Below is my interactive calendar for my scheduled on-site experiences. The date for this post will be changed continuously so that it may stay at the top of my blog. Please navigate to the next post to read about my weekly experiences!
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This week was devoted to editing my practicum website evidence and reflections. I was also on standby for any trouble shooting problems stemming from the collaborative digital citizenship unit. There were a few technical issues but as I viewed the video responses it was evident that the students were enjoying this method of expression and self-paced learning. My professional development unit went live as well with 10 active participants and several more passive ones as I consulted my antalitic data of unique visits. I enjoyed responding back to them and being a part of the learning pathway as a facilitator and guide. Final Total Practicum Hours = 125 The last stop on my Field Experience journey is Brooklet Elementary School. As a K-5 teacher myself I was excited to end my circuit here where I can observe the ins and outs of an environment that I am familiar with from a different perspective. These 5 days I did many things to extend, apply and enhance the skills I have acquired in this program. Day 1 | As with any new professional environment, it is important to adjust to your surroundings to get a firm grasp of the workflow and staff. Without this ease-in period it is difficult to be a force of change or assistance. The instructional specialist took me through the library's systems, policies, school procedures with Covid-19 as well as rotational check-in and out system. Mrs.Odom also graduated from GSU with a instructional technology masters and it was interesting to compare the shifting and growing expectations from then and now. Because of the high level of distance learners, providing chromebook assistance, online & in-person, to families was a high priority of the days tasks. Determined to understand the full scope of the schools technology potential, the instructional specialist provided an in depth tour to all the infrastructure pieces that was available to instructional staff. Day 2 | Upon arriving an assisting in the days start up duties I inquired after the 3-D printer station introduced the other day. More specifically I was curious about the cost benefit analysis and practical ownership of such a high-tech device. The conclusion was, that though these devices were awesome to have in the learning Commons repertoire, it was in practical for class use due to the length of time it takes to create a single creation. I was also made known that the staff had not been trained on how to use the 3-D printer modeling software or web applications to integrate into their lessons. The only way that this would be practical was if they had access to an entire class worth of these devices. It was also suggested that it could be used with live video as the students could view from home while it created their creations. Another area I devoted my time to exploring was the donated maker space and Lego station. A group of special education students stopped by to help me with this exploration. In this particular application I noticed that the students loved the tactile nature of exploring mathematics with these pieces of technology. As the season was Halloween, I did a read aloud about a witch and her friends. To company this read aloud are used Quizlet meteor Mode for the students to match keywords to its corresponding picture on the chrome book. I would provide a reference to the in-text book when the student was unsure if the origin of the word. Day 3 | After completing the morning activities and setting up the Promethean board for digital reader loud for the second graders I prepared for a few meetings I had lined up. First I met with the STEM teacher for the collaborating digital citizenship unit. As my unit was based in an application called Flipgrid I needed to provide some training to ensure success upon implementation. We made sure the Chromebooks are set up for guided work and use of google classroom for accessibility with the one to one infrastructure. He additionally requested an incorporation of current STEM unit to the Deep Fake Unit for a possibility of a deep fake video creation to engage students. Meeting with 5th grade teacher next, I confirmed with her familiar and comparable technology for the grade level to give me a better idea of learning curve for my unit. Here I tested my ability to access and manage systems with in the district technology infrastructure and ran into some issues. This led up to my meeting with the Technology Liaison. Brought up my concerns with accessing certain applications from my side as well as the student side due to firewalls. The meeting was inconclusive. I then experimented circumventing this problem with the instructional technology specialist and found a solution for flawless integration that I could control as co-operator. Day 4 | In the morning I provided assistance in class with digital promethean board read aloud as well as the check in / check out assistance and recommendations. Finishing up with these beginning tasks I Met with STEM collaborating teacher for Flipgrid training and resource introduction. He requested extra materials student task clarification to be utilized with the Promethean board. I also proceeded to add the STEM teacher as copilot to my virtual learning environment. Returning to the Learning commons I was confronted with a bit of chaos. There was a scheduled virtual experience that was suppose to happen but many technical issues arose preventing the execution. I proceeded to troubleshoot and host this volunteer read aloud high schooler for the second grade utilizing Google hangout. I was able to fix the hardware issue the tech Lesion could not solve, tuned Promethean board as a peripheral to instructional specialists laptop, as well as adjusted video and audio settings for ideal video and sound delivery. To conclude my day I met with the special education teacher to discuss the pros and cons of assessable technology. She expressed a frustration on some adaptive technologies that on the surface seem helpful but are actually the opposite. The most visceral example she provided what's the use of text to computer audio readings. It seems very hopeful on the surface but the children that they use this tool on for standardized testing cannot focus on the stagnated Digital Voice. The lack of inflection and emphasis distract the students making this assessable tool virtually useless. Day 5| For the final day, I assisted in conducting software training for kids on renaissance quest. The sessions were tied in with teacher integration of resources to writing and reading goals. This application allowed students to navigate the library materials for helpful resources. It also assist in finding relevant book to ones there are already reading or have checked out. In addition to this I took my professional development training and collaborating Digital citizenship unit and demoed the lessons in instructional videos to test for proper functioning on the Promethean boards.As this is my last day, I asked if there's anything that I could help make it better. I have a particular affinity for technology hardware and software so I always enjoy a good challenge. With this open invitation I was given the task to troubleshoot some library tech tools for proper functioning and programed template and shortcuts for ease of use by staff members. I was very happy that I can make these changes help the daily workflow of the staff members. A series of donated books came in during the day and I process them through the system and prepared each title to be transitioned to the circulation. At the end of the day I got to observe social media Live video tools being utilized bye other schools to communicate with Brooklyn elementary staff and students. This is also broadcasted to any parent to accommodate social distancing county regulations.
FALL BREAK for Bulloch School District Citizenship Collaborative Unit | Media literacy and privacy are the overarching topics for my collaborative unit with a focus specifically on a recent arising issue, deep fakes. My knowledge about this technology is minimal but I have seen It used online and it is a terrifying thing. This week I conducted a lot of research about the laws that have been recently enacted to protect citizens against deep fake videos. I also focus my attention on how to detect a deep fake video. This is relevant to media literacy as a student searching for valid and trustworthy resources. I created an outline for my online unit and discussed with my collaborative teacher potential software to include in the effort to enhance interactivity. Staff Development Session | With the outline, rational, and teacher survey analyzed and created iamb now moving into the development stages of the online professional development unit. The focus is the use a Flipgrid to promote online learning connections as well as an alternative means of assessment. I'm moving ahead with creating it mainly in adobe spark but will also be creating a YouTube video with me screen casting the majority of the tutorials. Technology Program Administrator Report | Of all the schools I visited I decided to focus my administrative report on Southeast Bulloch high school. Because of the pandemic they have undergone a lot of technology advancements that have been beneficial for the school. Their documents on the district webpage are now out of date in terms of Technology data. I spoke with my on-site supervisor to get additional information that will give me the updated numbers to complete this report. I am also using the technology personnel flow chart that was given to the media center specialist during a district meeting I attended. I've created a organizational chart as well as assembled all of my evidence to give a cohesive and thorough report of the schools technology and its impact. Week 9 Site Hours = 0
Social Media Research & Post Hours = 1 Collaborative Unit Development Hours = 5 Staff Development = 5 Total Practicum Hours = 90 Digital Citizenship Unit | I have been in contact with my collaborating teacher and he has requested I focus my unit on discerning internet sources as valid with a specific focus on deep fakes. I am very excited to craft this unit as deep fake videos is a very recent problem that has bloomed from more easily assessable advanced technology. There are no lessons out there that exist for the K-12 levels. Common sense media only has a singular article discussing deep fakes. I collected more lerner information from my collaborating teacher and isolated any differentiation needs. I will be researching this week and constructing the unit next week during the districts fall break. Below is a picture of his classroom to give me an idea of potential group activities while being mindful of Covid Protocol Social Media Research & Post Hours = 1 Total Practicum Hours =79 Southeast Bulloch High School | As I have no high school teaching experience I was excited to see the difference of experience as I arrive to Southeast Bulloch high school. The first day was met with learning basic day-to-day procedures and Covid protocols as well as tasks. The school has a learn and work program where if you high school students are given the opportunity to work in the library as a librarian assistant. They are giving certain specific tasks and training on customer service. As multiple things that I did at the site ran into multiple days I will write on each activity instead of each day. My attached activity log bullets out these activities by day however. Library Guests & Utilization | Classes are also required to sign up if they are do utilize the library. One literary instructor uses the library every day for two of her classes. I got the opportunity to discuss with her different instructional technology techniques she uses for her class. Google was another recurring theme but she also uses web applications like Newsela and Grammarly to enhance her instruction. She showed me the lesson she created which asked students to provide multiple forms of media and organize it onto a template in google slides for later presentation. As I have never taught high school I asked my supervisor many questions about the differences but she sees here and potential new instructional tools utilized at a high school level. Extensive list of new website where that is available to the students in the school is in my daily bulleted log of ours attached this post. Quadrics Ticketing System & Other Admin Programs | We also tag teamed the new ticketing System for troubleshooting problems with families that we learned about in the media specialist meeting. We were able to work through on average about 2 to 3 tickets a day that week. The problem is ranged from class is disappearing to assignments restarting for parents not be able to view progress. I was also shown different library ordering software that was utilized such as Doc-e-fill which is an ordering system for equipment that Hass to acquire administration approval as well as a PO number to go through. They were also many different publishers the library used in order to obtain it's books. (List provided in activity log ) these books had varying programs from subscription-based to previewing and sampling. Junior library guild was a favorite. There was a selection of books however from broad reach books that was just sent in about digital citizenship. My supervisor explained to me that they would send her these books to review and she didn't have to pay for them unless she wanted to adopt them. If she did not then all she would have to do is send them back after reviewing them. I took this opportunity to review them as digital citizenship is a huge focus in our instructional technology program. School programs | If you mornings out of the week I observed the newsroom in action which is located in the media center. This newsroom had a, camera, mic, broadcaster, Teleprompter, as well as a close circuit system video audio live broadcast. The students used a logitech presenter Bluetooth device to switch slides on the Teleprompter in the channel 1 news network server broadcasted this to a web application known as safari. This live broadcast was sent to every classroom in the morning and then downloaded and posted to the school website by my supervisor. In addition to this the media center used to host a few stem programs for students before Covid such as the SECME club and a book club that now meets virtually via Google Hangout. Instructional Technology and Assisting Teachers | The school also obtained Promethean boards for every classroom but as it is a new technology there is a learning curve. Basic assistance on how to connect one's personal computer to the board as well as use the basic tools that came with the board we're not known by many of the teachers. This caused an influx of questions to both the media center specialist as well as a technology liaison. Assisted with a few of these problems as well as some Google drive software issues. One issue in particular was having trouble zipping files and downloading it onto their local computer as well as successfully sharing these files to parents who did not have a district email. Both of my supervisors were unable to solve her issue so I requested that I try. I was able to get both of her requests accomplished and showed everyone how I did it so they can help other teachers in the future. One day I got the opportunity to observe a medical class that had a Simulator hospital room as well as an instructional classroom. She had a bunch of instructional technology that I've never seen before including an augmented reality system called z-space. I was very excited about seeing this in action. This however was not to be the case that day as the system and software were not working and the IT professional could not understand why. Requesting permission to tinker, I spent the better half of the day diving through system operations to isolate the issue. The website help was very poorly documented as it seems that they migrated sites last year and neglected to update pathways on the app software themselves. I ended up deleting and re-downloading the app managers and after reading a few forums noticed that they changed downloading channels. After updating this and reinitializing all apps off or download on the device I was finally able to enter in the licensing keys and gain access to the programs once they downloaded. There were three more other devices like this in the school and I did it for all of them while showing the IT professional what I did so that she can troubleshoot later problems. I finally got to play with augmented reality and I couldn't be more thrilled. Using 3-D glasses the human body in the various layers came to life and with a pen I was able to spin it in the air and click on areas for more information. There was a tablet version to utilize with a life-size human body map. As you scanned the tablet across the human body different aspects of it would jump out and you can manipulate it in the air with the pen in front of the camera. While I was assisting the classroom again on another day, I set up the instructors live broadcasting microscope with her Promethean board. She was then able to utilize this microscope to place organic samples under the microscope at her desk and have it project onto the Promethean board. Chromebook Management | The chrome book check out system was unique due to Covid. Because some students were part of a dual enrollment program. There was certain chrome book carts they had to come in and check out in the media center. Late students also could not go to their first period class room to check out a chrome book they must come to the library to check out a temporary chrome book that has been sanitized so not to disturb the first period class. Students are not allowed to take home their chrome books unless they are distant learners specifically. There are however about 30 chrome books that are available for overnight check out or weekend check out if needed. As these chrome books come back in the morning daily it is part of the main tasks to sanitize these laptops before replacing them in the appropriate cart. Digital Citizenship | Before Covid the freshman classes will come into the library for a basic digital citizenship lesson accompanied with library protocol. This digital citizenship lesson is now an abbreviated online video that is shown in the classes homeroom at the beginning of the year. The media Center has a wealth of digital citizenship information as well as posters on the wall that talk about best practices when it comes to online research and behavior. I was shown a Facebook group called future librarians. This Facebook group was home too many media center specialists in instructional technology professionals across the United States. Here they share their ideas, tips, and tricks with other brand new media Center specialist. My supervisor told me that she got many of her digital citizenship materials and ideas from this Facebook group. I quickly made my own professional Facebook profile page and requested to join the group by the administrators. The Southeast Bulloch high school website also has some information about digital citizenship that is available to parents and students. In summary my supervisor was a wealth of information and she was eager to learn as she was to instruct me in the inns and outs of being a media center specialist. This truly was a comprehensive experience into the ins and outs of this job at the high school level. Staff Development Needs Assessment | Brooklet Elementary has requested that I do a Flip Grid professional development with an emphasis on virtual learning techniques and student use of video. I will be sending an additional needs assessment for more focus points and areas of confusion and need. Week 6 Site Hours = 30 Staff Development Needs Assessment Hours = 3 Social Media Research & Post Hours = 1 Total Practicum Hours =78
Langston Chapel Middle School | Eager to return to Langston Chapel Middle School Monday morning, the media specialist asked me too look through Nearpod pre-created presentations to isolate some digital citizenship lessons that could be potentially utilized with the schools population. She also set me up to observe a science stem class and this teachers use of instructional technology. The lesson had centered around the periodic table of elements and he utilized a lot of familiar technologies such as Google sweet and Kahoot to interact with the students. He also mentioned to me that he has a lesson centered around the use of Spheros, a robotic rolling device that is programmable. In this particular lesson he used a web app I was unfamiliar with called PT table. It allowed students to use a certain printed out sheet of the periodic table of elements and an app on a mobile device. The mobile device app interacted with the sheet of paper so that students could see the molecular structure of the selected element in augmented reality. Eventually returning to the media center I asked both the technology liaison and media center specialist about the district Technology report to assist in my generating a report myself for the practicum. Tuesday proved to be a day of unexpected abundance of information. I shadowed the agricultural STEM teacher and was blown away by the variety in depth of instructional technology utilized in his class. I had seen nothing like it in my four years of teaching. It was very evident that the children held him in very high regard from the instance his classes started. I was unfamiliar with what an agricultural class was. My districts that I've worked in as well as grown-up and had never had class called agriculture. As Bullock County is a very rural area, I started to see the value in having this kind of course for the population. This, however, was no simple farming class. Not only did utilize the classic computer web softwares such as Google, throughout the year students will be utilizing 3-D printers, robotics, computer programming, augmented reality, hydroponics, weather hubs, solar technology, and so much more. He walked me through the grant process he utilized to get all of this equipment as well as a wealth of online resources I can implement in my future position. Wednesday was to be my last day at this site and it also proved to be very interesting. It started off with the continued exploration of Digital citizenship lessons for the school. After selecting a few that I thought would fit the needs of this population I was given access to a Promethean board where are utilized the boards tools to demo the presentations in an effort to make sure that they were compatible and user friendly with this technology. A few families came in looking for troubleshooting help with their chromebooks in the utilization of the instructional online learning web software the district was utilizing for distance learners. If you came in with chromebook hardware issues that the tech liaison in his interns took care of on site. I took care of three shelving the books and other basic daily to do items. We got a small influx of books in from the junior library and I labeled them appropriately before setting them out. I left after lunch to eat at home before meeting my supervisor at the District central office as they were having a media center specialist meeting. This meeting was centered around the new streamline troubleshooting ticket system for online learners, or distance learners. With this new software families could submit a technology ticket that would be sent to that students schools media specialist where she will assist in fixing the problem or pass it down the line to someone else who can help. This training also gave media center specialists admin rights to schools PLP and Edgenuity. The district level specialist walked through the use of these software's and what each particular stakeholder sees with their level of usability. They also demonstrated how to simulate a particular students login in order to diagnose whether or not there's a problem. With so many distance learners there was an influx of technology issues that the central office could not handle on their own. With this new streamline system the load of troubleshooting help is distributed in balance throughout the district. The specialist also discussed some basic computer terminology that a majority of the media specialists did not understand such as clearing ones cache, or allowing pop-up permissions. When the meeting concluded I was also able to say hello to my other supervisors in the elementary and high schools and express my excitement to be able to spend a week observing and assisting them. Week 6 Site Hours = 18 Social Media Research & Post Hours = 1 Total Practicum Hours = 44
Langston Chapel Middle School Shadowing | I was very excited for the week to come. This was to be my first full-time practicum week where I will stay and shadow the media center specialist as well as other instructional technology professionals. Monday was a light day of basic on boarding and introduction to day-to-day activities. This included understanding their checkout system, the organization of text, materials, and technology, the Covid precaution protocol in-between class visits, as well as the administration system for registering new books and technology. The media center was about to undergo a large scale change from author organization to genre organization. The spark that ignited this decision was an influx of funds to provide the library with 1000 new books from Scholastic. I sat in a phone conference listening to the different decisions that need to be made from media selection to organized shipping and integration. I also met the technology liaison and his to Georgia Southern University interns. Do they seem to have a lot of tasks the the core lies with fixing chrome books and other technology as various stakeholders submit them. Brooklet Elementary Book Fair Day | On Thursday I offered my services to my placement elementary school to assist in book fair related functions. Covid regulations in the district deny the media center from accepting volunteer help so the entirety of this responsibility as well as running the media center lie solely on the media specialist. As I served as mainly a book fair shop helper and transporter of children, I will not be including those hours in my practicum total. Langston Chapel Middle School Shadowing | Friday I accompanied my middle school media specialist to a different school, William James middle school. There was a bit of a crisis as scholastic had sent Langston Chapel's sister school a brand new book fair format that was the center of some confusion. Instead of the rollout metal cases that were pre-organized and shift by scholastic themselves, a table top cardboard set up was sent in its place. Or UPS man had dropped off boxes upon boxes of books and shop items that was in a varying state of disarray. We logged, genre five, and organized all of the materials to flow in a way that provided social distancing for the student shoppers. As we finish setting up the register refuse to work with the provided scanner. Taking a look at the troubleshooting guide and available hardware ports on the register system itself I was able to fix this problem which would've cost them to delay starting the book fair five days. During this process I asked many questions towards the William James media specialist about programs and technologies she does it her school to promote instructional education and provide support to various stakeholders. The following activities are just a small sample of the inspiration she provided me:
Week 6 Site Hours = 17
Social Media Research & Post Hours = 1 Total Practicum Hours = 25 Professional Development & Learning Module Update | The Media Center Specialist in Brooklet Elementary got in touch with the STEM class instructor to host my digital citizenship learning module. He has agreed and we have put into direct contact with one another to start the development process. As I am certified in elementary education I will also be doing my professional development at this location. I will conduct a needs assessment with the teachers and isolate a focus. Week 5 Site Hours = 0
Social Media Research & Post Hours = 1 Total Completed Hours = 7
Record & Reflect | There are no practicum hours this week but I am looking forward to starting next week at Langston Chapel Middle School. I am working hard on my other masters classes and preparing to deliver and online digital security professional development diving deep into the mind of a hacker and demystifying the dark web. This is most certainly one of my favorite aspects of digital citizenship to discuss. Check out my presentation below! Also be sure to follow me on twitter as I constantly post about instructional technology news and updates!
Week 4 Site Hours = 0
Social Media Research & Post Hours = 1 Total Completed Hours = 6 |
AuthorHi! I'm Annastasshia Ames. Connect with me through the social media links below! Archives
December 2020
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