Launch Hays District PD Conference

For the second time since its inception, Hays CISD has hosted a district wide professional development conference where by all of the 1700 faculty and staff meet to enjoy a day of learning, exploration, and camaraderie. This day is wonderful event where teachers can re-connect with each other and reinvigorate their spirit of life long learning with newly acquired knowledge, tools, and practises which can be transferred into the classroom for the benefit of all nearly 20,000 of our waiting students.

I am so proud and honored to be part of this event. The realization of a life lone dream of mine to support teachers has come to fruition. Being given the change to impact the academic success of our students is something that I do not take lightly. The presentations I developed were fine tuned to sustain a session that included a balance of training and hands on so that teachers could at least begin the creation of something that could be utilized within the first few days of school.

At the end of my presentations I include a link to a Google Form that has been created for participants to provide my feedback on the quality of the presentation and questions/topics they have going forward. I am still nervous at times to see how I have been rated becasue of the perfectionist in my wants to reach all the needs of my participants and make sure that the quality is the very best I can provide. I have been honored and truly touched by some of the feedabck that I have received. It continually gives me confidence that I am growing as an insturctional coach and leader. I know that I still have much to learn and I look forward to continuing my personal and professional growth.

I am excited to continue to work with teachers who want to delve deeper into technology integration. The countdown has begun, ignition is moments away, this launch will be momentous.

Reflections on, "Blended Learning in Action" by Tucker, Wycoff, and Green. Ch. 1

I am so glad that Tucker, Wycoff, and Green (2016) offer to provide us with a good definition of what blended learning (BL) is. I find that there are many educators that have a vague or inaccurate perception of BL. In Chapter 1, Tucker et. al. (2016) wrote that BL is:

"[I]is a formal education program in which a student learns: (1) at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace; (2) at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar- location away from home; (3) and the modalities along each student's learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience" (pg. 6).

The importance of addressing culture can not be underestimated when attempting to integrate a new program or system. I am happy to know that the authors address this since it is a well researched approach. For instance, Rogers (2003) wrote that when an agent of change is attempting to engage in a process whereby an innovation like BL is diffused into an organization, the culture of the organization must be respected. "Change agents' success in securing the adoption of innovations by clients is positively related to a client orientation, rather than to a change agency orientation" (pgs. 374-375).

We must begin with the culture and work within the system. That is the most successful approach to truly make impactful change!

References

Tucker, C. R., Wycoff, T., & Green, J. T. (2016). Blended Learning in Action: A Practical Guide Toward Sustainable Change. Corwin Press.

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press. 

Reflections on, "Blended Learning in Action" by Catlin R. Tucker.

Blended Learning (BL) is an intriguing concept in education. I consider myself a novice when it comes to knowing what makes BL successful, however, I look forward to learning more. The Digital Learning Team will embark on a book study so that we will be able to learn more about blended learning from this book.

In chapter 1, Shifting to a Blended Culture, a poignant question was posed by one of the authors, "How do we create quality education at scale that works for every student and honors their individuality as learners?" (Tucker, Wycoff, Green, 2016, pg. 3). As a teacher of 15 years, the struggle to create a classroom that answers this question, and honors the individuality and learning preferences of all my students is one that I agonized over every year. I admit, that despite my very best attempts, I regrettably failed to create a system that was 100% effective in my estimation. The author wrote that he grappled with that very question for almost 20 years so I don't feel too bad, and I am happy that I think I may get to learn how this is done in less than 20 years. I hope to be able to teach others for the benefit of their students! Tucker et. al. (2016) wrote that when implemented well, blended learning environments create the possibility, not the guarantee, for every student to experience precisely the learning he or she needs.

I am excited to learn more about BL and to have resources available to assist teachers to integrate and sustain BL environments.

References

Tucker, C. R., Wycoff, T., & Green, J. T. (2016). Blended Learning in Action: A Practical Guide Toward Sustainable Change. Corwin Press.

I never knew that coding could be so easy.

I had the pleasure of attending a Coding Academy given by RePublics CS using the free web based software Scratch created by MIT. RePublics created lesson plans for teachers to implement a skills based and best practice pedagogy. The training itself was an amazing two day training where were leaned both the scratch and RePublics CS platforms. For the rest of this post I would like to focus on the Scratch platform.

Scratch is a free web based coding platform that was created by MIT and designed for students age 8-16 but can definitely be used for ages outside that range. I have very little experience with coding before I attended this professional development. When day two of this two day training had concluded, I was so much more confident and at ease about the entire process of coding. Here is a snap shot of an artifact that I created.




I will leave you with this thought, coding is something that you can do, and scratch makes it easy!

Doctorate in Educational Technology- My Journey Pt. 2, Leading Change

I am currently enrolled in a course, "leading Change", which has been enlightening and exciting to learn about. One of the most informative modules we have begun is focused on charactistics of an effective leader. What does it take to lead an organization or team to accomplish a goal? We began with this questionaire to find out our personal leadership preferences, try it here, and the leadership skills questionaire here. Once you find out more about your own personal leadership, you can determine which of the other aspects you might want to learn more about in order to integrate them into your current style.

Here is my take on the most important leadership skills and how technology affects a leaders style. According to the Conceptualizing leadership questionnaire by Sage (2016a) I rated ability and relationship as the highest characteristics for how I define and view leadership. I was not surprised by this outcome since I believe that forming relationships is the most important component of leadership. Yammarino (2013) wrote that leaders are both born and made, and Northouse (2013) wrote that leadership is not a trait or characteristic but a process which utilizes the influences on others to accomplish a mutually beneficial outcome. Leadership is a process and one that involves exerting influence on others to accomplish a goal.

            The definition of leadership that I agree with most was written by Yammarino (2013), Leadership is a multilevel leader-follower interactive process where all share a purpose and jointly accomplish things willingly. This definition encompasses the people who will share in the process and the process itself. In contrast Northouse (2013) emphasized that leadership is a process and in my view, is shortsighted. Based on these definitions I would contend that the definition of leadership is both a process an emergent trait involving both leader and followers who work together to accomplish a mutually beneficial goal based on interactions that flow from mutual influence from the leader and followers.

            Technology has made the process of leadership more efficient for those who have the capacity to utilize it. Northouse (2013) wrote that organizations have management and leadership kinds of positions. Both management and leadership style positions can benefit from the integration of technology. Under the management style creating agendas, timelines, budgets, resources allocation, communication all lend themselves well to increase efficiency with the use of technology. On the leadership side communicating vision, the larger picture, collaboration, team building are easily aspects that can be enhanced with the use of technology.

            The five characteristics that I feel are most essential for leadership are derived from McClesky’s (2014) four factors of transformational leadership: ability to influence others in a positive form, is inspirational, is intellectually stimulating, and uses individualized considerations when making decisions. The fifth and most important characteristic that I feel is most important is an ability to encourage others to co-create and work towards realizing a vision and is organized to be able to develop a plan to implement it.

            I am curious about one aspect of leadership that has not been addressed. I believe that a true leader is one who first is willing to serve. The term servant leadership as discussed in the article, “Servant Leadership and the effect of the interaction between humility, action, and hierarchical power on follower engagement” by Sousa and Dierendonck (2017). The most effective leaders are those who are willing to lead from behind.

Reference

Hechanova, R., & Cementina-Olpoc, R. (2013). Transformational leadership, change management, and commitment to change: A comparison of academic and business organizations. Asia-Pacific Education Researcher (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.), 22(1), 11–19.

McClesky, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117–130.

Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Sage. (2016a). Conceptualizing leadership questionnaire. Retrieved from http://studysites.sagepub.com/northouseintro2e/study/resources/questionnaires/89527_01q.pdf

Sage. (2016b). Leadership skills questionnaire. Retrieved from http://studysites.sagepub.com/northouseintro2e/study/resources/questionnaires/89527_05q.pdf

Sousa, M. m., & Dierendonck, D. d. (2017). Servant Leadership and the effect of the interaction between humility, action, and hierarchical power on follower engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 141(1), 13-25. doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2725-y

Yammarino, F. (2013). Leadership: Past, present, and future. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 20(2), 149–155.