Last Initial Evaluations

Mrs. C was actually back today, so I got to do a real initial evaluation with her. She teaches Math for the 7th and 8th graders. They are focusing on central tendency, word problems, Pythagorean theorem, lines, and area. For her students, all of the math must seem very applicable and useful in the students lives because otherwise they do not care at all and want nothing to do with abstract memorization of concepts from a book. Mrs. C is also a large active part of the team that works on the behavioral aspect of the school. She is working on the students and their impulse control, long term goals, and short term goals. They are learning to express themselves clearly and resolve conflict in appropriate ways. I would rate this teacher as below a level 1. She is interested in the technology and ready to learn. She was more cautious about the amounts of time this commitment would take, but this was because of circumstances outside of her control in her personal life.

Miss P is very excited about this project and its possibilities. She sees how much this could benefit her students and their participation in the lessons. She would like her lesson to focus on the continents and current events which I believe can be tied together very well. She would like a symbol that would represent something famous from a continent, and the student would put it on the correct continent placement. She teaches high school students. Her class was a little more crazy and difficult to get time to work with her because of the nature of her classroom. I would classify her as below a level one with the Smartboard technology. She has not had any more experience since her initial training on a Smartboard which was a very long time ago.

Miss F is a week behind schedule because of miscommunication and her absence at our meeting time. I actually did my first meeting with her a week later than everyone else. Her students are elementary age. She is extremely technologically inclined and so excited about working with the technology. She has actually worked with the Smartboard and also promotes the idea of a media room for the computers and Smartboards within the school as a whole. She teaches all content areas and none of her students can read. She is giving me free reign to come up with a good idea for her lesson. I am going to search through a lot of content, and then I will come up with the best option for her. I would classify her as a level 1 because she is familiar with the basic technology and is not afraid to use and make mistakes with it.

With the teachers this week, I took them through the basics of the tool bar, what each icon does, and showed some examples of possible things you can do with the Smartboard from my computer. I also walked them through how to use the gallery effectively. They were all really shocked and impressed with that. Using the teacher tools, they were able to go to the websites that have the GA standards and found lesson plans pre-made by other teachers that they can download and use for free. All they have to do is search by standard, subject, or content. They all loved me for finding this for them. It really wasn't that hard at all.

During my time with Mr. W, he actually radioed the principal to ask for the sofware to put it on his personal computer to work with the programs at home. I saw this as great progress and a really promising situation. I was thrilled to see him excited about the technology's possibilities.

Miss J told me during my time with her that she had needed me with the technology. I asked her why, and it turns out that she did a lesson using the Smartboard without me! The only problem was that she had not waited until I had gone through the basics of using the actual board with her. When her students tried to click on items with their fingers, the board was not calibrated and did not recognize where their actual hands were. I took the time to show her how to calibrate, but unfortunately I did not have a board ready and available to practice on at that time. One of the very next lessons I will do with the teachers will be to go over the basics of using the actual Smartboard and setting it up.

Miss B got some really good ideas, and I could see the light bulb go off in her head as I showed her the sample lesson and possibilities of the technology for her classroom.

The only thing that really did not go as planned this week was that the teachers had a faculty meeting while I was still there, so I did not have time to meet with Mr. C. I promised him that he would be first on my list the next time I am there.

I am debating whether or not we should move on to the actual board for their next lesson or whether we should work with the technology on my computer some more and begin to create a lesson for them to teach. I am now leaning toward teaching them how to work the physical Smartboard for their next lesson.

For my other hours this week:

I worked at the center
Attended staff meeting
Taught introduction to computer class

(10 Hrs)