NET Standards (V)

Email- skpwb7@mizzou.edu or sharon@hs.summersville.k12.mo.us

NETS I NETS II NETS III NETS IV NETS V NETS VI

V. Productivity and Professional Practice

Teachers use technology to enhance their productivity and professional practice. Teachers:

A. use technology resources to engage in ongoing professional development and lifelong learning.

~Mastery~
Technology and education are integral components of my professional life. Even though I had never used a computer until I was pursuing my Bachelor's Degree, I have always been fascinated with technology. My resume clearly shows my desire to be a lifelong learner. I continue to return to school to further my professional career. I became focused on the importance of technology and education when I became a business teacher. I have attended yearly workshops to further my knowledge of technology integration and to develop my professional life, as evidenced with my log of PD Hours. The reason I enjoy using technology is because it never stays the same. The desire to continue learning is one of the reasons I'm in the field I'm in. I have attended week-long courses through MOREnet and continue to take online courses for professional development. My desire to further my education by pursuing a Master's in Educational Technology proves how important technology and education are to me and the importance of continuing my education.

B. continually evaluate and reflect on professional practice to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of student learning.

~Mastery~
When I started as a business teacher I thought I completely understood how to integrate technology to enhance learning, but each year as I evaluated my students I realized I needed to expand my knowledge to fully understand how to accomplish that task. As I started reading educational articles and attending workshops I realized I needed to get a handle on learning theories first and then incorporate the technological resources. It wasn't about having the latest tools, it was about understanding how to use those tools to enhance learning. This has proven to be very valuable to me as a technology director. Teachers may request new technology, but they must "prove" how they are going to use it to increase student achievement. This has helped to curb the desire to have something new just because it's new and it's helped teachers to investigate and evaluate the reasons why they want the technology. I evaluate our tech program every other year to help me focus on the strengths and weaknesses of our program. Every year I complete the Census of Technology that is required through Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This census helps me to make decisions concerning the technological resources in our district.

During my Master's studies I created a Policy Presentation that addresses the appropriate use of resources in our district. It also informs our teachers of my plan for availability of those resources. I, also, created a Team Plan that helped me to see the areas that I need help with. This plan also provided valuable information that I can share with my superintendent to help him understand the importance of having enough tech support to maintain the resources we have. The additional tech support warranted from the results of the team plan will allow time for me to reflect upon what is working and where changes may need to occur to support student learning.

C. apply technology to increase productivity.

~Mastery~
There are many programs to help increase productivity and I try to incorporate them in as many areas as I can. I use Excel spreadsheets from the Microsoft Office Suite to track what type of printer each teacher has so that ordering ink/toner is simplified. I use Inspiration to provide a visual representation of my network switches. Our PDC committee informed our teachers that they had to type up their Career Ladder forms or they wouldn't be approved. To meet the needs of this new requirement, I created a folder on my network that contains Career Ladder templates (Form A, Form B, and Form C) for my teachers. Included in these templates are the career development plan, responsibility plan, and a spreadsheet that calculates for them. Teachers are able to save them to their home directory, input their information, and then print to turn in. I also created a purchase order template. Both of these items have helped increase productivity since they have simplified the way to produce those forms.

D. use technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, parents, and the larger community in order to nurture student learning.

~Mastery~
Technology has evolved as a means to communicate quickly and effectively throughout the years. When I first became the technology director at my school they didn't use email at all. I quickly started to require it for menial tasks, such as sending in attendance, receiving the bulletin, distributing trips lists, setting up committee meetings, etc. As the years have passed email has become the primary way we communicate information. In order to facilitate this process, I had to create instructions for my teachers to be able to use email in this manner. I created instructions for attaching something to an email and creating a group in email.

During my Master's studies two projects I worked on provided ways to communicate. In the Policy Presentation activity I communicated policies on technology use to my peers. In the Blogspot activity, I was introduced to an exciting tool that would allow communication among peers, parents and, not only members of our community, but any community. I use our school web page to communicate information and plan on replacing our current site with the one I created for my final project in my Web Design class.

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