Our district provides mentors for teachers that have less than two years experience teaching or two years or less in their assigned subject matter. Mentoring teachers are provided a stipend for their work. Mentor teachers must have completed training, have had three years of successful and exemplary teaching and support for students and have met the requirements assigned by the commissioner of education.
Our district has two lead mentor teachers, one for secondary and one for elementary. These two ladies have a passion for teaching and learning and have a reputation for excellence in all that they do. They are full-time mentors to both new and veteran faculty for as long as they serve. Under these two are all the teacher mentors that have been selected.
A new teacher attends new teacher orientation and receive full training from the mentors. New teachers are trained on the district technology systems. The mentors work to prepare new teachers for their experience in the classrooms and are available to help on any issue.
The response to the program has been extremely positive. Teachers appreciate receiving personalized help in a non-threatening manner. The mentor program that has been developed will grow with the district. In the future, it is hoped that the district may hire a mentor for the special education teachers.
Information retrieved from: http://www.boerne-isd.net/page.cfm?p=4140
Monday, January 31, 2011
EDLD 5345 “Domain II, Competency 6” Course-Embedded Internship Activity Log 2.
Right now, because of the funding issues with the state legislature, our district is not hiring new employees except those that are essential. But in the past, we have participated in job fairs in San Antonio and at the universities located there. We have an online application form, and at times have had as many as 4800 applications for 50 positions. Recruitment is not that hard. We live in the beautiful hill country, outside a major city, in a family-oriented community with conservative values. Many families are drawn here.
To retain our excellent staff, many incentives are in place. A few are: special parking for Teachers of the Year, discounted membership at the local YMCA, discounted day care with a local day care facility, and a local builder offers discounts on homes for teachers. We try to keep up with the pay at the nearby districts so at least to compare well. We have the employee leave bank for major medical issues. We also offer re-imbursement for masters programs at universities like Lamar.
As a principal, I would have to consider my location as a primary influence over whether or not recruitment would be an area of high concern or not. This problem may be lessened if I strive to create great working conditions and administrative support for teachers. Word of mouth comments by current employees would be a major factor influencing the desirableness of a job on my campus. I might have to go to job fairs and universities in search of employees.
I would work with the Chamber of Commerce to create and maintain updated published and web resources for our town that I could refer to and use in my recruitment strategies. I may need to create a contact list at major universities in Texas; so that I could put the word out when I am looking for specific certified job applicants.
To retain our excellent staff, many incentives are in place. A few are: special parking for Teachers of the Year, discounted membership at the local YMCA, discounted day care with a local day care facility, and a local builder offers discounts on homes for teachers. We try to keep up with the pay at the nearby districts so at least to compare well. We have the employee leave bank for major medical issues. We also offer re-imbursement for masters programs at universities like Lamar.
As a principal, I would have to consider my location as a primary influence over whether or not recruitment would be an area of high concern or not. This problem may be lessened if I strive to create great working conditions and administrative support for teachers. Word of mouth comments by current employees would be a major factor influencing the desirableness of a job on my campus. I might have to go to job fairs and universities in search of employees.
I would work with the Chamber of Commerce to create and maintain updated published and web resources for our town that I could refer to and use in my recruitment strategies. I may need to create a contact list at major universities in Texas; so that I could put the word out when I am looking for specific certified job applicants.
EDLD 5345 - “Domain I, Competency 3” Course-Embedded Internship Activity Log 2. The Review of Chapter 247 of the Texas Administrative Code
Through recent changes in the law, the State Board for Educator Certification not longer accepts complaints against professional educators. The Texas Education Agency handles the complaints made at the state level. In all cases, the TEA expects individuals to follow the chain of command established through the local school policy. They also do not accept complaints on areas that have not been established through the legislature.
The TEA website states “If after completing the complaint process at the district level, a person believes he or she is aggrieved by the actions or decisions of the district's board of trustees that violate the school laws, the person may appeal the board of trustees’ written decision to the commissioner of education. The process for requesting TEA Hearings and Appeals under §7.057 of the Texas Education Code is described in §157.1073 of the Texas Administrative Code.” (Retrieved January 30, 2011 from http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.7.htm#7.05)
An individual who does not accept the decision of the local school board may request to appeal the decision to TEA. This mostly includes contract decisions, but may include other issues as well. Anyone who is an adult and has interacted with a certified or certify-seeking individual in such a negative way as to consider them to be unfit for the profession can file a complaint. If they have followed all the local chain of command procedures and the local school board policies, and they are unhappy about the school board decision at the appeal process there; then an individual may request an appeal to TEA.
In the Texas Administrative Code, a principal is expected to have high moral character in all areas of their lives. One area that principals are expected to always be truthful is in regards to school monies. Principals may “not submit fraudulent requests for reimbursements, expenses or pay.” (Standard 1.3) This would mean that a principal could not sign up to go to a conference that happens to be in Miami, Florida, and then spend the entire time on the beach. The expectation would be that the principal is attending the conference for most of the day. So if another administrator from the district notices their absence and sees a picture of them on the beach, the beach-loving principal may have an ethics complaint against him.
Another situation where a principal or educator may face an ethics complaint would be in the acceptance of a large gift that may be seen as giving a special advantage. If a principal was offered floor seats for the Spurs basketball season from a parent, and he accepted them; he may face an ethics complaint when he fails to discipline the child of the parent who gave him the tickets. (Standard 1.5)
Another area where an educator may violate the ethics code against a colleague is when the educator makes false statements, lies and twists information to place the victim in a bad light for the purpose of causing them harm in their career. (Standard 2.2) Standard 3.7 states “the educator shall not furnish alcohol or illegal/unauthorized drugs to a student”. An educator would violate this standard if they invited students to their home for a post game party and supplied a keg of beer for their consumption.
An educator would also find themselves faced with ethics complaint if they choose to send inappropriate text messages to a student so as to begin or imply a desire for a romantic relationship. (Standard 3.6) Possible consequences of an ethics complaint could include a criminal investigation by law enforcement officials if any laws are broken, a reprimand letter may be placed in the individual’s permanent file, restitution may be sought for money lost by the district, and a poor evaluation may be received by the educator and quite possibly nonrenewal of their contract.
My example
Standard 3.7 states “the educator shall not furnish alcohol or illegal/unauthorized drugs to a student”. An educator would violate this standard if they invited students to their home for a post game party and supplied a keg of beer for their consumption.
As a principal in this situation, I would gather all the facts regarding the incident and present them to the educator with my decision. If I also knew that this educator had deficits in their teaching skills and classroom achievement, I would feel more empowered. But either way, I would terminate the employee. It is illegal to serve alcohol to minors. The educator has broken the law, and will also probably face legal ramifications for their act of stupidity.
The TEA website states “If after completing the complaint process at the district level, a person believes he or she is aggrieved by the actions or decisions of the district's board of trustees that violate the school laws, the person may appeal the board of trustees’ written decision to the commissioner of education. The process for requesting TEA Hearings and Appeals under §7.057 of the Texas Education Code is described in §157.1073 of the Texas Administrative Code.” (Retrieved January 30, 2011 from http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.7.htm#7.05)
An individual who does not accept the decision of the local school board may request to appeal the decision to TEA. This mostly includes contract decisions, but may include other issues as well. Anyone who is an adult and has interacted with a certified or certify-seeking individual in such a negative way as to consider them to be unfit for the profession can file a complaint. If they have followed all the local chain of command procedures and the local school board policies, and they are unhappy about the school board decision at the appeal process there; then an individual may request an appeal to TEA.
In the Texas Administrative Code, a principal is expected to have high moral character in all areas of their lives. One area that principals are expected to always be truthful is in regards to school monies. Principals may “not submit fraudulent requests for reimbursements, expenses or pay.” (Standard 1.3) This would mean that a principal could not sign up to go to a conference that happens to be in Miami, Florida, and then spend the entire time on the beach. The expectation would be that the principal is attending the conference for most of the day. So if another administrator from the district notices their absence and sees a picture of them on the beach, the beach-loving principal may have an ethics complaint against him.
Another situation where a principal or educator may face an ethics complaint would be in the acceptance of a large gift that may be seen as giving a special advantage. If a principal was offered floor seats for the Spurs basketball season from a parent, and he accepted them; he may face an ethics complaint when he fails to discipline the child of the parent who gave him the tickets. (Standard 1.5)
Another area where an educator may violate the ethics code against a colleague is when the educator makes false statements, lies and twists information to place the victim in a bad light for the purpose of causing them harm in their career. (Standard 2.2) Standard 3.7 states “the educator shall not furnish alcohol or illegal/unauthorized drugs to a student”. An educator would violate this standard if they invited students to their home for a post game party and supplied a keg of beer for their consumption.
An educator would also find themselves faced with ethics complaint if they choose to send inappropriate text messages to a student so as to begin or imply a desire for a romantic relationship. (Standard 3.6) Possible consequences of an ethics complaint could include a criminal investigation by law enforcement officials if any laws are broken, a reprimand letter may be placed in the individual’s permanent file, restitution may be sought for money lost by the district, and a poor evaluation may be received by the educator and quite possibly nonrenewal of their contract.
My example
Standard 3.7 states “the educator shall not furnish alcohol or illegal/unauthorized drugs to a student”. An educator would violate this standard if they invited students to their home for a post game party and supplied a keg of beer for their consumption.
As a principal in this situation, I would gather all the facts regarding the incident and present them to the educator with my decision. If I also knew that this educator had deficits in their teaching skills and classroom achievement, I would feel more empowered. But either way, I would terminate the employee. It is illegal to serve alcohol to minors. The educator has broken the law, and will also probably face legal ramifications for their act of stupidity.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
December 2010 Reflection for Field Based Activities
This month was spent in the Digital Graphics, Animation and Desktop Publishing Class 5366. Here I learned many tricks of the trade concerning graphic design and publishing. Although tedious work, the course was fun and will prove beneficial no matter what my job prospects are after completion of the program. My son is still enjoying the Scratch software I downloaded on the home computer – making animations of how to put together lego creatures.
I have spent my time reorganizing and rewriting my internship plan. I hope to get much done on this requirement before June. I have it organized by activity and not by ISTE standards, which helps me see what needs to be done. If I have the time, I may create a second document to show that each standard is covered.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I have spent my time reorganizing and rewriting my internship plan. I hope to get much done on this requirement before June. I have it organized by activity and not by ISTE standards, which helps me see what needs to be done. If I have the time, I may create a second document to show that each standard is covered.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
EDLD 5366 Course Embedded Reflection
Week 5 Assignment 1.3
Self-AssessmentCreating a newsletter seemed like a huge task to me. I had previously used many aspects of the newsletter design in other projects, but had not recently needed to put all these together into my own newsletter. New knowledge that I have gained creating a newsletter is mainly the use of graphic design techniques. I had never learned about content, proximity, repetition, and alignment as used in graphic design in any organized way.
Also, I had never studied about evaluating newsletters or thinking about planning a newsletter. In the online article, the newsletter evaluation criteria were very useful to me. It explains that to create a meaningful newsletter; we need to identify the audience, format, content, and layout. (Lamb, 2005) The article Planning Newsletters stated “Before investing the time in producing a newsletter, consider designing a survey to find out what parents want.” (Lamb, 2005) Although I do not have a group of parents to survey, I did email my mentor with different ideas for the newsletter. I hope some of the information in it will be useful to the school. My favorite part of my newsletter is the teacher dos and don’ts for Facebook.
Learn as a LearnerTo complete the assignment, I first determined that I would create a newsletter on the teacher use of social media and electronic communication with students. Because I wanted to make sure I came up with some good information, I had been keeping a watchful eye out for articles on this topic. The Chronicles of Higher Education emailed out an article on “de-friending” which I thought was useful (Perlmutter, 2010). Second, TEA released the new ethics code (TEA, 2010) for teacher use of texting which I received in a TASB blurb. I also received an evaluation of the new code, or rather of the process for updating the code, from ATPE. I chose not to use this article because it was really political and not informational. And third, I found some online posters by Edudemic on Facebook use by teachers that I thought were very smart. The title for the newsletter became “Digital Social Wisdom” and I was set to get it into the required format.
Our discussion forum did not require us to discuss or share our newsletters, but I did glean advice from my classmates on the mechanics of making the newsletter through Skype. I also received help from my high school senior who is extremely proficient in Word. My biggest fear was that I would not be able to get the text and graphics in the places that I wanted them. But the program was not difficult and I think it came out nice.
Lifelong Learning SkillsCreating a newsletter was a very useful task to me. Right now, I am involved in many clubs and church activities. Newsletters are a great way to publicize your ministry or event. Already, I have been asked to create a newsletter for a ministry that trains women in job skills. Hopefully, they will like the product! I also will make a family newsletter later this spring. Sending out Christmas newsletters seemed daunting to me, so it may be an Easter newsletter.
In the future, I would like to become more proficient at adding borders to the text that is included in the newsletters I create. Borders would be an added touch that would help the eye to focus on the different parts of the newsletter.
My Ed Tech cohort friends are the best. For sure, one of the blessings of this degree is the friends I have made.
Lamb, A. (2005). Evaluating newsletters. Retrieved from http://eduscapes.com/sessions/publishing/evaluating.htm
Lamb, A. (2005). Planning newsletters. Retrieved from http://eduscapes.com/sessions/publishing/planning.htm
Perlmutter, D. (2010). Knowing when to defriend. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Knowing-When-to-Defriend/125619/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Posters on Facebook use can be found at http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/fbteacher_fullsize.pdf
Self-AssessmentCreating a newsletter seemed like a huge task to me. I had previously used many aspects of the newsletter design in other projects, but had not recently needed to put all these together into my own newsletter. New knowledge that I have gained creating a newsletter is mainly the use of graphic design techniques. I had never learned about content, proximity, repetition, and alignment as used in graphic design in any organized way.
Also, I had never studied about evaluating newsletters or thinking about planning a newsletter. In the online article, the newsletter evaluation criteria were very useful to me. It explains that to create a meaningful newsletter; we need to identify the audience, format, content, and layout. (Lamb, 2005) The article Planning Newsletters stated “Before investing the time in producing a newsletter, consider designing a survey to find out what parents want.” (Lamb, 2005) Although I do not have a group of parents to survey, I did email my mentor with different ideas for the newsletter. I hope some of the information in it will be useful to the school. My favorite part of my newsletter is the teacher dos and don’ts for Facebook.
Learn as a LearnerTo complete the assignment, I first determined that I would create a newsletter on the teacher use of social media and electronic communication with students. Because I wanted to make sure I came up with some good information, I had been keeping a watchful eye out for articles on this topic. The Chronicles of Higher Education emailed out an article on “de-friending” which I thought was useful (Perlmutter, 2010). Second, TEA released the new ethics code (TEA, 2010) for teacher use of texting which I received in a TASB blurb. I also received an evaluation of the new code, or rather of the process for updating the code, from ATPE. I chose not to use this article because it was really political and not informational. And third, I found some online posters by Edudemic on Facebook use by teachers that I thought were very smart. The title for the newsletter became “Digital Social Wisdom” and I was set to get it into the required format.
Our discussion forum did not require us to discuss or share our newsletters, but I did glean advice from my classmates on the mechanics of making the newsletter through Skype. I also received help from my high school senior who is extremely proficient in Word. My biggest fear was that I would not be able to get the text and graphics in the places that I wanted them. But the program was not difficult and I think it came out nice.
Lifelong Learning SkillsCreating a newsletter was a very useful task to me. Right now, I am involved in many clubs and church activities. Newsletters are a great way to publicize your ministry or event. Already, I have been asked to create a newsletter for a ministry that trains women in job skills. Hopefully, they will like the product! I also will make a family newsletter later this spring. Sending out Christmas newsletters seemed daunting to me, so it may be an Easter newsletter.
In the future, I would like to become more proficient at adding borders to the text that is included in the newsletters I create. Borders would be an added touch that would help the eye to focus on the different parts of the newsletter.
My Ed Tech cohort friends are the best. For sure, one of the blessings of this degree is the friends I have made.
Lamb, A. (2005). Evaluating newsletters. Retrieved from http://eduscapes.com/sessions/publishing/evaluating.htm
Lamb, A. (2005). Planning newsletters. Retrieved from http://eduscapes.com/sessions/publishing/planning.htm
Perlmutter, D. (2010). Knowing when to defriend. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Knowing-When-to-Defriend/125619/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Posters on Facebook use can be found at http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/fbteacher_fullsize.pdf
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Field-Based Monthly Reflection for November 2010
This month I attended the school board meeting to hear the Instructional Technology director share with the board about 21st Century learning and skills. She spoke about the four C’s – creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. She also spoke about how the core subjects needed to be expounded upon with the help of technology to incorporate the life skills needed in our changing world. Students need to be taught responsible and accountable use of the internet. Students also need to have a good understanding of how to evaluate media as to whether the information received is accurate. Twenty first century learning also includes the use of technology to integrate global awareness which includes economic, financial, cultural and environmental literacy.
Several ways that teachers in our district are collaborating and communicating are through the use of wikis, creating podcasts, twittering, blogging and skyping. Some classrooms are also using Google docs.
Several students have shown interest in the new Texas Tech Engineering class that will be offered in the fall. The two high schools and one middle school have been recently given wireless capabilities so that students can use their iTouches, iPads, and phones for research in classrooms with limited technology resources.
The district is also experimenting with Exemplar Bundles that are a depository for lessons that teachers can share. Each teacher can have their own edublog which would include a rubric, lesson and student product.
One board member asked if there were any incentives to get teachers to put their work on the web. Another expressed appreciation of the addition of WiFi, so that more devices would be available for student use. A comment was made over whether providing internet to the poorer sections of the community could be done through a future bond election.
This month, I also had the opportunity to share a simulation website with a science teacher. The website is full of simulations that teachers can incorporate into lab work. The students can plug in the data to see the results of their experiments without the cost of the materials. This website is: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new.
Several ways that teachers in our district are collaborating and communicating are through the use of wikis, creating podcasts, twittering, blogging and skyping. Some classrooms are also using Google docs.
Several students have shown interest in the new Texas Tech Engineering class that will be offered in the fall. The two high schools and one middle school have been recently given wireless capabilities so that students can use their iTouches, iPads, and phones for research in classrooms with limited technology resources.
The district is also experimenting with Exemplar Bundles that are a depository for lessons that teachers can share. Each teacher can have their own edublog which would include a rubric, lesson and student product.
One board member asked if there were any incentives to get teachers to put their work on the web. Another expressed appreciation of the addition of WiFi, so that more devices would be available for student use. A comment was made over whether providing internet to the poorer sections of the community could be done through a future bond election.
This month, I also had the opportunity to share a simulation website with a science teacher. The website is full of simulations that teachers can incorporate into lab work. The students can plug in the data to see the results of their experiments without the cost of the materials. This website is: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Animation - Assignment 5366 Week 3
This was really fun to make! My boys will enjoy making their own. Merry Christmas!!
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