EDLD 5363-8050 Week One/Digital Story

So this week has been fun and frustrating. Our assignment was to create a digital story and then post it to 3 different sites...thats when the work was work! My digital story was created with iMovie and that was very fun to me. There are so many things you can do to a movie! I loved it! Of course i got carried away with my script and my movie. I had to shorten all of it. What was hard was exporting the movie which I am STILL working on now...LOL It went to YouTube fine (took a lil while) but now I'm trying to post it to my wiki, it quits all of a sudden and says the file is too big. So I am trouble shooting on how to get it on there. All in all I LOVE my story! I am very proud of it, it was hard work but it was fun work. I can't stop watching it! I even had to edit a song in Garage Band just so it could fit in my iMovie. This week's assignment was very rewarding and I'm pleased with the result.

Reflection on "Challenges"...

So my principal and I talked about the challenges that have come up and will continue to come up with opposition to bilingual education and the need for English Immersion. My principal and I are on the same page and agree that English Immersion would work best, but she reminded me that bilingual education is the law and if we don’t follow it we could lose our bilingual funding. So with that I had to look at my action research study and make sure that I’m not too aggressive or ambitious with the plan. I am very passionate about English Immersion and I’m biased for it for personal reasons as I was once an immigrant child sitting in class trying to learn English. The method used on me was immersion, at the time I was in an ESL program so it was completely legal, but I learned and I am not scarred by it nor do I need therapy and I wasn’t messed up academically like Cummins study of English acquisition states that a child must be strong in their native language before they can learn another language or else they wont acquire English. I learned and came away pretty well! I am fluent in both languages and really didn’t learn academic Spanish until college! So I will continue to research what Atwater school district in California is doing and hopefully one day I can present this to legislators in Austin in hope for an English Immersion movement.

WEEK 3-ACTION RESEARCH PLAN

Purpose & Significance of Research Action Plan

PURPOSE:The purpose of my action research is to determine what’s the quickest and most effective way to teach English to immigrants in a way that teaches them enough academic English to understand the teachings given to them by the educator who uses a higher form of Blooms. To where the student can perform on academic tests that the state mandates us to give to these immigrant students. There are so many strategies, but I want to determine what actually works in order to facilitate learning another language whether the child is from Mexico, Burma, Somalia or wherever the student is from. SIGNIFICANCE: The significance of my action research action plan is to benefit most importantly the student. Then of course it would help the teacher, the principal, the school and any stakeholders because with state mandated exams the school needs to perform and meet AYP.

EDLD 5301 Research-Action Research Blog: Action Research & How Leaders Can Use Blogs

Action Research & How Leaders Can Use Blogs Action Research is active ongoing research by a leader that involves systematic, intentional study of his or her own administrative practice and taking action for change based on the result of his or her inquiry all while engaging in personal reflection. Its about constant movement and adjusting as the results of the inquiry and data are analyzed. Growth and improvement is the name of the game. Action research is not always a smooth road it requires adjustments to be made constantly. Action research is about identifying a problem or inquiring about a problem, gathering data, proposing a solution and then working towards that goal, then the process repeats. Leaders can use blogs for a variety of reasons. Blogs allow sharing and a constructive tool for a growing leader to share his/her ideas or problems. Blogs allow for opinions to be made and advice to be given and for more exposure without actually leaving the district. Leaders can use blogs for educational purposes in the classroom with students with teachers and with their colleagues. Blogs are a valuable resource for teachers they are quickly evolving as classroom tools.

Week 5 Assignment, Part II: Course Reflections

WOW!! This was hard...but what a sense of relief and feeling of accomplishment when it's all done!! Let's start with question #1. What outcomes had you envisioned for this course? Did you achieve those outcomes? Did the actual course outcomes align with those that you envisioned? Honestly, the outcome that I envisioned was just an ordinary online course with your busy work and that I would be able to hold down 2 jobs, a house, and a three year old! Well was I in for a not so pleasant surprise! The first week was so strenuous that I had to have an extension on the due date. I learned my lesson the first week to not wait until 2 days before the assignment is due to start! I cut back hours at my part time, resorted to grilled cheese sandwiches and the bags under my eyes can tell you how much sleep I got. I honestly did not see the point in all the self assessments, but now that I look back it all ties together and I'm glad that I was exposed to all those surveys. It did reinforce the good qualities that I have and made me reflect on my bad qualities like time management and procrastination. Question #2. To the extent that you achieved the outcomes, are they still relevant to the work that you do in your school? Why or why not? The outcomes that I achieved are very relevant to my work at school. I learned so much with this class; Wiki's, Blogs, RSS aggregators, Animoto films, embedding, copyright laws, web conferences, APA style, E-Rate, STaR chart, Texas Long Range Plan, Web 2.0 tools and I'm sure I left off about 5 other NEW things that I learned. Week 2's assignments had me excited about my choice of graduate work. I can't wait to implement these things in class next year! I even gave my brother, whose also a teacher, some ideas for his classes and even one of my colleagues at my previous school mentioned how intense my assignments were. I'm glad I did this, you can't learn something new until you try it. We read about innovative teaching with technology but are always afraid to try the new things that we just continue to teach in the old fashioned way. This class has given me the boost of confidence that I need to take my career and teaching to the next level and not continue to deprive my students of technology. Question #3. What outcomes did you not achieve? What prevented you from achieving them? The only outcomes that I didn't achieve, besides sleep and cleaning my house, were the optional progress monitors. Every week I would be so into completing the ASSIGNMENT, that of course always had 10 million assignments in ONE! Just joking, every week the ASSIGNMENT contained many parts to it that required hours of intense work. Not something to be taking lightly! So really what prevented me was time, but that was mainly a personal flaw of mine. Question #4. Were you successful in carrying out the course assignments. If not what prevented or discouraged you? I was successful except for week one, which was the wake up call that I needed! Never again will I wait until the last 2 days to open the assignment which in week one had so many parts I thought I was going to cry. Never was giving up an option because I always finish what I start, but week one was tough. Really the whole course was! I really learned a lot about myself and about technology and as I reflect back on it I must say this was not in vain or busy work. I learned some very neat things. Question #5. What did you learn from this course...about yourself, your technology and leadership skills, and your attitudes? I learned about myself that procrastination is my enemy and I need help for it. I've always been a procrastinator but I really need to change that about myself. I also learned in week one's inventory about personality is that I am a rationale person. When I asked my peers if this was true the all agreed so that made me feel good. As an administrator that is a very good quality to have. I am also considering taking the principal certifications. Before this course I always said I'd never be a principal, but now it doesn't seem like such a bad thing. Is it going to be hard? You bet! But I also learned that sticking to it really does pay off. I am very excited about the rest of the 16 months, I learned so much in this class that I re-energized my passion to teach. Technology wise I learned an abundance of new things! I really do have a new confidence about technology and learning new things. As far as leadership skills go, I realized I have a very important administrative quality and that is that I am a very rationale person. On the downside, I need to learn how to manage my time better! My attitude is a whole lot better now than it was week one. I am excited and proud of myself for completing course one!

Week 2, Web Conference Reflection

Week 2's web conference I was unable to attend. I was going to attend the Thursday night one, but that got canceled. I was able to watch the recorded web conference and watch the power point through the link that Professor Borel posted in our email and class announcement. It was nice to put faces to names and see my classmates. The video was hard to understand; I don't know if it was my computer or the video itself, but the audio never really "buffered" and was in and out the whole hour and fifteen or so minutes. I was able to see and read the class' chat dialogue and watch the power point but that was it. It's my understanding that we are to do 150 hours of internship? Not really clear on that and the other thing that stuck out to me was that we are also able to do the principal test at the completion of this Master's program??? I'm not really understanding...but that's what I got. This Thursday I will be in Vegas on a quick mini-vacation with 2 other teaching colleagues of mine, but I will be taking my laptop and seeing if I can join the web conference this week. I wish there were 2 per week, but what can you do? I saw this week that a lot of people were having trouble with their mics and knowing whether they were on or not...makes me a bit apprehensive about this whole web conferencing thing. I didn't get to hear the class' introductions; like I said I don't know if its my computer or what the problem with the audio was that night. I hope to have a good experience when I finally get to join a web conference!