Course+Embedded+reflections

• The Internship requires a minimum of 150 course-embedded hours. (Required) || Time Spent on Activity || Description of Activity || Reflection (150 words or less describing what you learned from this activity) (Required) ||
 * **Course-Embedded Internship Summary and Validation Report ** ||
 * Directions: This report should summarize all Course-Embedded Internship Activities that have been recorded in the log forms. You will submit this completed form in your 12th course.
 * Name: Tamia Washington **
 * Total Number of Hours: 150 ** ||
 * State Competency Standard /** ISTE Technology Facilitation Standard ** || Course Number || Date Completed
 * ** II.6 **

Fundamentals of Technology || 9/28/2009 || 7 hrs || Students will collaborate with the school supervisor and develop the 18 month internship plan. Plans will be based on self-assessment findings, professional goals, and the unique needs of the intern and school. || After completing this course I learned the importance of technology. I have a new outlook and perspective on how our students learn. I also found myself putting students’ lack of success and motivation on the student and parent but yet never really evaluated my performance. Thinking about my students and everything they are exposed to through technology such as emailing, texting, instant messaging, Facebook and MySpace. It is only logically to use some of those tools within my lesson. The most enlighten moment that I had was when I read the article on digital native versus digital immigrants. This was when I had a light bulb turned on and everything made sense. It was clear that the reason why we have been having such a learning gap is due to this key element of technology. When I think about their fast pace life and their variety learning styles when they come into my room it is very structured and old fashion (pen and pencil) with PowerPoint slides on occasion so it’s clear why I bore so many of students. I definitely feel that I can help implement some simple and easy changes. Though, are campus is lacking with the technology resources I can use and expose teachers to the wiki site. Through this site they have the opportunity to gather ideas and knowledge on ways to integrate technology. Another key that I found very beneficial was the knowledge I gain on the Texas STaR Chart. This is a great way to track teacher and schools progress. || Fundamentals of Leadership ||  || 8 hrs || Students develop an educational vita noting all professional experience, education, relevant training, professional organizations, and references. The vita will become part of the professional portfolio and used to note strengths and areas for further development in devising the internship plan. || Did not take N/A ||
 * TF-I, TF-II, TF-V, TF-VI, TF-VII, **
 * TF-VIII ** || EDLD 5306
 * ** II.6 **
 * TF-I, TF-II, TF-V, TF-VI, TF-VII, **
 * TF-VIII ** || EDLD 5311
 * ** II.6 **

Research || 11/11/2011 || 10 hrs || Students engage in identifying an action research topic(s) or research question(s) and designing a draft action plan completing a recommended template or format of a blueprint of the action research plan. || This course has been very informative when looking at and developing an action plan. It allows me to explore areas which will have an impact on my action plan. This course also allowed me to observe the demands and outlook on a principal’s role within a campus. I learned that research is ongoing there is always a research being implemented to improve the status of a campus or a district. It’s not just the job of one person but a joint effort or collaboration must take place in order for improvement to occur. When developing an action plan the researcher must look at many different areas such as data, technology, and literatures which is align with the field. From this a plan can be carried out throughout the duration of a plan the researcher must have reflections which allows them to evaluate their strengths and weakness. I really valued the video from the three educators from principals to the superintendent they all discussed the importance of a data driven school. It definitely allowed me to have a better understanding of my principal expectation and directives on our campus. Data allows one to track the strength and weakness of the campus even down to the individual student. It gives the administrators an idea of how they perform in the future and give the adequate amount of information of which students, group to target. I was able to practice the skill of reflection. This was something that was new to me and I definitely had to warm up to the idea on blogging. I was pleased with how beneficial this can be it allows one to network among peers and communicate the personal experiences throughout their plan. Many of the readings were discussed in the assignments and overall, I learned that there are many components of a research plan. The assignments allowed use to develop a research questions, discuss the challenges we may face, and think about changes that can alter the plan. I believe the information was very helpful and will be used as I continue to carry out my plan. ||
 * TF-III, TF-IV ** || EDLD 5301
 * || EDLD 5301 || 11/11/2011 || 5 hrs || Students review comments from colleagues and site supervisors and engage in revising their draft action research plan. By the end of Week 5, students should confer with their site supervisor(s) and agree on an action research topic and plan. || Although, I have received positive feedback about my research plan. My initial question that I took to my principal was “how will technology effect low performing students”? He mentioned that was a fairly broad topic to research and may need to narrow the search. So that is when I came up with my new research plan that I was able to post on the discussion board. “What impact will Reasoning Minds have on sixth grade math students’ performance? I mentioned how the program Reasoning Minds would be student driven. It allows the student to work independently throughout the duration of the program. I was suggested from someone on the discussion board to explore how that may effective the 5e model lesson. Since this program minimize the traditional role of a teacher and just allow them to act as an active facilitator. Based on the end results I will be able to evaluate how effective reasoning minds will be and how it impacted the 5e lesson cycle. This program makes me think is technology replacing the role a teacher play within the classroom. He/she is no longer responsible for presenting a lesson but simple just facilitating one. Based on that feedback, I do not plan on changing anything within the research, but I will observe how effective this program is when I begin to monitor students’ performance on a weekly basis. ||
 * ** I.1 **

Leadership for Accountability || 07/09/2012 || 5 hrs || Students create a personal vision of leadership. || From developing a personal vision for leadership I learned that it sets a roadmap for what direction you want your campus to go. It ultimately allows all staff to understand the goal that is set out to accomplish. Throughout the school year principals must make decisions and carryout rules based on the interest of the schools vision or goal. This vision is one that a campus is striving to accomplish. In order for a principal to development a campus vision/goal he or she must be able to effectively address the concerns of the campus. If the principal is able to address the weak areas then the vision can be developed with the target area in mind. If all staff understands and can articulate the vision at hand then implementation will become effective. In order to effectively carry ideas out technology should be the main course of action. It helps increase productivity among all which includes both faculty and students. ||
 * TF-I, TF-IV, TF-V, TF-VI, TF-VIII ** || EDLD 5333
 * ** I.1 **

Leadership for Accountability || 07/09/2012 || 5 hrs || Students attend a Site-Based Decision-Making (SBDM) meeting, record reflections, and interview the principal and one other staff member regarding collaboration, consensus building strategies, ethical relationships, typical agenda items, etc. || From the interviews which were conducted on the course of the 5 weeks I obtain quite a bit of vital information. The main concepts which I had prior knowledge about from the SBDM committee were that they were nominated annually from the teachers on campus. This committee is identified on our campus are the CEIC committee conducted meeting every so often however; I have never been exposed to the information which is discuss at those meetings. By interview a member of the site base committee and the principal correlated pretty well with one another. Both of them mentioned the same issue which was the campus concern by the teachers and faculty. The most surprising part of the interview was the involvement of other stakeholders such as parents and community leader. I never knew the committee consisted of other people other than teachers. Overall, the interviews which were conducted were very informative and a good experience to have a greater understanding of what goes on behind the scenes of the campus ||
 * TF-I, TF-IV, TF-V, TF-VI, TF-VIII ** || EDLD 5333
 * ** I.1 **

Leadership for Accountability || 07/09/2012 || 5hrs || Students demonstrate leadership for accountability by researching best practices, including specific professional development to address a target area and list the strategies and rationale for using each strategy. || By 2014 the subgroup of economic disadvantage will score 90% or higher on all tested subjects. This was a vision that I set forth with students on my campus. I research some practices such as an article entitled How to Survive Data Overload”This will article addressed the professional development needs of our campus. I believe in order to reach a target objective or goal than the staff has to understand previous scores. By using the Reflection Guide and Team Dialogue Guide then teachers can analyze and discuss changes on what should be modified or implemented for the future.By evaluating articles it provides useful strategies in improving scores. It has provided me with helpful tips in how to approach instructional practices which differs from previous methods. ||
 * TF-I, TF-IV, TF-V, TF-VI, TF-VIII ** || EDLD 5333
 * ** I.1 **

Leadership for Accountability || 07/09//2012 || 5 hrs || Students conduct a data-based needs assessment. Based on the areas of need identified, students create a campus action plan to address the needs identified including professional development plans, allocation of resources to support the plan, and any tools needed for school improvement efforts || By analyzing the data from my campus I was able to address the needs and focus on the areas of concerns. I was able to understand the true importance of data desegregation. It allows one to zoom in and develop a short term and long term action plan. Which will eventually led to student improvement in the future. Based on the data I was to generate a plan addressing students’ areas of concern and alter instruction based on those low student expectations. When analyzing the campus AEIS report it was clear to understand and identify the need of our campus which is our economic disadvantage specifically African American male population. Even more specifically in the subject of reading was a major concern while the other subject areas had recognized ratings. My short term goal is to reach 85% on the reading considering this is a weak subject area and caused our campus to miss AYP. By incorporating reading techniques and strategies in all subject area there will be a guarantee increase in other tested subject areas. Therefore, the long term goal will be more attainable. By 2014 the subgroup of economic disadvantage will score 90% or higher on all tested subjects. If our campus is able to address one subject area for improvement then others tested area will make improvements. ||
 * TF-I, TF-IV, TF-V, TF-VI, TF-VIII ** || EDLD 5333
 * ** I.1 **


 * TF-I, TF-IV, TF-V, TF-VI, TF-VIII ** || EDLD 5333- Leadership for Accountability || 07/09/2012 2012 || 5 hrs || Students conduct a data-driven, comprehensive needs assessment using the latest AYP and AEIS data, a multi-year history of this data, and a comparable improvement report. || When looking at the AYP standards and my campus AEIS report ultimately I figured out the true meaning of each terms. AYP is a standard set on a federal level with the bill of NCLB act. The goal of this will be 100% success rate for all students by the year of 2014. The main subject the AYP is observing is the content of reading and math. While the AEIS report is a campus report card it has a breakdown of all subgroups which gives the educator a more detailed insight on what are the weakness and strengths of the campus. After evaluating the CI report from the TEA website it gave a detail indication of how our campus scored in comparison to other schools across the state. In 2011 in both reading and math the campus was found in the 4th quartile. In the subject area of reading in 2010 the average scale score was 714 which was quite higher then that overall average of schools on the provided list which was 696. However, the average scale score in 2011 was 729 which were quite lower than the other averages of 735. Though, there was improvement of the scores from the previous year the gains were not as much higher as the schools within the state. When observing math I wasn’t expecting to see a major difference between my campus and other similar demographic schools within the state. Needless to say, my hypothesis was correct our math scale score average was lower than the states in both 2010 and 2011. In 2010 the average score for the campus was 685 while the states were 693 and in 2011 the score was 715 which were just below the 719 state averages. Although, in some years my campus scored below the overall average we were still located in the same range. This information allows me to see that other economic disadvantage schools maybe struggling with the same issues in certain criteria than other campuses. ||
 * ** II.6 **

School Law ||  || 15 hrs || Application of learning by designing a remediation to a situation you would like to improve in your school. In your School-Based Analysis, you familiarized yourself with special education policies in your state and school district. For your Application, you will use this knowledge as you follow a fictional student, Julia, who has just enrolled at your school. You will develop an Individualized Education Program for “Joseph,” monitor how her program is implemented in the classroom, and use your knowledge of student rights and school management to make sound decisions when she engages in behavior that calls for disciplinary action. This assignment will require you to use knowledge gained from your lectures and readings, and from communication with leaders at your school, including your principal, special education coordinator, and classroom teachers. Your final step will be to make suggestions about how management policies and procedures for special education students at your school can be improved. In all instances, you are expected to cite relevant law and/or policy that you used to formulate your answers. || Did not take N/A ||
 * TF-VI ** || EDLD 5344
 * ** I.3 **

Human Resource Mgt || 08/20/2012 || 5 hrs || Students review Chapter 247 of the Texas Administrative Code, "Educators' Code of Ethics," conduct observations and/or interviews in your school, and use the results of those observations interviews to complete the "Code of Ethics Mind walk." || When learning about the code of ethics it was very insightful. Learning and analyzing the code of ethics for a district level and being able to learn ways to address faculty and staff when certain codes are broken has been great resources. The assignment which allowed me to generate possible interviewing questions and then later reflect to see if it meets ethically codes or not is something which needs to be used and reinforced by all administrative staff. When learning more about Educators’ Code of Ethics I learned the three overall ethical or practices which can result in a complaint consist of anything that goes against a traditional moral code 1. “The educator shall apply for, accept, offer, or assign a position or a responsibility on the basis of professional qualifications”. 2. “The educator shall not harm others by knowingly making false statements about a colleague or the school system”. 3. “The educators shall not reveal confidential information concerning students unless disclosure serves lawful professional purposes or is required by law”. Each of the following possible complaints addresses one of the three major categories. Overall, my understanding of my district polices and procedures seem to be one which is common to most professional work places. The main idea of the policies addresses that our district does not discriminate against any other parties which include race, gender, age or disabilities. It addresses the standards and requirements of teachers such as no use of illegal drugs, no forms of unnecessary contact or communication, and understanding law requirements with the use of technology among students. ||
 * TF-VI, **
 * TF-VII ** || EDLD 5345
 * ** II.6 **

Human Resource Mgt || 08/20/2012 || 5 hrs || Students conduct an interview with an administrator at their school regarding strategies for recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers and administrators. || This allows me to really understand the process it takes not only to hire high- qualified teachers but also must learn ways to retain them. Looking back on my first year of teaching I never truly understood the purpose of having a mentor teacher. However, I grasp the concept now it is Texas plan to ensure that the turnover rate for teachers will not be high. Making teachers are fully equipped to be in the classroom and ensuring retention professional development is another necessity within our district. During the interview I was able to evaluate many of my principal criteria when interviewing new prospective teachers and to retain job employment of current teachers. One of the main thing he ask all new hirers is for them to present a lesson modeling the 5e lesson plans and have them describe their classroom management skills. In order to reduce the turnover rate amongst current teachers he is big on rewarding teachers for their success within the classroom. ||
 * TF-VI, **
 * TF-VII ** || EDLD 5345
 * ** II.6 **

Human Resource Mgt ||  || 5 hrs || Students access the policies and procedures in place in their district related to teacher mentoring programs by accessing the district's webpage or contacting district Human Resources Office and reflect on the policies in place for mentoring induction. || By evaluating the districts mentoring program it gave me a more understanding on why teachers have mentors. According to state regulations it is mandatory for all districts who receive a particular state funding to participate in the state mentoring program. This course allowed me to understand requirements more of those requirements such as learning about hiring methods and types of contracts as well as principal role in regard of communicating with human resources. Throughout the course of this internship I have learned the most effective way for educational leaders to promote a campus with positive culture and effective instructional programs is to design communities and being actively involved. Administrators need to understand and know what is taking place among the campus building a relationship among teachers and students. By doing this, it will build respect and trust within staff. Also the development of communities establishes relationships amongst teachers to actively share and exchange ideas to formulate effective teaching. ||
 * TF-VI, **
 * TF-VII ** || EDLD 5345
 * ** II.6 **

Human Resource Mgt || 08/20/2012 || 5 hrs || Students complete the Cultural Proficiency Receptivity Scale, use the Cultural Proficiency Professional Development Rubric to assess the level of professional development at their campus or workplace, and identify and describe where and how their campus has responded to each of the elements of Cultural Proficiency || When reflecting back on the survey most of my responses were mainly fours but had a few threes. I believe each competency addressed very important needs of what the campus principal should carry out at their campus. Under domain I it dealt with school community leadership enforcing the vision and providing unity within the campus and all stakeholders. The competencies under this domain are the foundation for the school’s culture it allows everyone to come together for the better of the students and the campus. However; what I notice within the campus has not always been valued or enforced at our school. I believe there is a lack of community and parent involvement our campus is in drier needs to increase the number of PTA support. Within the domain II Instructional Leadership was my highest scoring category compared to the other two competencies. In domain II it states that the principal knows how to advocate, nurture, and sustain an instructional program and a campus culture that are conducive to student learning and staff professional growth. This is a category that our principal does hold somewhat high on many competencies he expresses the importance of professional development and often times use funding to help support teachers development. What I have not notice at from the campus is diagnose campus organizational health and morale. I also feel like this is a very important domain it promotes teachers to engage in ongoing learning due to this development ultimately leads to students’ success. Domain III Administrative Leadership was a area that my campus scored fairly average. The lowest scoring area was the development and implementing of plans for using technology and information systems to enhance school management. This is an area that I often do not see happening on the campus; currently the campus is developing the technologyresources . ||
 * TF-VI, **
 * TF-VII ** || EDLD 5345
 * ** I.2 **


 * TF-V ** || EDLD 5326 School Community Relations || 10/01/12 2012 || 5 hrs || Students develop a plan for a family-school-community partnership(s) to increase student achievement || Within this assignment I was able to generate a plan which addresses the needs of my campus. Once the need was addressed then I was able to come up with ways to merge school, parents and community. The need that my campus needed to address was the Hispanic population, vocabulary and student involvement through sports to improve grades. The plan to involve more parental involvement was to develop the communication amongst staff and parents. This line of communication will develop through phone trees, newsletters and media channels. Many obstacles we face within the campus deals with students which have limited real life experience therefore; vocabulary is an area where we stress the importance. Also research has shown that sports can improve students’ performance. So, if we can incorporate more afterschool activities it will draw students’ attention therefore allowing us to use 1 hour as an academic enrichment and the second hour as a sports camp. This will definitely increase the rise of students’ performance. ||
 * ** I.2 **


 * TF-V ** || EDLD 5326 School Community Relations || 10/01/2012 || 5 hrs || Students develop a presentation to be given to key stakeholders in their school that emphasizes the importance of parental-community involvement to student achievement. || When developing a presentation which would be presented to stakeholder dealt with two afterschool programs such as PTA and our afterschool ACE program. Both of these programs are under new leadership. The main issues I have noticed from the past when dealing with these two programs are the lack of communication/advertisement of the programs. Many of the meetings or activities which they would conduct were limited to how they inform children, parents or teachers and staff. The main influential community leader which I would continue to use and involve is Exxon Mobil. This company has provide numerous of funding to our campus to ensure the success of our students from donating books to update our library and by providing engineers who tutor students for our afterschool tutorial program. Their involvement has contributed too many of the success which is seen from the academic growth in our students of the past few years. In order to ensure that our parental involvement complies with the federal regulations it is important to ensure that the leadership team of parental involvement and the administrative staff are familiar with these regulations and meet frequent to make sure they are on the right track to comply with all laws. ||
 * I.2 **
 * I.2 **


 * TF-I, TF-II, TF-III, TF-V ** || EDLD 5363 Video Technology and Multimedia || Fall 2011 || 15 hrs || Create a public service announcement for parents and community partners. Capture and integrate sound, video, and digital images; create RSSfeeds; and publish the final product on the web. Use short teacher and student interviews to focus on 21st century technology for engagement and achievement. || This is the last and final week of this course. The course has been very challenging mainly because of the amount of collaboration that was expected from us. I am so use to working at my own pace and at my own time. Unfortunately, this was something I could not do I had to stay in constant communication with my other team members. Week three our group collaborate very well we designate each person to complete an assignment. One created the script, I created the shot list, another member edit the script and the other created the storyboard. On the fourth week one member was responsible for the actual filming of the video while the other members and myself collaborated to work on other aspects of the editing. Throughout, these weeks we communicated frequently on google docs as well as through email. In the final week clips were placed in the drop box allowing us to view the clips. After many clips and discussion of editing final PSA was loaded into YouTube. This video informs the audience of the importance of cancer and what we can do to help support this disease. Overall, I think our group worked fairly well considering the limitations such as the amount of people in the group, the distance among the members and the conflict of schedules ||
 * ** III.8, III.9 **


 * TF-I, TF-V, TF-VI, **
 * TF-VII ** || EDLD 5362 Information Systems Management || 11/12/ 2012 || 6 hrs || Analyze district technology after completing interviews with at least two school administrators who are involved with the planning and budgeting of technology. || When interviewing campus and district administrators I was able to evaluate the district plan in the integrating of technology. Through this plan the goal is to be a technology driven district which allows students and teachers to teach curriculum and evaluate it through the use of software programs. Along this plan the district plan on restructure the campus technology infrastructure. Campuses will have more funding to purchase computers ultimately allowing students to have a 1:1 ratio of students and computers. Through the use of the movement for technology; teachers will receive new devices such as tablets, smart boards, data projectors and enough bandwidth to support all devices with the district/campus. Campus budgeting for technology ultimately depends on the principal’s decision however, understanding the benefit technology plays in the education of our students many principals rely heavily on this drive for technology. My campus principal understands and realize the importance technology has in education through a large portion of this budget is allocated to fund technology based materials. ||
 * ** III.8, III.9 **


 * TF-I, TF-V, TF-VI, **
 * TF-VII ** || EDLD 5362 Information Systems Management || 11/12/ 2012 || 5 hrs || Students will evaluate and analyze a school district’s Student Information System, including the evaluation of total cost of ownership, feature set, ease of use, customer support, and training. || During this course I was able to become more knowledgeable on my districts Student Information System. My district does not currently have a SIS system which allows 24 hour access to course work or accessibility to class materials. However, the district uses Parent self-serve portal Eduphoria and a system referred to as TEAMS. The parent self-serve allows parents to access their child’s grade and view missing assignments. While the TEAMS system is more teacher directed which allows teachers to grade, take attendance, and view student’s personal information. Eduophoria is the data based the district uses in order to track students’ performance and data of state testing. The system can give detailed reports such as students’ performance, enrollment of specific demographics and students’ attendance. The eduophoria system is very user friendly. It allows teachers to see an individual breakdown of students test scores by category. This system makes it easy to navigate directly to the student and subject. Eduophoria also allows the teacher compare students’ scores to district and state standards and ratings. ||
 * ** II.4, II.5 **

activity, create a wiki-based study group with 3-5 teachers leading and support teachers who analyze data related to student learning, create a lesson using Universal Design for Learning at the CAST Lesson Building at [], create a sample electronic book to share with your learning team members. Lastly, add a team reflection to your Google site about the process of creating an electronic book. || At the beginning of this class I thought I had a good insight on the expectation of this course. However, this course went far beyond my expectation and carried it to a whole other level. Through the duration of this course I was able to explore the technology activities such as CAST UDL lessons and eBooks to differentiate instruction. In the first couple of weeks, of this course an assignment was to create an eBook. This was one of the most enlightening assignment yet. By developing my e-book I was able to really consider ways to address the needs of my students. I believe it was an assignment that will be beneficial to incorporate in my class, mainly as a formative assessment tool. This would be used to help students understand concepts, which were taught. Often times, educators believe they are integrating technology within their lesson because they have the equipment accessible for the students to use. However, this class //Teaching with Technology// brings this to another aspect. It made me explore why it’s important to teach with technology and how it can benefit your students. By using technology effectively it will allow students to become more self- sufficient, independent, and create critical thinkers. This allow students to explore other skills they may not necessary be able to explore in a traditional pen and paper classroom. This course also helps the teacher gain confidence and gaining comfort in using new technology in their classroom. Educators need to know that they do not need to know every aspect of the software they are teaching. By understanding that it is okay to explore new concepts along with the students. I thought this was a great concept because sometimes teachers tend to shy away from things that they have not perfected. In the future, I would like to explore more courses, which will bring new and innovative ways to teach technology. ||
 * TF-II, TF-III, TF-IV, TF-V ** || EDLD 5364 Teaching with Technology || 2/22/2012 || 12 hrs || As campus professional development
 * ** I.1.I.2, I.3 **


 * TF-I, TF-II, TF-III, TF-V, TF-VI, **
 * TF-VII ** || EDLD 5366 Graphics Design and Web Publishing || 4/2/2012 || 12 hrs || Students will collaborate to create a website that addresses digital ethics, design principles, diverse learners, and communication  with peers, parents, and the larger community in order to nurture student learning. || This course has been an enjoyable experience. Throughout this class I have been exposed to informative and useful resources that I will incorporate within my classes. I have learned the concepts of branding, how to create a logo, designing an animation and collaborating with peers in developing a webpage. In the first week, I learned the value of branding and how we can incorporate this within my classes and students. Branding should be clear and unquestioned. The most important concept I would want students to understand about branding is that it's usually someone else's view on you or your material. So it's vital to stress that whatever work you produce make sure it depicts who you are and what you represent. In the following weeks I learn to concepts of creating a logo using the C.R.A.P.S (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity). In week 3 I created an animation and found this would be a great resource for students to use when working on projects. I will use this technology to have students reinforce concepts they learn within the class by using science content in their animation. By learning these design principles my group used this technique in order to create a webpage which focuses on the tools of technology with the classroom. Furthermore, this course has truly provided me with an additional knowledge on the capabilities of how to use technology effectively within the classroom ||