I would like to know how other principals are modeling the use of technology. I do all my newsletters and communication via e-mail. I also use my laptop during walkthroughs providing teachers immediate feedback. Any other ideas?
Two good ways to model technology Lily! Maybe you'll find a creative way to use Moodle as a part of your communications and collaboration with your teachers and staff!! I can't wait to see what you come up with!
Is moodle available for use with students? I am working on LTF plans and probably will need some way to demonstrate online collaboration with my students.
Yes, Moodle works well for online collaboration with students. If they have access to the Internet they can access Moodle.
I've been using the SUSD Classrooms for students' initial blogging eperiences. It's been interesting to see how their prior texting/social network experiences are influencing their content area posts. My fifth graders are not switching registers yet; most posts so far has been very informal, and pretty frequently off topic as well. I do alot of moderating (aka deleting). Baby steps...
Haha - I have the same problem on my classweb site. It's a pbworks wiki, and the kids think the "comments" section works like an IM...There are so many "Hi"s & "What's up?"s on the page. I have wrestled with the deleting dilemma - I thought if I deleted their comments, they might take that as a personal affront & be less inclined to participate. It annoys me to see all the jibberish, but I don't want to squash their spirits. Have the kids mentioned it when you delete their comments?
Teachers are thankful for supportive principals! I think that most of the principals are onboard with modeling and use of their laptops, so they are leading the way. I think that the district is very supportive of assiting administrators to update their skills in tech and change leadership. The PD offered online is new and will take support to get teachers to take advantage of the opportunities.
There is a lot more that needs to be done. Mary Bade has been extremely helpful in leading the way in the short amount of time that she has been in her new position!
Our newsletter and other announcements are always done via email. Email is also used in providing teachers with feedback on classroom walkthroughs. Our principal frequently uses the SmartBoard during faculty meetings as a way of sharing district and local information. Since all teaching staff has laptops perhaps planning for ways that they could use their laptops during meetings would transfer to teachers planning for student laptop use.
Try TodaysMeet.com for online collaboration and a little social networking at your faculty meetings. Its fun and is a great way to get dialog going in a large group format. Project the session when comments are worthy of large group discussion (or to bring people back on task!)
Thank you Mary for this idea. I would like to try it with our staff. Here's a thought--what if staff meetings no longer existed where you would have to meet face to face every Wednesday morning, but instead you had to participate in a forum discussing agenda items that were set by the principal. Just an idea....
I love your imagination and cool idea! Let's take it one step further and not have any meetings but have constant online collaboration (like Moodle)where any information, instruction, details that normally occur in meetings can be made available 24/7 and information posted whenever it becomes important enough to be distributed. Our "face time" could be spent co-planning and mentoring with each other instead.
I designed a blog for our SFA Wings teachers to share ideas, ask questions, etc. Unfortunately only 3 teachers replied. I waited for two week then resent the blog information and directions on how to blog...... no replies. I even sent a mini video about the top 10 reasons why educators should blog....... no replies. When we have SFA meetings, our time is limited and not everyone gets to share their ideas, frustrations, or ask questions. That is why I developed the blog. Any suggestions on how to get the staff to blog! If they aren't blogging how can we expect them to teach our students about blogging?
Sandy,
Please send me the blog info. Perhaps, we need to ask teachers to spend some of their Wednesday collaboration time blogging. Once they see how valuable it is, they will be much more apt to participate on their own. Why don't you ask for some time at the next faculty meeting to share the video. This might motivate more teachers. One additional thought, why not ask ask Mr. Islas to pose the question for discussion. His weighing in on the discussion would surely encourage teachers to participate.
I currently send weekly announcements to staff through email. I would love to be able to have discussions started regarding the items. Does the TodaysMeet.com work in this manner? The discussions here on Moodle are also very interesting.
I also have used my laptop for giving teachers feedback while doing walk throughs and also for scripting during formal observations.
I think that this is one of the most important concepts that needs to be more consistent in schools. Send calendars and announcements through email, allow teachers to turn in collaboration sheets through the "I" drive at school, etc. If it can be done online it should be. Not only for efficiency but also because it saves resources (staff time, paper, and toner).
I also like the idea of online collaboration.Too often at staff meetings a topic is brought up and for various reasons not everyone is given a chance to have input. If these questions were asked in a forum I think more people would have the opportunity to share their knowledge/opinion on the subject.This is just one example of how collaboration could be used. Teachers could also ask for ideas for lesson plans, resources, etc through an online collaboration.
Principals (and all staff) also need to have some level of technological proficiency. I know classes are always offered, but unless they're required to be a teacher in SUSD it's not going to make a difference.
Can you imagine staff collaboration not just within the school but across the district! A great topic comes up and questions are posted--responses go viral. New teachers run into an issue and get 10 responses from veteran teachers who have already been there! I wonder what the down side is?
I wonder if we could do the opening of school celebration in a virtual format? Teachers could post questions when statements are unclear or too quickly covered due to time, information could be viewed when the teachers have free moments,and all support staff( regardless of date of hire) could receive a welcome to the Sunnyside community.
I know that as a teacher I found comfort in having the communication between teachers that were district wide that way I didn't feel as though I was stuck in my little shell. I know that collaboration time is important but is there a way that in the coming years that teachers can utilize District Wednesdays and collaborate as a district in grade level areas via a video-chat tool. This would help out us late start schools, because it would cut down the unnecessary travel time. Allowing us to fully participate in the meetings and not be a disruption.
You have two great ideas, Lily, but we also include technology into our PD training. Another area I am going to try after break (this was proposed in a recent leadership meeting): I often copy and pass out journal articles on quality first instruction. I was thinking that maybe now, I post the articles and have teachers give me feedback on their thoughts on the article. This way, everyone has an opportunity to share their thoughts. However, one question I would like to ask. Do you think I should make it mandatory for everyone to respond?
I think it would be really fun and interesting to post articles and have "debates" through a moodle or wiki. Any staff member could post an article and get feedback. I don't think that response would need to be mandatory, but some sort of participation like posting an article or asking a question would show that we are all keeping current. I know when I have sent out articles (like that one on poverty calculations with the global academic ranking), I have gotten responses. I never asked a question or gave a specific thought to ponder, which would be a great way to make the article more personally engaging. I think setting up a moodle or wiki to share best practice and other discussion is a great idea. This could also be a place to put staff meeting agenda type information to get feedback and move forward. Imagine giving a few options for morning or afternoon duty and having everyone vote or give new ideas! This wouldn't waste our precious collaboration time with question/answer time or the completely unrelated question.
I don't believe that posting comments should be made mandatory. I think you will get much more participation using this strategy, but not everyone feels comfortable with the format. Given that, posting the articles is great. It would make them accessible to everyone and it definitely would save on copying costs. Asking teachers to share their thoughts is empowering for them. This method gives them an opportunity to read the article and reflect on it so they can post a relevant idea. Lots of times in faculty meetings only a few share because there isn't enough time given to reading and reflecting on the article. Posting articles would give them the time. However, we need to be careful that we don't "overkill" this idea. Perhaps posting one article a month or quarter for reading and sharing would be enough to get some great discussions going, without taking up too much of the teachers' time.
A also agree that posting articles and/or discussion questions at a school site level would not only save "precious" time during meetings, but it would allow teachers opportunities to use technology. As it has been discussed we are taking baby steps and this will give us the practice some teachers need to feel comforable using techonlogy. We need to learn ourselves before we can expect our students to do it. As far as making responses mandatory, I have mixed feelings, I feel that it shouldn't be made mandatory; but I also feel that if it is optional, only a small fraction of the staff will stay current and might the idea might eventually die.
An idea I had was that maybe as a school we can have a webpage such as Moodle or a Wikispace in which weekly news, upcoming events, articles, questions, and surveys can be posted. This way teachers will get into the habit of going into that site to keep posted and have an opprtunity to give their input.
Lily I use the Prezi to present material that is needed in a fun way. Still need to learn to use my laptop for feedback!
I enjoy online forums and the opportunities they provide to share and ask questions. However, with one as extensive as this Moodle one is, I feel like I am not keeping up with all the posts and find it difficult to navigate my way around without missing something. Perhaps this is just my personal reaction to the way things are nested. Perhaps I need to explore different ways of displaying original posts and replies and find one that works better for me.
I can see where baby steps would be necessary with staff who are not familiar with blogs or online forums, so that newbies would not be overwhelmed.
Thank you Gerry!!! This is exactly how I am feeling with this whole posting of my thoughts in the online forums. I am feeling very overwhelmed and feel like I have read the same posts over a million times...aaaggghhh! But, right now I am so loving the ideas of not having to sit in meetings or having to write up our collaborations
As teachers, we spend a significant amount of time planning. Possibly some of the time that is allocated to collaborations could be done on a forum online. Thus, when we actually meet face-to-face we can use our time more effectively.
I agree with Tshilo I think that we need to do some online collaboration before we sit down face to face and maybe set it up to do less face to face time. I sometimes do my most talking or collaborating online at night when I can settle down.
Hello Lily - Most recently, I created a survey via Survey Monkey and created a PowerPoint using the findings of this particular survey. I also used a student website and Excel to create pie charts and other visuals for the slides.
When presenting, I used my tablet and projector to share the presentation.