Welcome
This section provides examples of my efforts as an instructional technologist to provide leadership, Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) integration, and learning opportunities for teachers, administrators, and parents. Here is a listing of my recent work as an instructional coach for wellness.
Section 1: Leadership
I partnered with librarians at several schools to lead the development of an integrated and articulated library and instructional technology curriculum. This Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) program supported the skilling of students to find, analyze and curate information to create and communicate their understanding while engaging multiple literacies (i.e., information, media, visual, technology, and design). The following are examples from my time at the Washington International School Primary Campus.
The plan and process included>
Purpose: The goal for my leadership in the ICL initiative was to help our administrative leadership team and teachers to look beyond just integrating “tools” to a more information and communication collection of skills and information literacy concepts for our students. My experience is that technology has an important role to play in many aspects of teaching and learning. However, our students need to learn how to manage all the information they consume, create, and communicate their understanding.
Role: I built on conversations with the person previously in my position, the librarian, and the curriculum coordinator to better understand where they were with their library and technology program. My role as an information gatherer shifted to idea proposer as the librarian, and I met with the administrative team at the start of my first year to implement a plan of action. As a leader, I work to be inclusive to bring in stakeholders for input and to communicate status updates to the greater community. Building a systematic approach and time for reflection when developing new programs is also central to how I provide leadership.
Impact: Several indicators demonstrate that the ICL program is becoming a part of our curriculum and culture. Teachers contributed their insights to the ICL learning outcomes and, in meetings, listed where they are teaching them in their units of inquiry. The weekly Grades K-2 ICL lessons that I co-teach with the assistant librarian are integrated to support the classroom units of inquiry. The same is for Grade 3 weekly Digital Arts classes. “Push-in” ICL lessons are taking place in Grades 3-5 to integrate research skills and technology to create learning products. We still have a long way to go in our dual language school, where language instruction is the primary focus of teaching energy. Yet progress is being made.
The plan and process included>
- the drafting of an ICL Strategic Plan to be discussed and implemented with staff
- a presentation to the administration outlining a curriculum collaboration system for ICL integration
- the writing of learning outcomes drawing from ICL standards
- meetings with teachers to finalize the ICL learning outcomes
- collaboration in grade-level curriculum planning meetings to integrate the outcomes
- professional development sessions to introduce and later show ICL in action
- documenting innovative instruction and ICL-supported lessons on the WIS video channel
- information sessions for parents (in person for the first year and online for the second year)
- a web resource support site for ICL integration ideas and professional resources
- using the curriculum mapping tool to document ICL-integrated lessons into the unit plans
- the drafting of an iPad Implementation Plan to be discussed, developed, and implemented with staff
Purpose: The goal for my leadership in the ICL initiative was to help our administrative leadership team and teachers to look beyond just integrating “tools” to a more information and communication collection of skills and information literacy concepts for our students. My experience is that technology has an important role to play in many aspects of teaching and learning. However, our students need to learn how to manage all the information they consume, create, and communicate their understanding.
Role: I built on conversations with the person previously in my position, the librarian, and the curriculum coordinator to better understand where they were with their library and technology program. My role as an information gatherer shifted to idea proposer as the librarian, and I met with the administrative team at the start of my first year to implement a plan of action. As a leader, I work to be inclusive to bring in stakeholders for input and to communicate status updates to the greater community. Building a systematic approach and time for reflection when developing new programs is also central to how I provide leadership.
Impact: Several indicators demonstrate that the ICL program is becoming a part of our curriculum and culture. Teachers contributed their insights to the ICL learning outcomes and, in meetings, listed where they are teaching them in their units of inquiry. The weekly Grades K-2 ICL lessons that I co-teach with the assistant librarian are integrated to support the classroom units of inquiry. The same is for Grade 3 weekly Digital Arts classes. “Push-in” ICL lessons are taking place in Grades 3-5 to integrate research skills and technology to create learning products. We still have a long way to go in our dual language school, where language instruction is the primary focus of teaching energy. Yet progress is being made.
Section 2: Instructional Technology Integration
Here is a video describing my collaboration with our two Spanish and two French Kindergarten teachers. We designed a series of lessons to give students the mechanism to make their thinking visible regarding the learning outcomes for the water unit of inquiry.
Section 3: Staff Learning (Part 1)
Please select the image above to access my Lessons Learned blog post that provides information about the staff learning opportunity described here.
Audience and Topic: I offered a 90-minute midday drop-in professional development session on using the iPads for our staff as part of our "Food for Thought" PD series. The audience was the entire teaching staff, PreK-5, who had time to stop to visit the stations that I set up. The differentiated instruction gave visitors control over time and a choice of focus activities. As we had recently brought in three carts with 20 iPads in each, there was growing interest in learning about instructional strategies for using apps on the iPads. A dozen or so teachers stopped by during the 90-minute session.
Instructional Objectives: The teachers previously received training on basic iPad operations. The goal of this learning station session was to help them better understand categories of learning activities within which they could use the iPads. I drew from the iPad Uses section of my Web Resource for Learning site to present the following categories of use: consuming information, skill support, content creation, and developing a personal learning system. The teachers completed an exit ticket that asked for their area(s) of interest for me to follow up with them.
Process: The teachers could visit stations in their interest to have a naturally personalized learning experience. The Librarian and the Director of Technology joined me to be able to sit down with teachers to answer questions and give them further information individualized for their needs.
Assessment: Exit tickets indicated the specific areas of interest that the session piqued (for each participant.) The session's goal was to engage that interest and lead to follow-up meetings to promote partnership for collaborative instruction.
Audience and Topic: I offered a 90-minute midday drop-in professional development session on using the iPads for our staff as part of our "Food for Thought" PD series. The audience was the entire teaching staff, PreK-5, who had time to stop to visit the stations that I set up. The differentiated instruction gave visitors control over time and a choice of focus activities. As we had recently brought in three carts with 20 iPads in each, there was growing interest in learning about instructional strategies for using apps on the iPads. A dozen or so teachers stopped by during the 90-minute session.
Instructional Objectives: The teachers previously received training on basic iPad operations. The goal of this learning station session was to help them better understand categories of learning activities within which they could use the iPads. I drew from the iPad Uses section of my Web Resource for Learning site to present the following categories of use: consuming information, skill support, content creation, and developing a personal learning system. The teachers completed an exit ticket that asked for their area(s) of interest for me to follow up with them.
Process: The teachers could visit stations in their interest to have a naturally personalized learning experience. The Librarian and the Director of Technology joined me to be able to sit down with teachers to answer questions and give them further information individualized for their needs.
Assessment: Exit tickets indicated the specific areas of interest that the session piqued (for each participant.) The session's goal was to engage that interest and lead to follow-up meetings to promote partnership for collaborative instruction.
Section 3: Staff Learning (Part 2)
Audience: I developed this tutorial as part of my initiative to create a virtual orientation for new teachers joining our school. It was for educators new to Google Drive. Experienced users would probably not need to use it.
Level of Technology Expertise: The tutorial was designed to support teachers new to Google Apps. The tutorial's goal was to help teachers access our collection of documents before they arrived on campus.
Instructional Purpose: I know what it feels like to be an international educator hired to a new school and preparing to move to a new country. Many questions arise, so access to information is crucial. By providing tutorials for new teachers, many arriving from overseas, their apprehensiveness is lowered as they gain access to the documents which outline our operating procedures. One doesn't have to be an international teacher to desire access to information about one's new school. I created a New Teacher Orientation site for my previous school to help new local teachers with the transition to our school.
Level of Technology Expertise: The tutorial was designed to support teachers new to Google Apps. The tutorial's goal was to help teachers access our collection of documents before they arrived on campus.
Instructional Purpose: I know what it feels like to be an international educator hired to a new school and preparing to move to a new country. Many questions arise, so access to information is crucial. By providing tutorials for new teachers, many arriving from overseas, their apprehensiveness is lowered as they gain access to the documents which outline our operating procedures. One doesn't have to be an international teacher to desire access to information about one's new school. I created a New Teacher Orientation site for my previous school to help new local teachers with the transition to our school.
Other Examples of Asynchronous Support:
Resource Site: Developing asynchronous methods to support personalized learning for students, teachers, and parents have been a part of my program since my first day as an instructional technologist. I built the Web Resources for Learning curated resource site to support several initiatives at several of my schools. I focused on the site on pedagogy, assessment, and ICL integration lesson ideas. The Web Resources for Learning support site is the third iteration of the Teacher Toolkit I created in graduate school. From the start of my career, I valued the importance of what we now call personalized learning. When we differentiate learning opportunities for our students using web-based tutorials and other resources, we give students control of when, how, and what they learn. I adapted my Web Resources for Students site to support the needs of each school. This version was for a Virginia public school.
Previously Created Tutorials: I created my tutorials as part of my Teacher Toolkit site. One tool I supported with several tutorials was Irfanview. The Teacher Toolkit site is no longer live on the web. This version provided by the Internet Archive does not have the embedded images for each tutorial.
Podcasts, Screencasts, Videos, and Blog Posts: I recorded a series of podcasts to communicate how technology can support thinking routines. One example is the 3-2-1 Bridge routine. I created tutorials for students by sharing Google Docs of my face-to-face lessons and with screencasting apps. I started the iPad Weekly blog for our teachers, focusing on teaching with iPads. The posts usually connected to the bi-monthly 15-minute "Teachers Teaching Teachers (TTT)" PD sessions that I ran before the start of classes. Schools should leverage social networking tools and use video to communicate with parents. An example is a video I created for our parents who could not attend an in-school presentation on our ICL program.
Resource Site: Developing asynchronous methods to support personalized learning for students, teachers, and parents have been a part of my program since my first day as an instructional technologist. I built the Web Resources for Learning curated resource site to support several initiatives at several of my schools. I focused on the site on pedagogy, assessment, and ICL integration lesson ideas. The Web Resources for Learning support site is the third iteration of the Teacher Toolkit I created in graduate school. From the start of my career, I valued the importance of what we now call personalized learning. When we differentiate learning opportunities for our students using web-based tutorials and other resources, we give students control of when, how, and what they learn. I adapted my Web Resources for Students site to support the needs of each school. This version was for a Virginia public school.
Previously Created Tutorials: I created my tutorials as part of my Teacher Toolkit site. One tool I supported with several tutorials was Irfanview. The Teacher Toolkit site is no longer live on the web. This version provided by the Internet Archive does not have the embedded images for each tutorial.
Podcasts, Screencasts, Videos, and Blog Posts: I recorded a series of podcasts to communicate how technology can support thinking routines. One example is the 3-2-1 Bridge routine. I created tutorials for students by sharing Google Docs of my face-to-face lessons and with screencasting apps. I started the iPad Weekly blog for our teachers, focusing on teaching with iPads. The posts usually connected to the bi-monthly 15-minute "Teachers Teaching Teachers (TTT)" PD sessions that I ran before the start of classes. Schools should leverage social networking tools and use video to communicate with parents. An example is a video I created for our parents who could not attend an in-school presentation on our ICL program.