Effective Presenations

The presentation tool I am going to discuss is PowerPoint because this is the most commonly used presentation tool in my school. Starting with standard I: Leadership and Vision, I believe PowerPoint is a great way to present the vision of the school. Administration is able to show data to back up the vision, while discussing their own beliefs. Admin. is also able to break down the progression of how their vision fits into the school year. They can show a timeline of what they would like to see happen. A con to a PowerPoint with this standard would be a lack of "risk-taking with technology". PowerPoint has been around for years now, little kids can make a PowerPoint presentation, so administrators are not promoting new technologies in the school by using a PowerPoint.
PowerPoint pros for standard II: Teaching and Learning, consist of displaying data. PowerPoint is an easy technology tool to use when wanting to show a graph or table or analyze data in multiple ways. Administrators can just copy and paste data from other resources into the presentation. The only downfall to this is, administrators are not showing the teachers where to access the data they are presenting. Granted the presentation may have a website cited, but teachers benefit from being shown exactly how to access the data.
For standard III: Data-Driven Decision Making, this form of presentation works well. PowerPoint enables administration to layout their plan in an easy to read format. The only problem with this form of presentation is once the presentation is given, no body has access to the plan except for the people who made the presenation. A copy would have to be emailed to every teacher or community member who wants a copy of a plan.
Once again for standard IV: Management and Operations, a PowerPoint presentation would lay the plan out in a pretty and pleasant presenation, but access to the presentation would be more difficult for community memebers. If someone did not attend the meeting that the presenation was given in, then there would have to be a central location for the presentation to be found (myMCPS for example).
PowerPoint presentation do demonstrate an effective routine and use of technology, which is outlined in standard V: Professional Practice and Productivity. But a PowerPoint does not maintain an awareness of emerging technologies.
The last standard, standard VI: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues, a PowerPoint presentation promotes environmentally safe, enforces privacy, and communicates and models responsible use of technology because the inforamtion placed in the presentation is screened by administrators. But the presentation is not easily accessed by all students, staff and community members.
In conclusion, I thought a PowerPoint presentation would be the way to go, but that form of presentation shows a lack of technological knowledge/risk-taking. Presentations given should be accessible for all school community members, not just teachers, and by using a PowerPoint access is limited. I am glad we had this opportunity to analyze a presentation and the technology standards.

data driven instruction

My school has many missions that are data driven. Increasing elegebility, increasing attendance, decreasing the drop out rate, increasing participation in the PSAT, increasing scores on the ACT and SAT, and a 100% passing rate for the HSAs are just a few missions my school is trying to focus on. For this discussion, I am going to focus on our HSA mission and how we use data driven instruction to support our students. When I reffer to the HSA I am reffering mostly to the Algebra test because that is the field I work in. When administration and our data analyzer look at HSA data they mostly use filemaker, but are learning how to use myMCPS. The data they gather pertains to student history with test taking. They usually analyse this data after the test is taken for the first time, meaning the data is mainly pertaining to students who did not pass the test. When analyzing this data they determine the best approach for the student as to how they can pass the test, or meet the graduation requirements. The options available to the students are continue taking each test with remediation, do a bridge project for a class you struggle with, or if the student is strong in a certain subject area try to have students raise his or her test score for that subject area so he or she can obtain the 1602 needed to graduate. For example, if a student has taken the test three times, has come in for remediations either after school, or at lunch, and can still not pass the algbra test, then this student would be recommended to complete a bridge project.
When analyzing HSA data for classroom instruction pertaining to the particular test taken, administration analyzes the data according to gender, demographics, teacher, and student's past ability on tests, MSA for example. If a certain teacher has a higher passing rate, then that teacher is asked to share classroom instruction that works for the students. Or if a certain demographic scores better, then a discussion and implementation of how to reach the other demographics takes place. With our data we are able to identify the students struggling, which is a focus of the school. We are also able to determine a means of helping the struggling students by analyzing past test scores, GPA, and attendance. Data driven instruction enables schools to identify struggling students and determine the best means of helping the student.
The only suggestion for utilization of our data resources would be to put all the data into one resource so every teacher and administrator has access to the information. I believe this is the mission or goal for myMCPS. Eventually all of our data from filemaker will be accessable in myMCPS, I hope.

A visionary administrator wants to improve the use of technology in schools. These leaders rate their technology skills high, close to students' skills, and are ambitious to use new technologies in schools and classrooms. They have "begun to adapt to the culture of the new digital world", meaning they understand that our methods for teaching are stoneage compared to how most students go home and teach themselves, and what is expected in the workplace. Because of this, visionary leaders find value in Web 2.0 tools. With these tools students have the opportunity to share their education with their teacher and peers at all times. I am skeptical about the use of Web 2.0 tools because of the expectations on teachers. My fear is that parents and students will expect instantainious feedback from teachers, making teaching a 24 hour 7 days a week job. On the flip side, with these tools all student learning would be enhanced because all students would be expected to communicate. This will help those students who will not share their ideas in the classroom in front of other students. Their communication and education skills would be enhanced.
Also, a visionary administrator believes with the use of technology the classroom will change from teacher- centered to student- centered. I agree completely with this. The teachers may post an assignment, but the students are the ones who will be teaching the teachers. Students know where to find answers, and how to work the complicated systems (at least the system seems complicated to teachers). Students will constantly be teaching the teachers the ins and outs of the technology because the students seem to have more of an interest in the technology. Visionary administrators recognize the resistance and aprehension from teachers, but are excited to have teachers embrace their new learning and skills invloved in a technology enhanced classroom.
In conclusion, a visionary administrator believes the use of Web 2.0 tools and other technologies, such as online data bases and interactive whiteboards, will enhance student learning. Not only will technologies enhance the learning, but will also shift the classroom from teacher-centered to student-centered.