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.
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| 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 |
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| 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 |
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