Ingram's Star Chart

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Lamar's Star Chart Presentation for my Instructional Leadership class.

Star Chart

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Texas STaR Chart - Opinion Piece

I would like to discuss the area of Administration and Support. To me these area seems to be a weak area in terms of accurately representing a campus. If the campus has a weak administrator it matters little how strong the staff is. The lack of leadership and subsequent breakdown in communication between the weak administrator and strong staff will cause a dip in STaR chart numbers despite the majority of the educators on that campus being technologically strong. It matters very little if the District has strong policies in place. The principal is the access point to the campus and, if that access point is closed, any positive attempt at change will stall there. That is why it is absolutely crucial for administrators to be on top of their game, promote positive change, provide opportunities for staff, and be a positive role model for everyone. It has been my experience that there is a certain sense of learned helplessness in a staff that perceives their administrator as not being interested or "on board" with a plan coming down to them from Central Office.

3-5 Technology Application TEKS

These TEKS seek to provide a foundation for students' future use of technology in the classroom. They are mostly skills involving data acquisition, assessment of data, manipulation and responsible use of that data, and the ability to produce a product using that data. The TEKS are set up in such a way as to allow the student to "scaffold" or build on previously mastered knowledge. If a student is struggling with a particular concept, or TEK, then they should be able to trace their learning back to a concept they fully grasped in order to shed fresh light on the concept they're having a hard time with.

Long-Range Plan Reflections

It's funny how much education mirrors life. If you were to ask the average person what were two things they needed more of, the majority would probably say "time" and "money." Those seemed to be the prevailing themes in the Long-Range Plan for Technology. Of course the NEED for a plan was stressed throughout, but underscoring that need was a definite emphasis on the fact that reliable and consistent funding needs to be found to keep technology (and its use) current in school districts, and efficient methods of training and the time to implement that training need to be found. What is also clear to me is that education, more than any other time in history, is undergoing a change, and it is critical that American schools find a way to work with and through that change or we will be hopelessly behind the rest of the world. What is also clear is that we can expect the same types of changes to become more prevalent and frequent in our future.

Week 1 - Two Assessments - Responses and Reflections

Upon the completion of Week 1's two assessments, the "Technology Applications Inventory" and the "SETDA Building Survey", I felt I gained a little insight into my strengths and weaknesses as they pertain to Technology. More important, however, was the valuable insight I gained concerning my campus's use of technology. I was very honest with my assessment of myself on the T.A.I., therefore I feel it accurately represents my strengths and weaknesses. My strengths seem to reside in the categories of "Foundations" and "Information Acquisition". This makes sense due to my years as a Technology Academy teacher and my fondness for the use of technology in the classroom. I have a very good "fundamental" understanding of technology. I also understand the need for information acquisition by today's teachers and students and where and how to get it, therefore my high score in this area of the inventory is not surprising. As for the other two areas I certainly agree that there is room for me to grow. I have shied away from those types of programs that I did not use in the English classroom (such as EXCEL) and technology that perhaps was not friendly to my subject area (such as telecommunication)and therefore could definitely use bolstering in areas such as these. Ironically, though 31 pages long, I believe the SETDA survey revealed less about me than did the inventory. However, as I stated before, it did show me something new about my campus. To get to the point, it seems that, although my District has very clear goals for their technology and is exemplary in what it provides for teachers along those lines, there is very little in the form of assessment or data tracking going on my campus. Moreover, there were many questions I could not answer because I honestly did not know. As the instructional facilitator on my campus, this should not be the case.