Final Day of Internship and Reflection

Today I helped Lisa input registration data, scanned answer sheets into Testgate, and verified emergency contact information from the online registration.  What a relief to be done with my Internship!

Overall, this Internship has been a great experience, and I have enjoyed working with and helping out Lisa over the past couple of months.  I am definitely more aware of the duties and responsibilities that come with a LSTC position.  I have discovered that while she wears the "administrator hat" on some days, she also wears the "teacher hat".  One of the biggest discoveries I made is that there is a process to EVERYTHING she does and not just a magic button to be pressed in difficult situations.  She said the most important thing to remember as an LSTC is where you are in any process and have the ability to determine future steps.  I saw this play out many times during the Internship.  A surprise to me during our time together is that she spends very little time in the classrooms compared to what I originally thought.  After hearing from another GCPS LSTC in Studio last semester, it sounds as if the job description varies between schools.  In the future, I would be interested in observing other LSTCs in the county .  I can safely say that, at this time, I am not interested in persuing an LSTC position in the near future.  It will remain a career goal, but for now, I'd like to remain in the classroom.

Time logged on 9/19: 1 hour
Total time logged: 33  hours 

Wrapping Up the Internship

It was another early morning at NGMS!  Along with three other colleagues, I attended the post observation webinar to discuss how everything went on Thursday at Berkmar.  Overall, the in-service went pretty well.  We all gained new ideas to bring back to our curriculum areas on best practices for teaching literacy through the integration of technology and specifically, Discovery Education.  The key takeaway is that students need to find evidence in the text (i.e. article, story, video) to support their opinions.  This skill is consistent across the three grades levels as students must find textual evidence to fulfill the new Common Core State Standards. 

During both hours of planning today, I helped Lisa with the Parent Portal Progress check letters and online registration updates.  7 weeks into the school year and we are still updating the database with student information.  I also gained a student teacher today, so she had the opportunity to see a little "behind the scenes" work as I wrap up my internship hours.

Time logged on 9/17: 3 hours
Total time logged: 32 hours  (1 more to go!)

Parent Portal Updates

During my planning time today, I spent an hour going through progress check letters and noting students IDs so that I could check and see which parents had an account, which ones didn't have an account, or which ones requested an application but never created an account.  Lisa and the front office staff will be calling parents to touch base.   

Since Lisa was not at school on Friday, I will have to get with her on Monday so that I can print hard copies of progress reports to send home.  I was hoping to finish my hours this week; however, Lisa has been unavailable for two days.  I will finish my remaining hours early next week!

Time logged on 9/14: 1 hour
Total time logged: 29 hours

Berkmar Middle School Observation

This morning, I spent a couple of hours at Berkmar Middle School in Lilburn observing a 7th grade language arts class.  The class was lead by a Discovery Education representative and teacher from North Carolina.  During the lesson, the teacher previewed a novel, The Outsiders, with the students.  For the lesson, she presented various pictures, video clips, and articles for the students to view and discuss with their classmates.  I was really impressed with the students' interactions during the lesson, which was taught in a new classroom and by a different teacher.  I also liked how technology was integrated into the curriculum to engage the students.  On Monday, we will all attend a post-observation Webinar to debrief.  

This opportunity has given me a chance to network with other teachers around the county who share the common interest of integrating technology in their classrooms.  We had a chance to meet briefly after the lesson and discuss how we use eClass and technology in our classrooms.  We also vented about the challenges of implementing Common Core in language arts.  I look forward to sharing what I observed today with my language arts colleagues tomorrow morning in our Vertical Team Meeting. 

Time logged on 9/13: 2 hours
Total time logged: 28 hours

Gwinnett County's New Teacher Evaluation System and Progress Check

On Tuesday during our curriculum meeting, we were introduced to Gwinnett County's new teacher evaluation system through an online orientation through eClass.  For the orientation, Lisa used my laptop to show the "teacher view" of what we will be seeing soon with the evaluation process.  I guided the teachers through the site and showed them what they would be seeing when the time comes to start evaluations.  We watched a video presented by the county on the purpose of evaluations and learned how to complete the planning phase. 

I spent my planning time today and one hour after school helping Lisa with progress check letters.  Parents had two choices to pick from for the 5 week Progress Check.  They either have Parent Portal and access to their student's grade or they do not.  If they checked that they do not have access to the Portal, I had to print a hard copy of the student's grades and give to their homeroom teacher.  After printing the grades, I had to figure out which category the student fits into:  1)Have Parent Portal Account (forgot password) 2)Requested account, but have not set it up 3)No Account.  If they fit into the first two categories, Lisa will call home to either troubleshoot or help the parent access the account they set up.  If the student does not have an account, our registrar will call home to have the parent fill out an application.  Our goal is to have ALL parents on the Portal to gain access to their student's grades and progress.  When I rejoined Lisa this afternoon, she was quite frustrated with all the phone calls she had to make.  Some parents realized their mistake, while others were impatient with the process of figuring out their mistake.

Tomorrow morning, I will begin my day at Berkmar Middle School observing a 7th grade language arts lesson integrating discoverychannel.com into their lessons.

Time logged on 9/11 & 9/12: 3.5 hours
Total time logged: 26 hours

One Busy Day

My day began at 7:45 this morning with attending a Webinar focusing on integrating technology through DiscoveryEducation.com in the language arts classroom.  On Thursday of this week, I will be observing a lesson at Berkmar Middle School that was discussed this morning.  After the observation and final Webinar, I will be responsible for reporting my findings to the rest of the sixth grade language arts department.  I look forward to seeing how Berkmar integrates technology into their curriculum and being given the opportunity to network with other teachers in our county that will be in attendance. 

During both of my planning hours today, I helped Lisa with a few different tasks.  First, I helped her with comparing the list of students who had not completed required online registration forms to paper copies the students needed to return.  While it wasn't required this year for paper copies to be turned in (one sheet from their agenda books), it certainly helped to narrow down our list of students with outstanding documentation.  Next, Lisa showed me how to go through the My Payments Plus website, where parents pay various school fees and indicate whether they've read required forms, and "simulate" the parent to check off documents.  It's hard to believe that 5 weeks into school that we are STILL completing necessary tasks for registration.

For the students who did not have updated information in the online registration system received a packet of papers to take home with their 4 1/2 week progress check paper to complete.  At the end of the day, I went back up to Lisa's office to help with updating parent contact information and emergency contact information.  This required me to log in to the SASI database and search for a student and change the indicated information.  This process took a while because one student may have phone numbers to change as well as emergency contact information for up to 4 people.  This task will help me wrap up my Internship hours because these sheets will be coming in this week and next as students return their progress check letter.

Today was evidence of how much work our LSTC is responsible for.  The work is very tedious and time consuming at times.  Much of it seems repetitious; however, it is necessary. 

Time logged on 9/10: 4 hours
Total time logged: 22.5 hours

eClass Scavenger Hunt

Our school is currently piloting eClass which provides access to a number of digital tools geared towards specific grade levels and content areas.  Tonight, I created a Scavenger Hunt that Lisa will use for a session she is doing on eClass.  The Scavenger Hunt will allow teachers to explore online resources available to them as well as Collaboration Tools to aid in developing lessons that incorporate technology.  

Time logged on 9/7: 30 minutes
Total time logged: 18.5 hours

Online Registration Data Collection and Techno "Thursday" Update

This morning I helped Lisa with distributing paper copies of the online registration forms to homerooms that still have incomplete registration forms.  I was pleased to see that our number of incomplete registrations is down from 200 to 74!  Woo hoo! Once the students return their completed paperwork next week, I will be able to update data in SASI (a student information database).  Lisa warned me that while this won't be the most exciting thing, it is still one of her responsibilities. 

Later in the day, during my planning time, Lisa and I met to catch up.  During that time, she updated me on the morning technology meetings.  The first change is that it will now be called "Techno Thursdays" (mainly because the dates that were finalized were on Thursdays and not Tuesdays).  Also, instead of teaching two tools per morning session, it will be one.  The topics that will be taught have been changed to: Socrative.com, QR codes, Paper Slide Videos, Digital Media, Blogs, and Wordle.  The morning classes will begin in October and end in May.  I will be leading the class on Socrative.com in November.  I'm looking forward to it!  Lisa also mentioned that if teachers attend all classes, they will earn one professional learning unit.  It's amazing how much the idea of "Techno Thursdays" has evolved so much in just a few weeks! 

While we met today, I asked Lisa for some advice on my Studio project.  A concern I had with my previous idea of a "Techno Thursday" tutorial website was that not many teachers would access it.  She gave me a lead on an awesome idea.  Her idea was for me to create a website for our school to use to honor teachers using technology in their classroom.  The website would contain a form for teachers to nominate colleagues for their usage of technology.  Along with that I could spotlight one Web 2.0 tools per week that could be incorporated into any content area.  What a great idea!!  I can't wait to see how this idea develops.

Time logged on 9/7: 1.5 hours
Total time logged: 18  hours

Techno Tuesday Follow Up and Online Registration

Since my last post, I have updated the Techno Tuesday flier and Lisa has submitted it to our principal for approval.  We also had a preview to what Techno Tuesdays will be like during our monthy curriculum meeting.  The teachers seemed to be interested in the presentation and the demonstrations that were done.  I'm excited to see how it all turns out!

Today, I worked with Lisa on online registration follow ups.  The first step in analyzing the registration data was to clear up any mistakes made with student numbers.  The next step is to filter data to figure out which students are still missing documents in their registration.  Progress Report letters will go out Friday, and Lisa also wants to send out letters to the students with missing documents.  I am realizing how many steps there are to one task.  This is great experience for me, but I am realizing all the jobs Lisa is responsible for!

Time logged: 1.5 hour
Total time logged: 16.5 hours

Techno Tuesdays

Today, I decided on the 8 sessions to be taught over a four month period, created brief descriptions of each tool, and designed the flier that will be distributed to all teachers.  On Monday, I will give Lisa the 1st draft so that she can provide any feedback neccessary.  Since the sessions begin next month, I will need to make any changes necessary as soon as possible so that the flier can be distributed within the next week. 

A draft of the flier is attached below.
Techno Tuesday Flier

Time logged on 8/18: 1 hour
Total time logged: 15 hours

New Project

I was informed today that I have been designated as project manager for a technology initiative we are starting.  The staff will be invited to join the technology committee in the computer lab one Tuesday each month to learn about new technology tools that can be used in the classroom.  Techno Tuesday will meet in the morning at 8:30 until 8:55 when the students report to homeroom, and the staff will learn about two tools per session.  I will be responsible for selecting the Web 2.0 tools to be discussed, designing a flyer to handout to the staff that will advertise the sessions, and informing the technology committee of our plan.  Teachers will be told to bring their computers so that they can practice the tools as they are taught and can create any accounts if neccessary.

Tonight, I began brainstorming ideas for tools and started designing the flyer.  I will speak with Lisa again tomorrow about our next steps.  I'm excited about creating this project and seeing it through!

Time logged on 8/16:  1 hour
Total time logged: 14 hours

Gradebooks, Textbooks, and Pre-Tests

Today was a busy and long day for me as I spent all of my planning time and one hour after school helping Lisa with different things.  I began by helping our 6th grade curriculum leaders set up their gradebooks.  The purpose behind this training was to set grade weights so that teachers may begin to enter grades into our new gradebook.  The curriculum leaders will then assist the grade level teachers to set up their gradebook.  Although I am not a curriculum leader, I will be leading this training for the language arts department tomorrow (8/14) during our weekly meeting. 

My next task was to fix unscannable barcodes on the textbooks.  Students received their textbooks last week, so any textbooks that were unable to be scanned were left in a stack for me to fix. In order to fix these textbooks, I looked up the current barcode in the textbook database, scanned in the new barcode, and attached the new barcode.  These books are now ready to be scanned out to students!

At the end of the day, I scanned in the 6th grade language arts pretests.  This was a time consuming task, and I now understand how much time Lisa spends at a computer just to scan in and record tests for us!  We use a program called Testgate to scan in answers sheets.  After successful scans, scores are then recorded into Elements where teachers can analyze data to guide instruction.      
Time logged on 8/13:  2.5 hours
Total time logged: 13 hours

First Week of School!

I spoke with Lisa on Thursday of this week to discuss upcoming tasks for my internship.  She mentioned that we will need to generate reports from the data received during online registration.  She also mentioned the possibility of me helping with scanning textbooks.  For the time being, she wanted us to get through the first week of school and meet back again on Monday (8/13) at 10:50 during my planning.

Time logged on 8/9:  30 minutes
Total time logged: 10 .5 hours

Open House Update

Overall, Open House went well.  Student schedules were distributed, and those that needed to finish registration in order to receive their schedule were sent to the appropriate location.  Since I was busy meeting my students, I did not get to assist with those needing help with schedules.  I did hear reports from Lisa and the others that were working at the help desk. 

I am sure there are things that can be improved for next year; however, the successes can be attributed to the organization of this process.  I also have a new appreciation for Open House registration!  A lot more goes into this process than I originally thought! 

Mr. Christensen

While working on the QR codes in the computer lab with Lisa, I had the chance to work with a new teacher in our school, Mr. Christensen.  I was actually just to get him started with his classroom website while Lisa attended a meeting.  She would help him when she returned.  When Mr. Christensen came into the lab, I handed him a start up guide and send him the link to create his account.  I soon found out that he was a novice when it came to technology.  He stated a few times, "I'm just not use to this stuff" or "This is hard".  After answering several questions, he asked if he could sit by me in case he had other questions.  Of course, I said he could. 

While setting up his webpage, we were talking about the pages that were required and the ones that were optional.  After he requested me to proof-read his entries, he asked if the "About Me" section was required.  I responded by saying, "No, but most of us write a little blurb about ourselves."  His face lit up, and he started typing.  When he finished, he asked if I would read it.  As I read his webpage, I realized I had more in common with this new science teacher down the hall than I originally thought. 

In short, he began his teaching career as a flight instructor.  I can relate because my father is a pilot and enjoys flying.  We spoke for several minutes about where he has flown and to whom he gave instruction.  He later obtained his teaching certificate at the same university I received my Master's degree, Mercer University.  I also learned that he enjoys running which is one of my hobbies, also.

As we finished up, his attitude had changed completely.  He made the comment about how much easier creating a webpage was compared to what he thought.  He was very appreciative for my help and thanked me several times before leaving the lab.

Lisa actually came back from her meeting while I was helping Mr. Christensen.  She told me after he left that I was doing such a great job with him that she left us alone.  Not only was I able to help out Lisa so she could do other things, I was able to make a lasting impression on a new face to our school and change his mindset about technology!            

The Day Before Open House

Thursday was a long day for me as I attended a 3 hour meeting for ethics training and completed 8.5 internship hours.  My first task was to create and print QR codes for each teacher's door prior to Open House.  The QR codes would link the parents and students to the teacher's webpage.  Since we are a technology-rich school, I thought this would be a wonderful idea to get everyone connected.  After double checking that the QR codes were correctly linked, Lisa and I hung them outside each classroom.  More updates on the codes in a little bit!

After posting the QR codes, Lisa and I started pulling and sorting the registration data.  I have to admit, when working with data of this size (2,000 students) things get stressful!  It amazed me how many parents don't know their child's student number or even which school the child attends.  One parent registered their child on our site when the child actually attends another school not even in our cluster.  This process took awhile as we had to look up the student to correct the wrong IDs.  After the data was corrected, we had to sort the lists into those that were missing any of the following:  immunization, registration card, or MyPaymentsPlus (lunch money and contributions).  While sorting the data there were several times that we had to double check numbers to make sure no one was left out.  It was crucial that students had to be either on the "completed" or "not completed" lists.  If they were on the "not completed" list, we had to determine what was needed for completion.  When it was all said and done, we had 399 students that had not completed all steps of the registration process.  I was amazed!  How can so many people not do something that is so easy??  

So after the lists were made and printed, Lisa and I headed to the main office where we met up with the principal, 6th grade assistant principal, the curriculum and instruction assistant principal, and some of the front office staff to begin the sorting process.  Our task was to sort each and every homeroom into two stacks:  completed and not completed.  The lists of the students that had completed registration included homeroom teachers, so they could proceed to Open House and receiving their schedule.  If the student's name was not on the posted list, they head to the appropriate location to finish registration and then proceed to homeroom.  Whew!  What a process!

At the end of Thursday, I was not only overwhelmed by this process but also in awe of how efficiently all the data was sorted.  While I'm not yet confident to execute this process myself, I gained much insight on all that goes on during registration.

Time logged on 8/2:  8.5 hours
Total time logged:  10 hours

2nd Meeting with Lisa

Yesterday, I met with Lisa to nail down more specifics about online registration.  Parents must have registration for their child/children completed by Thursday, August 2nd  Open House is on the 3rd.  Lisa and I decided we would begin the process of sorting the data already submitted on Wednesday, August 1st.  This way we'll get a head start on compiling our list of students whom do not have registration completed, so on Thursday we would work with the data submitted on the deadline.  Each day a new list will be pulled, and names will be crossed off the intial list leaving only those without completed registration.

I realize this project has the potential to be stressful as we will be very busy with analyzing data for almost 2,000 students.  I am confident in my abilities to work quickly and efficiently to ensure registration goes smoothly on Friday.

Already, I am seeing how busy LSTCs can be!  Along with registration, Lisa is in charge of training the faculty on how to used our newly upgraded laptops which includes an updated version of Lotus Notes, a new method to taking attendance, managing grades, and compiling reports in our new gradebook (PinPoint), and navigating through Gwinnett County's new online intiative, eClass.  Whew!  

Time logged on July 30th:  30 minutes
Total time logged:  1.5 hours  

Initial Internship Meeting

On May 1, 2012, I met with Dr. Lisa LeMoine who is the LSTC (Local School Technology Coordinator) at my school.  Prior to this date, I had discussed options for the internship with my principal, Mrs. Wanda Law.  After discussing some possible ideas for the internship and also keeping in mind that LSTCs do not work during the summer, we decided that I would help with registration once we return to school for pre-planning.  This way I could work closely with the Lisa.  We decided that I would compile and sort data received through the online registration in Microsoft Excel to determine which students have not registered before our Open House on August 2, 2012.  During this meeting, Lisa and I went over the steps below in detail:

1. Download the student information from online registration submissions.
2. Determine duplicates from the downloaded information.
3. Add SASI (Student Information System) information to the spreadsheet.
4. Find duplicates between registration data and SASI information.
5. Eliminate duplicates to find singular entries in either online registration or in SASI.
6. Rectify any student ID errors entered by the parent.
7. Compare data again to SASI to remove duplicates to corrections.
8. Resulting names have not completed registration.
9. Schedules should be pulled for those names on the final list.

After going over the Internship Plan, signing documents, and exchanging contact information, the meeting was concluded.  We agreed to keep in touch over the summer, if needed, and to meet back during pre-planning.

I am excited about working with Lisa, learning more about the duties and responsibilities of an LSTC, developing my skills in the field of technology, and gaining experience in a prospective career.
Time logged on May 1st - 1 hour
Total time logged - 1 hour