementary placement, but as luck would have it a principal that I know from a county elementary school happened to visit our school.  We discussed a placement at his school as well, and he welcomed me to come any time.  

Site supervisor interview 1/31/20

I also conducted an interview with my site supervisor.  It was an enlightening experience as I was unaware of all the things that Mrs. Chappelear did within our own building.  I enjoyed just being able to sit and chat about our roles, teaching in general, and personal stories that arose.  It made me realize how we are constantly going as educators, and have few opportunities to get to know the people with whom we do not directly work.

Site supervisor interview

Job Shadow-Instructional Technology Department-Dalton Public Schools 2/6/20

My school system was out of school due to flooding from raining, so I took the opportunity to visit my old school system to work in some additional hours toward my practicum.   Dalton Public Schools has a four person instructional technology department with two instructional technology specialist, the Technology Integration Coordinator and is headed by the Director of School Support.  They work with the tech department on technology issues and provide professional development and help to teachers in the nine schools within the district.

My day started with Kellie Erwin, the Technology Integration Coordinator, in their office.  Mrs. Erwin was designing a course in Canvas (their learning management system).  The course she was creating was to serve as an example for teachers to show what a Canvas course could like in the elementary setting.  Teachers have expressed concerns that they are unable to make Canvas courses look kid friendly.  The elementary teacher are using See-Saw rather than Canvas.

From there, I accompanied Mrs. Erwin to Dalton High School where she met with two technology coordinators to work on connectivity issues that a teacher was having creating an assignment in Canvas.  It was determined that the issue was most likely with a server that Instructure (who owns Canvas).  It was decided to open a ticket with the company.

Solving network issues

The next stop was to Roan Elementary with Nick Sun, the Director of School Support.  Mr. Sun and I set up and ran a teleconference using a program called Zoom where students were presenting to a group of business people, from the Chattanooga area, their idea for a food pantry.  The teleconference was part of an event called the Bright Spark Challenge where students from schools compete against other schools when given a topic.  The topic these students were addressing was food insecurity.  The purpose of this pitch was to share their presentation, the guests asked follow up questions, and then provided feedback for how the students could improve their presentations.  The participating business people included people from the Chattanooga Area Food Back, The United Way, YMCA food program, among others.  In all two groups of students presented their ideas to two separate panels of community members.  This allowed the students to present to one panel, get feedback and make tweaks, before presenting to the other panel.  The students will continue to make changes based off the feedback they received before the final pitch it made. 

Video conference using Zoom

Job Shadow-Instructional Technology Department-Dalton Public Schools 2/7/20

I had the opportunity again to get in hours Dalton Public Schools due to my system being closed for flooding.  I returned to the Instructional Technology Department to observe and work with the employees there.

The day started with Kellie Erwin, who was working on the Canvas course for elementary teachers.  Mrs.  Erwin also took some time to evaluate the Khan Academy program to determine if it would integrate with MAP testing.  MAP testing is what Dalton Public Schools uses to determine student current levels and growth.  After around an hour, the whole instruction technology team convened to discuss budgetary matters in regards to conferences that they have attended, and one they plan to go to as presenters.  As a team, they also looked at a new program called Ask2Learn.  Ask2Learn allows teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators to record lessons.  After a lesson is recorded, the program gives feedback on areas such as types of questions asked (e.g. open-ended, higher order, etc.), who is talking (teacher vs. students), and silence vs. talking, among other things.  It was determined that they liked the program, and that it could be a useful tool.  However, the price is subscription based with monthly payments that may be too expensive for it to be used.

The technology team discussing Ask2Learn

Later, I had the opportunity to accompany Janet Hewitt (one of the instructional technology specialist) to Brookwood Elementary.  Mrs. Hewitt was delivering professional development on Small Lab.  Small Lab is a device that allows for games to be projected onto the floor.  Using wands, the students are able to manipulate items and play games such as matching, creating timelines, reading sight word cards, and many other uses.  The Small Lab used to be housed in the school where Janet worked, but has recently been moved to Brookwood.  Mrs. Hewitt's PD session was well received and the teachers were commenting about the ways they could use it with their students.

Teachers trying out the Small Lab

Janet presenting the Small Lab

Upon returning to their office, Kellie Erwin demonstrated several tools that they have available in the district including Rocketbooks, Q-Ball, and Oculus Go.  It was interesting to see all the technology that is available now in Dalton Public Schools.  My time ended by observing Mrs. Erwin continuing work on the Canvas course from earlier, responding to emails from teachers needing help with technology, and even having a Skype session with a media specialist from Dalton High School who was having issues with a student device.

Testing out the Q-Ball

Site Supervisor Interview

Beth Chappelear is serving as my site supervisor for the FRIT 7739 practicum.  Mrs. Chappaelear's title is currently STEM teacher and instructional technology coach, but she has also taught middle school social studies and gifted social studies previously. 

1. What type of degree is required for your position?  Since STEM is new in GA there are varying opinions about this but she currently has a B.A. in Multidisciplinary Ed, a M.S. in Curriculum & Instruction and an Ed.S in Instructional Technology. She also has her gifted endorsement as well. She is currently contemplating an endorsement in computer science.

2. Where did you obtain your degree?  Mrs. Chappalear obtained her three degrees through the University of Tennessee Chattanooga and her gifted endorsement through the North Georgia RESA.

3. What are your job responsibilities?  She teaches a video class one block a day, three blocks of STEM (6th, 7th, and 8th) and her instructional technology coach block is when she is available to help our staff with any of their technology needs.  She helps teachers with any issues with Google Apps for Education, facilitating virtual reality, and any other instructional technology needs that teachers may have.

4. What are typical daily activities for your job?  She feels like she spends most of her time finding ways to get tools and resources in the hands of these kids.  Then she states she spends just as much time preparing their activities.  When students are in her class, she spends her time facilitating and working alongside them.  She added, STEM is very different in that she doesn’t teach very much anymore. She just set the kids up and then step back and watch them do!

5. Do you have a budget that you control? How do you make decisions on selecting resources for your stakeholders?  Mrs. Chappelear is  given a small amount of money for her classroom, but says it would barely be enough to pay for masking tape and hot glue for 360 STEM kids (which is the amount she serves in a given school year).  She has had two donors choose projects get funded this year and have also been awarded one grant.  Almost all of those funds have been spent already on robots, drones, technology tools and Makerspace materials. 

6. Have you had an opportunity to impact technology implementation throughout your school? Would you describe a specific example?   She attempts to impact technology implementation however she can.  She makes “Tinkle Tips” each month to hang in the staff stalls (these can be found in each faculty restroom).  She steps in and does professional learning anytime they will give me the time to do it.  She has 4th block available to help teachers and spends much of that time going into classrooms helping students AND teachers with tech implementation. 

7. Does your school have a technology committee? How are technology decisions made?  We used to have one but do not have one right now.  Technology decisions are made by our administration but they do seek the advice of our teachers during professional learning sessions.

8. What is the best part of your job?  Hands down it is the opportunity each and every single day to help teachers AND students use technology in a way that incorporates the 4 C's:  creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. 

9. What do you find to be the most challenging part of your job?  Time management.  She feels like she gets pulled in many different directions and am asked many questions.  She is concerned about people feeling that she is unavailable to them and tries to do what she can to prevent that.  She feels that if they ask for help and something goes wrong, they likely will not try it again.  Mrs. Chappelear’s goal is for them to be successful.

10.  Is there anything else about your role that you would like to share?  Mrs. Chappelaer stated she is living the dream and am so thankful to have the chance to do what she gets to do every day.

Practicum Experience 1

At the request from teachers in the building who required help with technology needs, I spent an hour working with two different teachers.  The first teacher, Mrs. Burkett, had her bulb blow out on her SmartBoard projector.  The media center happened to be out of bulbs, so I set up a temporary projector for her to use until her bulb can be replaced.  This task sounded simple on the surface of it, I would just simply by hooking up the projector to her current desktop set up in the room.  However, when I arrived to set the projector up I found what many call a "rat's nest", where the computer cords are all tangled.  The bulk of my time working in Mrs. Burkett's room was spent untangling the Gordian's Knot that had formed in her cables.  The second teacher, Mrs. Norman, had an issue with her SmartBoard as well.  She was able to project, control the screen through the SmartBoard.  The main issue was that she was unable to write on her board because the pens were not responsive.  I went through steps to attempt to address the problem such as re-calibrating the board, restarting Smart Ink, etc.  After restarting the computer and unplugging the SmartBoard to re-set the board, SmartInk went back to working as it should.