Field-based+Activities+Reflection

I was unable to get the activity I had planned to do for my internship at the end of school. Due to interuptions in the school day, end of the year activities such as; field day, awards, field trips, and rewards, and end of the year testing as well as TAKS retesting this was just impossible to complete a quality project. I was unable to complete my activity for June. I was going to pay a $30 fee for access to animoto and I saw a link that educators could get access for free. I filled out the form which said would take a few days to get back to me and it has now been 2 weeks. I am hoping to hear from them soon and get my activity completed. If I do not hear from them by mid July I will just go ahead and pay the $30. I did not complete any activities for the month of June as far as my intern plan was concerned. I started a new job that was a little overwhelming at first. I was able to create the animoto vocabulary video for the beginning vocabulary for the 5th grade teachers. I also started work on an animoto for the first grade. I was surprised at how long the process took. To actually create the animoto as far as mechanics goes it is easy to create an animoto. What is time consuming is to find pictures that will go with the vocabulary word. It is very frustrating how few good science graphics there are to be found. I also had to learn that there was a certain font size and type that showed up better on the video. This was through trial and error. I plan due to my current job position on creating more animotos for the other grade levels as well as doing one for each set of vocabulary for the 5th grade. If time does not permit then I am just going to stick with 5th grade this year and add a grade level every year. During September I was able to set up blog sites for my three fifth grade teachers. I also create a Survey Monkey survey for the teachers to give their classes to see if they know what a blog is. I am also doing this as part of my action research plan. I have total implementation from one teacher though I'm struggling with her on how to implement the blog. She keeps erasing the responses between classes. I am trying to convience her that students are still learning even if they are copying or taking parts of answers from other students responses. The other two teachers are not as cooperative. One is willing not very organized to add something else to her class, the other teacher is totally uncooperative. My mentor has talked to them to try to get them on board but she will not make it mandatory for them to implement. I also tried to work on a web site for the district. I was very frustrated at the lack of flexibility and use of the web host. Added to this trying to decide how I wanted to lay out the web site was more than I bargined for. Do I want to have it as a general site or break it down by grade level, should I include vocabulary, how to I section the useful web sites, do I give access to websites that teachers will use in the classroom or only extra sites? I finally tabled this endevor for the summer. During October I began planning with each grade level that I over see K-5. Each grade level meets for half a day to a whole day once a 9 weeks for the entire school year. We write the lesson plans for the nine weeks working in technology when it is available and approriate in the science curriculum. Most teachers are excited when I can bring in a new web site for science. There are some really great virtual labs out there to use. These help the elementary classes a lot, some experiements that use hot water or fire are not ones that teachers want to do with the younger students. If they can use a virtual lab it makes teacher these concepts much safer and easier. I also worked with the GCS to see what ways the avaliable technology could be used more effectively. We found that they are doing a fantastic job and there was not much room for improvement unless new technology was brought in. I also shared with my mentor RSS feeds. She had never heard of them and was interested in how to set it up. She is not very technologically advanced but is willing to try new things. Worked with teacher in implementing technology into lesson plans and how to use in the classroom. What programs are best used as whole group instruction,what should they save for the computer lab and what sites could be used for students to go to when finished with classroom work. Discussed Brain Pop, Gizmos, Living with Science and other technology options. I also started in October culminating with the CAST conference, Science conference, on getting teachers to commit to attending the conference. Working with the curriculum superintendent I helped arrange hotel rooms and travel for those attending the conference. After the conference I also attended meetings where those who attended the conference shared what they had learned. I also collected a wish list from those of materials they would like to purchase from what they saw at the conference. We were excited that our district agreed to pay for the Canyon experience to come to our 8th and 5th grade as a help for the TAKS test in April. Worked with teachers on how to use the Living With Science computer program as a whole class. Explained how to engage the program so that students could log on. Showed teachers how students log on, and how to find tray of materials that go with the lesson. Alsoexplained how to use the spanish component of the program to help with differenciation for our ESL/Bilingual students. I began ground work for the budget for the 5th grade science department. Included in this budget was consumable materials for science experiments, replacement materials, fieldtrips, technology, and presentations. I installed and set up a computer with a new Sanp Scanner with PDF to word document capabilities. I created a guide on how to use a new Snap Scan scanner that was purchased for our school. I installed and provided one on one professional development. for my 3-5th grade teachers on a new software program the district piloted and then purchased, Edusmart science software. I have also provided professional development on using Eduphoria a new disegration and test creating software our district has purchased. I have worked with other facilitators in my office on how to use the test creating component. How to search through the test bank as well has how to create our own. How to edit, import graphics, and manipulate the software. I attended a Technology conference sponsored by Victoria ISD. It was the most informational and enjoyable conference that I have attended in a log time. I was able to gain many new technology sites for the classroom as well as information on how to help teachers integrate these into the classroom.I shares the information I gained at the conference with teachers as well as other facilitators. I also worked with Gwen Johnson in manipulating Excell reports to dissagrate data and to be able to share with others from data retrieved in Eduphoria. During 9 weeks planning with 4th and 5th grade teachers I was able to show teachers how to more effectively evaluate resources of the web. We did this through hands on work while searching for resources to use in the classroom. During this time we also discussed how to use Gizmos more effectively in their classroom lessons. This same program was also used to show how to add diversity to a lesson. We focused on the ESL and special education students. I also went over a usage report that was received from our Gizmos (elearning representative).Shared the information with Mrs. Srubar on teachers not utilizing Gizmos to its fullest potential. I discussed the need to use the resources that we have available, if not used effectively then funding could be pulled. After attending a Technology conference sponsored by Victoria ISD I shared the new technology resources available to teachers with technology members. Most information was in the form of websites to use in the classroom, software to use. There was some hardware but given the budget crisis of the school system we did not discuss much because it would next to impossible to find funds for such purchases. Finalized the budget for science for the 2011-2012 school year and projected budget for the 2012-2013 school year that I had begun to work on in January. I also worked with Gwen Johnson showing her how to manipulate data from Eduphoria to get a better understanding of what areas are needed to be addressed to improve student achievement. I also meet with the other facilititors using Eduphoria data on TAKS scores to plan a a strategy to better help student struggling with TAKS and get them ready for STAAR this coming school year. The final activity was to report to Mrs.Srubar that each ELAR classroom will be gaining four computers per classroom while the math/science will have three computers per class. The whole campus will be unifom instead of classrooms having anywhere from 1 to 4 computers per classroom. **June Report Reflection** ﻿I was on vacation and attended a workshop for science collaberative so I did not complete any intern hours during this month. =**July Report Reflection **= I chaired/faclitated a process improvement team to address the concern of additional car traffic within the district due to the elemination of bus service to students within the city limits. The improvement team worked very well together for such a large group and we were able to complete task two days ahead of schedule. I also meet with Sheri Janke to share resource Educscapes.com taht has many resources and idea for using a white board in the classroom. =﻿**August Report Reflection**= Finished the last of my intern activities. I found out 3 days before school starts that the facilitators would be required to teach a class. Mrs. Gordon said that she would like for our class to be a model classroom using as much technology as we could incoporate. She had some money left that needed to be spent before th end of the year and asked me what type of system we would most like in the classroom. I quickly changed my promethean report to include several systems and reported to her which I would prefer to use in the classroom. The other facilitators were fine with the decision. I should find out soon which she and our tech specialist agreed on. Using some of the resources that I received from the Victoria Tech conference that I attended in March I shared video and information about cyber bullying with the facilitators that would be teaching with me as well as a quick copyright guide for when we started using the resources available to use for technology use.
 * May Report Reflection-**
 * June Report Reflection**
 * July Report Reflection**
 * August Report Reflection**
 * September Report Reflection**
 * October Report Reflection**
 * November Report Reflection**
 * December Report Reflection**
 * January Report Reflection**
 * February Report Reflection**
 * March Report Reflection**
 * April Report Reflection**
 * ﻿May Report Reflection **
 * ﻿ **During May we were excited to implement our KIC, Kids Inquiry Conference, where students were able to use Web 2.0 tools for science project. The students also had an option to present the report using technology such as a power point, digital poster, animoto, and various other resources. Because of KIC I meet with the technology tech to try to get permission to give the access code to students who would like to bring their own personnel computer to school therefore providing more access to computers for all students.