internreflect3 .docx

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Jean PesceEDET 650, Fall 2013Internship Reflection 3 – SMS Orientation GuideOctober 14, 2013

It is imperative to provide unlimited access to the staff for reserving the variousresources available in school. Available for class use are two Computer Labs and theMedia Center resources such as the desk-top computers and lap-tops with their charging carts, and printers.Currently, these must be accessed by writing into a paper calendar in the Main Office

(for the two computer labs) or through an emailed or in-person contact with the MediaSpecialist (for resources available through him). Either situation takes timelyopportunities to verify (look at the calendar in-person or Mr. Smith checking hisschedules) which are not always available with only 28 minutes per day in my scheduleallotted for Planning. It would be much more efficient for teachers to have the ability toaccess these online while planning lessons from their classrooms or from home through

the school website.

I feel it is also important to create a new floor plan which would be generic inidentifying the general population or use of a particular section of the institution (like,500 Hall/6th Grade). In order to continue the referential nature of the plan, I envision aninteractive plan with links to a master list of staff. Another consideration that came to mehere was who might be responsible for up-dating that personnel list and any other documents that are included which may also change over time. My thought is that itshould be the task of the school webmaster as that person would have the necessarypermissions to do so.

This is going to be a lot more work than I originally intended but should prove to bemore useful also.

In looking over the existing resources for teachers and others in the schoolavailable on our website there is a great deal of confusion. The Student Handbook isaccessible but when specific topics, for example discipline, are listed in the index theyare not linked to the same information. Instead, different information is provided. Thismakes understanding and following procedures difficult for everyone but especially for new teachers. In trying to find a current list of employees to link within the schoolbuilding, there again I met with difficulty. The staff directory available in PowerTeacher is only available in PDF so I need to have that converted to a Word document before itcan be linked to the school floor plan.

There is a calendar on the school website for the Media Center but it has noinformation so it is not useful to the staff. The probable reason it has not been up-datedis that we are short staffed there as in many other departments in the school. TheCenter cannot even be open after school until 4:00 as it should because the Specialisthas now been assigned a supervisory duty at that time. There are both electronic and



print resources available here which it would be useful to have cataloged and remotelyaccessible.

The Media Specialist agreed to help me revise the school building floor plan,which I found on the Shared drive, and determine procedures for using Media Center

resources. The former is necessary in order to provide a reusable schematic of theschool building until a time when it may be renovated. Currently, the plan includesrooms assigned to 20 out of 47 individuals who no longer work in the building. Myconcept of the new plan would be generic in identifying the general population or use of a particular section of the institution (like, 500 Hall/6th Grade). In order to continue thereferential nature of the plan, I envision an interactive plan with links to a master list of staff so the current occupant of a room could be easily identified and alternately thelocation of an individual could be linked to their building location. This could be helpfulwhen attempting face-to-face meetings. I now need to find out what program was usedto create this schematic if I am to change it. Unfortunately, the intended collaboration onthis part of the project has been postponed as the human factor of his latest ailment (a

sciatic condition) has indisposed him for two days. I had two opportunities to meet withMr. Smith briefly the following week. The first time was to discuss what I had in mind for revising the school floor plan in order to create an interactive document that would becoordinated with a periodically up-dated personnel list, and to provide the proceduresfor reserving Media Center resources such as the desk-top computers and lap-tops withtheir charging carts, and printers. The second time was to confirm the initial changes tothe floor plan which he had begun. Another consideration that came to me here waswho might be responsible for up-dating that personnel list and any other documents thatare included which may also change over time. My thought is that it should be the taskof the school webmaster as that person would have the necessary permissions to doso.

In considering other information to be shared through my Guide, I have begun torealize that this would be a convenient way to provide unlimited access to the staff for reserving the various resources available in school. Currently, these must be accessedby writing into a paper calendar in the Main Office (for the two computer labs) or throughan emailed or in-person contact with the Media Specialist (for resources availablethrough him). Either situation takes timely opportunities to verify (look at the calendar in-person or Mr. Smith checking his schedules) which are not always available with only28 minutes per day in my schedule allotted for Planning. It would be much more efficientfor teachers to have the ability to access these online while planning lessons from their classrooms or from home through the school website. Since we are expecting aprofessional development (PD) session on providing district requirements on our schoolpages, I will ask our Curriculum Technology Specialist, Mr. Cota (and/or my mentor)about the feasibility of this before presenting it to my principal. One suggestion to add if I am able to offer this option through my Guide, is to create a personal record of thescheduled reserved time for verification. Another benefit of this procedure (onlinereservations) is that teachers could easily free-up or add time slots if their plans change,as they often do due to estimated, as opposed to actual, student time requirements for tasks. In the past, computer resources or even reserved library time has gone unusedwhen the preparatory lessons have been delayed and the reservation was not up-dated



accordingly. Another event that has affected scheduled resources is the advent of issues with computerized standard testing which trump all plans. Perhaps, those whoare bumped from their time slots could be automatically shifted to the first openingsafter the testing is complete. A consideration that comes to mind with all of this is thatthese will probably become non-issues once our school district is up to current

educational standards regarding technology when each student will bring their owndevice (BYOD).

A future development of my Guide could be a slightly varied version for general community use or to provide sections with teacher-only access. For the mostpart all of the information should be available to the community but items, such as theabove-mentioned online school resources reservation portal, would need restrictedaccess. Any item that could be manipulated would need to be available to staff only for security. For this reason I may add a Teachers’ Edition subtitle to this first Guide andthen, with advice from administration, offer a read-only General Use edition.

After getting all my photos organized even into a separate folder for my Mid-termReport I thought I would get started creating it on Blendspace (formerly Edcanvas).

Unfortunately, with the learning curve just a little more shallow than I’d like, after thr eeattempts I still have no initial product and will need to try again tomorrow with morepatience. I dragged my images from Dropbox but somehow when the image showedinstead of the file up-loading I would try to return to what I had been doing only to beginagain from the start. Arggg!!!

A check on my survey results was a bit more encouraging than the previous task.I now have five more online responses (500% more than previously) to add to my twopaper responses. I wonder what the is secret to a successful survey? I’ve left this oneopen for yet another week in order to gather as much input as possible. I know theweeks fly by for me so I’m sure everyone else is in a similar frame of mind.

internreflect3 .docx

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