November 5-9
Click on images to enlarge

David Haines and Darlene McLeish collaborate Math and Anatomy & Physiology lesson plans

Sterling Seat teaches his Algebra IA students Excel

Lori Sheets uses technology in World History to conduct a trial

Jim Bauernfeind's Criminal Justice class works on a research paper

Some Student Technology Committee members participate in Channel 9 broadcasting

Training Group #2 meet 2 days

Training Group #1 shares implementation experiences

Technology Infusion Efforts
We are continuing to infuse technology in many phases of our curriculum.   David Haines' Algebra IA class and Darlene McLeish's Anatomy and Physiology class collaborated on a project to collect blood pressure rates of at least 20 students and 20 teachers.  Using Excel and TI83 calculators, the students created a scatter plot of the systolic blood pressure and the diastolic blood pressure for each sample of data collected.  Both classes worked together to determine the best-fitting line to illustrate the positive correlation between systolic and diastolic blood pressure.  When it was time to implement the lesson, everything that could go wrong in technology did.  The projector wouldn't cooperate with the computer, and the computers would not connect to our access point.  He punted and went to plan D.   However, he indicated he wasn't discouraged and was willing to try it again later in the week.  Fortunately, things went much better and students were able to complete the assignment.  He was a real trooper and is an example to other teachers. 

Other infusion efforts included Sterling Seat's classes using Excel to create formulas for adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and algebraic expressions.  Mr. Seat used PowerPoint to introduce Excel to the students as well as self-checking Excel formulas to analyze the student answers.  

Lori Sheets used technology in World History to conduct a mock trial of George Washington.  Students took on various roles in the trial such as a witness, judge, jury, reporter, defense lawyer, etc. and used technology to e-mail each other to plan cross-examination strategies, take notes for reporting, record court proceedings, etc.   Learning with technology can become authentic even in teaching World History.

Jim Bauernfeind's Criminal Justice class used the wireless laptops to follow a WebQuest he created to help them in their research with careers.  Mr. Bauernfeind was also instrumental this week in helping kick off the Channel 9 Broadcast activities of our school.  This is a collaborative project with Comcast and the city government of Mt. Juliet where $10,000 has donated for equipment students will use to broadcast school events.  Several Student Technology Committee members are involved in this effort which is totally a technology-based learning experience. 

What continues to amaze me as technology coach are the strategies teachers are using in their lesson plan implementation and the interest students are taking in carrying out the tasks.  The pictures you see in our sidebar are not staged; students are not posing.  They are absorbed in the guided activities the teacher has provided and are on task with the assignment as I walk around the room to observe.  They continue to want to communicate with me and their teachers about technology.  They are eager to want to learn more and do more with the laptops. 

Teacher Coaching Progress Indicators, Attitudinal Shifts, and Celebrations of Accomplishment
There were several success stories in coaching indicators this week.  Eleven teachers in Training Group 2 began their on-site training.  They received their portfolios and laptops and used our network to copy the files needed to create lesson plans.  We reviewed some of the lessons other teachers had implemented.  As each group trains, it will help them to see a wide range of ideas. I continue to see the interaction of teachers as they discover how to teach interdisciplinary. 

Another cause for celebration was what I have now termed the "Reflection and Collection" meeting for each training group.  Training Group #1 closed out their training sessions by attending an after-school meeting to share the lessons they implemented with each other and talk about what went right and what to avoid.  I collected their lesson plan documents and electronic files for benchmark evidence.  It was so beneficial to share learning experiences with other teachers and other disciplines on how to use technology in the classroom .  I feel this meeting is one of the most critical in our staff development plan.  Teachers wanted to share files and ideas for use in their own class. This often isn't possible without this kind of staff development.  We found several students impacted more than once during these lessons.  

As a note of celebration, David Haines really used our wireless network to his advantage last weekend.  He informed me he needed a file from our network over the weekend as he worked on his lesson plan for implementation this week.  He knew our wireless connection was active so he got in his car and drove to the school.  He sat out at the picnic table in our commons area which is below our training room.  He connected to our network, downloaded his file, and said it was such a nice day he proceeded to work there.  He never went into the building.  Now that's wireless and networking used to an advantage.     He told me if we purchased the antenna to extend coverage, he could sit in his car in the parking lot and do the same thing.  What dedication our faculty has to their job!!

I'm also finding celebration in the fact students and teachers are eager to see their pictures posted in the sidebar of our journal.  Teachers like to know their story about lesson plan implementation  is posted.  They are referring students to the site and students are telling their parents to look for them on the Web.  I e-mail our staff and administrators about who is featured each week and provide a link to the page.  The pictures have added more authenticity to our grant implementation.

Management Challenges
A huge management challenge this week is finding enough time to juggle all the responsibilities of this job.  I need to find some sense of balance.  My family thinks so as well.  It is taking a toll on me.  I'm having trouble with my legs with all the walking I'm doing in our building.  I'm also finding it hard to work in time for paperwork, and I simply cannot get away from the scheduling demands of training and implementation to visit other schools.

We have teachers wanting to schedule use of the laptops at the same time.  It continues to be hard to tell teachers they can't schedule because a new group of teachers must be trained.  We also have some work to do with creating a new image to ghost on our laptops.  We are experiencing problems with Word locking up and printing problems.  Ghosting 50 laptops will also take some more after school time as our machines are used almost every class period.

November 19-21

Click on images to enlarge

Brenda Knowles classes study motifs and rhythm in Art I.

Kristi Bode's class uses a Web Quest to study Shakespeare and create a newsletter

Michael Marotta, Junior Achievement Representive, uses technology to help students learn about themselves

Jana Coffey's students use Excel to chart  emotional feelings of various characters during a play

Diane Taylor discusses laptop details for her Web Quest

Jerry Underwood teaches PowerPoint project details to German I 

Brenda Knowles' Art I class worked with geometric shapes to produce motifs and create patterns.  They used the draw feature of Word as they demonstrated skills of using rhythm in art. 

Diane Taylor's class used the Internet to complete the on-line DISC personality style assessment to help them learn more about their dominant personality characteristics.  Internet technology enabled the students to obtain a one-paragraph summary of their dominant style.  They will be able to use what they learned about themselves to improve their communication and interpersonal relationship skills.  This activity is in cooperation with Junior Achievement and the Leadership 2001 Success Skills program.  

Kristi Bode's classes took on the role of reporters in a Web Quest she created for her students' study of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Through cooperative learning in pairs, students researched Web sites for answers to specific questions.  The answers were then assembled to create a vividly descriptive newsletter and PowerPoint presentation that describes "The Tragedy". 

Another class of Mrs. Taylor's, used a Web Quest to research information and create a healthy menu with all the necessary food nutrients for a 5-yr. old child.  Mrs. Taylor's "The Old Woman in the Shoe" design to the Web Quest activities was appealing to the students' interest in the project.

Jana Coffey's students read part of a scene from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night comedy, decided upon the main emotion a specific character felt, and recorded that emotion in an Excel spreadsheet using a number.  They will continue discussing and ranking emotions as they read the play.   They will chart those emotions relative to various scenes in the play for a larger project due later.   

Jerry Underwood's German classes used PowerPoint to summarize the information collected in their Web Quest Travel Diary. Students saved their work to disk and will add to it in future lessons.

As we continue to infuse technology into the curriculum, I feel our trained teachers are able to tell a difference in the focus of using technology to assist in learning.  Where many of them thought our grant implementation was going to focus on hardware and software, they are beginning to see the computer as a powerful device to enhance learning and not necessarily on mechanics of the machine.  They are beginning to understand they are not expected to "master" technology but to continuously explore how and when to use it in the classroom.  They are also amazed at how much their students know about the computer and, therefore, can overcome many of the fears they had in their own insecurity to use it.

As stated in our grant proposal, our teachers lacked sufficient knowledge to create lesson plans using technology.  Because they now have received training in creating, implementing, and evaluating technology-based lessons, they are empowered to discover ways to use technology to harvest the creativity, energy, and talents of their students.  With time, trial and error, and persistence, teachers and students will find it can and should be an integral part of learning.

Teacher Coaching Progress Indicators, Attitudinal Shifts, and Celebrations of Accomplishment
Teachers are sharing student comments with me which are igniting their interest in exploring different avenues of using technology.  For instance, Susan Pardue's students requested they be able to use the digital camera (purchased through grant funding) to create step-by-step camera shots of a particular art procedure rather than using Word to describe it as she first suggested.  Ms. Pardue was as excited to implement this suggestion as the students were to complete it.  Both students and teachers alike are realizing technology is helping to strengthen the association between instruction and achievement.  Attitudes are changing to explore new and different ways of learning in our standards-based curriculum.

Teachers are also using the Staff Development Web Site I created for reference as they work on designing and implementing their lessons.  On two occasions this week, teachers shared with me links they found useful in creating such items as rubrics and Web Quests.  Teachers are also e-mailing me suggestions of other sites to post on our site in an effort to share Internet resources with other teachers.  It is apparent training has allowed our teachers the knowledge to seek on-line help in their teaching.

Management Challenges
As I attempt to juggle going from class to class to observe implementations and be available for teachers who have questions, I am finding little time in the day to take care of the administrative duties.  I rarely am able to plan a specific time for lunch; I work it in or do without.  My journal is always completed on the weekends.  From home, I organized information this week to send to the other high school TLCF Technology coaches regarding their visit to our school in December.  I also worked at home this week to finalize our Florida Education Technology Conference plans.  I organized information for our committee to jury our "Best Practices" examples.  I put together the portfolios for the next training group after everyone left for Thanksgiving holidays.  I am also researching the future possibilities of using technology to reduce our dropout rate.  For anyone who thought this job was easier than classroom teaching, let me assure you it is not.  Also remember, all Technology Coaches implementing this grant are doing so from the ground up.  Teaching in any form is time consuming and taxing but very rewarding.

Nov 26-Dec 1

Click on images to enlarge

Elowin Harper's class studies the food pyramids of other countries

Teresa  Hill and Linda Tinch's Principles of Business classes analyzes the cost of car insurance

Grace deMajewski's Latin I class writes about Ancient Morality using Word

Susan Pardue's Art classes use the digital camera and Word to critique their own work

Martha Harvey's class studies caring for garments using a Web Quest

Jana Coffey teaches a Word 2000 Basics workshop for our teachers

Training Group 3 works on basic computer skills

Elowin Harper's Foods and Nutrition II class used a Web Quest to research an assigned country and gather information to create a food pyramid for all the food groups.  Taking into consideration factors such as economics and religion, they analyzed how those factors affect the country's malnutrition and starvation statistics.  Lastly, they compared and contrasted their assigned country's food pyramid with the United States.

Teresa Hill and Linda Tinch's  Principles of Business classes worked with an Internet web quest applicable to their study of purchasing car insurance.  Students used the Internet to choose a car they would like to buy and then went to various Insurance web sites to calculate the cost of insurance for that car. This activity provided an authentic learning experience relative to life choices.

Grace deMajewski's Latin I class concentrated on using technology to write a poem or an essay in conjunction with this year's theme for the state Latin convention.  Ms. deMajewski prepared a Word file and saved it as a web page entitled Ancient Morality.   Students used the wireless lab to begin the assignment; however, by posting it on our school web site, they were able to continue the assignment outside of their class time.  They were to choose a person to write about, write a preliminary thesis sentence, and develop a rough outline.

Susan Pardue's Art I class took digital pictures of their favorite art project and inserted them into a Word file.  They then wrote a critique about the project and a step-by-step procedure of how it was done.

Martha Harvey's Family and Consumer Science II class used a web quest relative to their study of caring for garments.  Students used a series of worksheets as they researched various web sites analyzing characteristics of fabrics and steps to care for garments.

Teacher Coaching Progress Indicators, Attitudinal Shifts, and Celebrations of Accomplishment
As I visited classes this week, I am beginning to hear teachers admit technology has opened up new avenues for them to explore in teaching.  This is a cause for celebration, an attitudinal shift, and an indication of coaching progress.  Some admit the process of changing is difficult and often uncomfortable, but they know they must go through it for the benefit of their students as well as their own growth as an educator.  

Teachers do, however, express concern with the enormous amount of time involved in exploring and using technology.  As the training groups work to prepare technology-based lessons, many teachers have indicated they are amazed at the resources available on the Internet.  They are aware it can be very time consuming as their interest peaks with their comfort level.  Time flies by as they explore sites of interest.  In training we continue to work with refining our search techniques to find lesson plans which specifically fit the needs of their classes. However, I constantly stress designing lessons and activities which take learning beyond fact gathering to a higher level.

On Tuesday of this week Jana Coffey, a departmental mentor, taught a 3-hr. workshop on Word 2000 Basics.  Teachers learned several helpful techniques for using Word such as headers and footers, formatting lists, using tables, page breaks, etc.  Eleven teachers attended.  Lynne Wilson, a math teacher,  was elated to find out she could customize her toolbar to create superscripts and subscripts using the click of one button.  The workshop focused on techniques teachers might use in Word to make it easier to create tests and handouts.

Training Group 3 met this week for Day 1 and 2 of their training schedule.  We focused on identifying the skills each teacher needed to move to the next level in their improvement plan.  They were encouraged to document specific skills on which they would like to improve.  In order to accommodate the needs of the group, I decided to concentrate on basic skills to give teachers more practice and to boost their confidence level.  We worked on using Windows to access and retrieve files from the A:/ drive, C:/ drive, and I:/ drive from our network.  I taught them various shortcuts which could speed up their work.  We worked particularly on aspects of using Word which were new to them.  We did have several problems with Word locking up which was very frustrating.   Since this does inhibit the enthusiasm of teachers new to using technology, my goal next week will be to access and eliminate that problem with the help of our technology department.  I also showed them examples of lessons teachers had implemented who were in the previous two training groups.  We spent an afternoon researching the Internet for technology-based lessons applicable to their subject matter and how they could modify them for their use.  They will return to their classrooms Monday to ponder our training, survey their students current technology skills, and continue to think about what technology-based activities they will use in their classes.  They meet again on Wednesday and Thursday of next week.

Management Challenges
I am finding teachers are definitely using e-mail to improve our communication efforts.  They are e-mailing to schedule the wireless lab for their classes, to ask for help on creating files, to sign up for technology training classes we are offering after school, etc.  Because I am in classrooms as lessons are implemented, the e-mail and Novell messages do pile up.  One teacher even suggested I get a pager.  

Another management challenge involves not being able to meet with the Student Technology Committee as often as I would like.  Although I see some of them as I go from class to class, I want a more cohesive group by meeting with them regularly.  Since this takes them away from their classes, it is not often possible.  I am devoting so much time to the teacher training groups and implementation, I feel I am not involving the Student Technology Committee as I would like.  I hope to work on that next week.