Instructional Leadership Reflection

Instructional Leadership- EDLD 5352
Reflection
When I first read the title of this course, Instructional Leadership, I honestly did not envision technology as the main topic behind the title. I thought I would be learning specific strategies on how to lead a staff and campus toward strong instructional practices, best practices. Then, I looked through the topics for each week more closely and realized that it was all going to be about technology. After ALL of the readings, assignments, lectures, discussion board exchanges, and the blog work, I realized that it WAS about strong instructional practices/best practices, only for the 21st Century learners! I can not say that there was an alignment between the course outcomes and those I envisioned, because I had the course totally wrong. However, I can say that the course exceeded my expectations as far as the relevancy of the material. I am pretty comfortable with my technology skills. Instead I learned about the importance of integrating technology in the classrooms of today, if we want kids to learn.
As an Intervention Teacher/Instructional Coach, this new learning is extremely relevant to what I do. Reading all the research and case studies integrated in this course opened my eyes to many possibilities for our struggling learners. Every time I read a new article, listened to the lectures, or looked at the STaR Chart analysis and the Texas Long Term Plan, etc., I wished I could take it all back to my campus and share it with everyone, my Principal especially. I’ve been out of the classroom for 4 ½ years. However, when I was in the classroom, I had my kids involved with technology, even then. My fondest memory is that of a new student in my classroom, straight from Mexico. She was 9 years old and had never even seen a computer. I took a picture of her the first day I sat her in front of one and walked her through a project we were working on. The expression in her face was priceless. My kids did Science projects research, experimented with everything in Microsoft Office, from Word documents to Power Point presentations. They were so engaged! Now as I work with struggling learners, I find it vital, to have my kids use technology. Paper-pencil learning does not work for these kids. Now I know it doesn’t really work for most kids. I knew that technology is the way to go, but now I know the research behind it.
This course confirmed what I have always believed. However, I still don’t know how to bring about a change at my school. I recently brought up our district’s written technology applications curriculum to a teacher I consider to have a pretty good relationship with. I was so excited telling him about the amazing tech apps website. I told him about how it is set up by grade levels, that it tells the teacher how, when and under which subject to integrate the technology TEKS. I told him that the site even had written lesson. He answered that he did not have time to teach that; he was too busy teaching Reading, Math, Social Studies and Science. He felt as if it was one more thing, and was not going to even look at that until after TAKS. I know that what prevents me from bringing about a change at my campus is the system itself. As a district we ‘say’ we support technology integration, as a school we ‘say’ the same. But TAKS scores are the bottom line.
I wanted to cry every time I opened a new assignment document thinking that it would be impossible for me to complete it. I did extremely well the first 3 weeks. I spent hours working on them, at home and at work, interviewing, etc. On week 4 however, I was totally overwhelmed. It was just too much and I was late by a day. Although I understand the reasons behind having us post 20 something entries on the discussion board each week, I found it a bit excessive. Yes, people made more entries, but I honestly think we were all trying to meet the requirement instead of having an authentic exchange of ideas. I think that if we are given more time to get on the discussion board, just reading and reflecting on each other’s postings, we would have engaged better. Perhaps, instead of having 8-9 quotes for all of the articles, we could’ve been given the choice of responding to four or five.
I am one of those technology immigrants the course talked about. Still, I’ve embraced technology wholeheartedly. It is probably my favorite means of communication. It is also my main tool for developing ideas for my personal and my professional life. I have a gmail, a yahoo, a Facebook, and a MySpace account, and 2 blog sites. I tweet, do online banking, online shopping, and now, online school! But just when I’m feeling pretty good about myself, I receive a long text message from my son. I quickly realize that he is a thousand times faster at texting than I am! While I’m replying to one text, he has sent 4 more, the last one saying, “hellooo, r u there?” That’s when I realize he is a native and I an immigrant! My leadership skills are getting better, now that I’m on my second year at this campus. I’ve invested a year and a half building relationships, and giving my colleagues time to get to know me as a professional. I understand that without trust and sharing my vision, I can’t lead a group of people. Slowly but steadily people are seeking my advise, and asking for my opinion.
As a technology immigrant, I find blogging a bit overwhelming, still. There is so much one can learn! I believe that our students are missing out by not being exposed to this type of technology. Teachers can have students work on projects of any type, for any subject. When kids use blogging as a means of communication, it allows them to develop their writing, critical thinking, and communications skills. I dream of a school where kids do not take tons of papers home for homework, and teachers don’t take tons of papers home for grading. Teachers blog their assignments, and students blog their homework, research papers, media projects, and questions to their teacher. Teachers and students have access to teaching and learning 24/7; that should be the norm, not the exception.
What concerns most teachers and administrator about blogging is student safety. In this litigious society, educators live in fear of being sued and losing their careers for failing to keep students from getting into unsafe practices on the internet. This is the number one reason why teachers keep their students as far away from the internet as possible. Yes, many teachers feel insecure about their own technology skills, or think that using technology is just one more thing. However, they absolutely fear getting in trouble or worst, a student getting hurt.
We could possibly begin by using blogging as a mean of communication between educators and district personnel, before we bring it to the classroom. We could create virtual professional learning communities that meet through blogging. These ‘Virtual PLC’ can be grouped by topic of interest, by grade level, by department, by different groups. We could also organize a PTA blog and a Spring Hill Parents blog. How great if parents didn’t have to wait for the next monthly newsletter to get home to know what’s going on at school. We can possibly eliminate staff, team leaders, and so many other unnecessary meetings. Once the adults master the use of blogging to communicate, then they will be more comfortable with bringing the world of blogging to their students. Lastly, I’m glad this course gave me a sense of urgency. If we don’t change the way we teach, we will loose our students.