reflection4 lowtech/no tech

Topic introducing low tech and no tech to colleagues and staff. I work at two different schools so I can work with seven teachers directly. I can also work with the two computer specialists at the school site; many of the suggestions would apply to their work. Our district is also doing professional leadership teams; the current focus of the team (composed of three schools) is academic language and graphic organizers in support of writing = how do you get the 4th graders ready for the CST writing test? We meet on Wed. I can introduce the sunnyvale list to the teachers there. Finally this year there is an effort from a teacher in the district to start a grade level discussion group among fourth grade teachers. Its original intent was to get teachers to collaborate in the production of the weekly required open court reader lesson prep. but it is now being expanded. Finally we have monthly operational meetings for all the district spec ed teachers. Our district coordinators are alwasys looking for in-service training material, I could forward this to them WITH THE ADDED PROVISION that this practice be written into the IEP accommodations on the service page.

jmarienthalreflection3

Blog Topic: How can you use the different features in Word/Excel for student learning,
development of information literacy in your students, or for your own data management/
collaboration?

Our district uses the Open Court Reader program for ELA. Part of the OCR is set up for "workshop". It allows the teacher time to break the class into several groups and be able to work with a small group of students or one on one. If we set up the forms template we could make a little self-test that each table could use to see if they were ready to move to the next packet. The students also have to take a pre-test for spelling. That could also be done on line. To encourage
information literacy, we can have different tables create mini-lessons in how to add graphics to files, make their own notes, etc. Essentially the same things they learn in the computer lab, but they only have computer lab once a week.
In its quest to be a "data driven " school, the Edison program provides an over-kill of data. Teachers are always doing monthly benchmark exams and then having to use the vendors tools to make an analysis of the results. Creating a spreadsheet form that would just track
scores above and below one standard deviation would be a nice tool to have.
Finally since this is my blog, this is my chance to gripe that not everyone who is teaching is going to get an M.A., or is going to do extensive research. The history department approached the problem by having two forms of master degrees. One for teachers, which involved a minimal demonstration of paper writing skills and massive readings; and a second, which involved the more
traditional masters thesis. I think that a better way of doing this might have been to do research on an assigned topic and then presenting a summation and a classroom presentation, maybe even as a two person team.

jmarienthal_reflections1

oops I hit the wrong key this is the real blog,

Good morning Mrs. Eilts,
The most useful concept from our last class was the website CAST.ORG. I hope to return to China in the next year or two and open an adult English school. This will be my retirement job. It also may be sooner than I wished because I just got an unsatisfactory evaluation from my principal. He came in watched me work with a small group for 40 minutes and debriefed me later in the day.
What I want to get out of the class are ways to use computers to do a better job with differentiated instruction for all our students. It is particularly important because the district that I am in is the wave of the future. It is the model of full inclusion where eventually there will a minimum of special education teachers. The general education teacher will have the major burden of servicing all the students in one setting. We have no pull-out classes where I work and we desparately need some pull-out classes. Since I am venting my anger in this writing I will also mention benchmark testing as another misapplied evil.

See you on Wed.

test marienthal

this is a test did you get this?

test marienthal

this is a test did you get this?

this is a blog for education that i am trying to set up

this is a test