School Information
Seventy-First High School is a school that provides students the educational courses, such as Science, English, Foreign Languages, Math, History, Biology, and CTE Courses, such as Technology, Food, Public Safety, and Parenting. The school consists of diverse students from a supportive community that contributes to the school’s success, such as guest speakers, food programs, technology, and job programs for students. This school fosters relationships with the families to promote student development and establish appropriate educational goals for the students. This dual process with the community and families encourages the staff to achieve excellence in graduating over 87% of the high school students. Seventy-First High School has a diverse population of about 91% minority enrollment (the majority is African American). The student population is 1,488, grades are 9th-12th, and the teacher’s population has declined by 5% (Bicer & Capraro, 2019). The graduation rate is about 85%, the highest-grade students are the 9th Grade students, the teacher ratio is about 18:1, and the comprehensive testing is at the bottom of the 50%.
Timeline
Mentor Information
The mentor I chose was Estella. I chose this mentor because she has excellent knowledge and understanding of technology websites. Through this, she will give me guidance to achieve my goals. She can help me focus on my effort in professional development implementations by providing relevant feedback which will enable me to make necessary adjustments.
Goals and Objectives of Internship
- Research and implement effective professional development websites for the staff to plan various lessons.
- Increase my knowledge and understanding of technology websites.
- Share the knowledge and assessment of new technology resources with the staff, students, and the community.
- Enhance my critical thinking skills and leadership skills.
- Participate in observations; shadow my mentor and administrators for professional growth.
To achieve my goals and objectives, I met with the VP and CTE Chair and had some discussions with them. The staff required innovative procedures for student engagement to attain the set goals. I gathered information from the teachers, provided the findings to the CTE Chair, and it were later suggested that I should implement a different training educational website besides the standard Kahoot and Quizlet. The professional development will allow teachers to work with other teachers to gain more technology website knowledge, integrate technology into their lessons, and classroom management to keep students engaged.
To Increase my knowledge and understanding of technology websites, I will engage teachers in PD to develop new interactive technology websites, such as Nearpod and Google Docs. I will research their relationship and work to acquire more skills. I will share the knowledge and assessment of new technology resources with the staff, students, and the community by guiding them in using the new platforms. Critical thinking skills were enhanced by engaging in small group activities with learners where discussions will be held. This will require more thinking and questioning, leading to acquiring better skills. Leadership qualities will be attained by guiding other members in doing projects. This will require taking responsibility and leading to the development of leadership traits. I will observe how the members integrate technological websites; involve my mentor and the administration in general in the new advancements.
The primary objectives are for the teachers to demonstrate their knowledge to create lessons using Google Docs or Nearpod. Other purposes are using websites to administer tests and quizzes, researching interactive technology websites, enhancing learning opportunities, and facilitating community involvement. More research leads to a better understanding of the new websites. Involving the community is crucial, as it will support the learners and stakeholders. Standards addressed were enlightening teachers on how to use technology in creating lesson plans. Teaching on the use of PowerPoint demonstrations to make learning more enjoyable. This would further promote critical thinking among students.
The utilization of technology to improve learner performance and independency was another necessary standard addressed. Significant changes that occurred between the proposals involved the involvement of technology in learning, making it more efficient. The learners were excited about the new model, which increased their motivation and improved their performance. Teachers were able to administer tests quickly, giving the learner feedback on time. Students collaborated on their group projects by storing their information on the websites for easy retrieval. Edits that were completed included graphic presentations by teachers to facilitate their teachings through demonstrations.
Projects
Projects were laid out in order to achieve my laid goals and objectives. The primary tasks were professional development with the teachers to come up with new interactive technology websites like Nearpod and Google Docs. Teachers were expected to apply the knowledge gained in classroom activities management. The first step in professional development was to use tools such as PowerPoint presentations to familiarize teachers with the use of Nearpod. These visual materials complemented the understanding of my oral presentations. Learners were able to learn about the use of the platform to add assignments and create Goggle classrooms.
Needs Assessment
Instructional facilitators needed to apply creative strategies to promote skill acquisition on the available digital websites. Additionally, they aim to use effective pedagogy to infuse the curriculum with 21st-century skills. The availability of technological resources to teachers, learners, and the community would increase technological literacy (Ling et al., 2021). Learners would therefore be more creative in the application of technology in solving current issues affecting them from all dimensions.
Changes that occurred included professional development and the use of current technologies in learning. After going through the training on the use of existing websites, teachers improved their skills. The teaching mode changed by using the websites during the teaching and assessment criteria. Learners were able to use Nearpod in the submission of tasks given and in joining Google classes. The other staff and the community, in general, adopted the application of the new technology in advancing education.
In the project to ensure teachers applied the concept in the teaching session, the usage of Nearpod and Google Docs in the creation of lesson plans, editing documents, and administering tests were done. The teachers were later required to practice the skills and knowledge acquired. Further, an examination of whether the contracted objectives have been made was done. Close monitoring and observations of how the teachers interacted with the websites were created.
The ISTE Standards that I was able to achieve were enabling teachers to use Google Docs in teaching and creating of lesson plans. Since they had prior knowledge of the use of Microsoft, it was easy to address the challenges. Professional development was achieved through the gaining of new information. The teachers who found it challenging to create spreadsheets and edit documents learned on how to do so. However, the standard of gaining confidence in teachers was challenging and could not be addressed. This is because teachers interact with learners with diverse needs making it difficult to attend to each learner’s shortcoming.
Document Evaluation
The professional development document was fundamental in various aspects. It builds my self-esteem and skill development for teaching website technology to teachers. This will improve methods of knowledge delivery to learners to boost performance. Teachers will be able to prepare adequately for teaching by preparing lesson plans and administering tests. Skills in editing documents, creating spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations will be emphasized. I will guide the teachers on how to conduct research for implementing new technological advancements.
Activities
In order to achieve my goals and objectives, a variety of activities were involved. The main aim was to cooperate technology into the learning process to make it easy and valuable. Cooperation from all the stakeholders was needed to make the projects a success. The other activities done were parent conferences, professional and staff development, career management, media coordination, leadership opportunities, and entrepreneurship professional development. Parent conference was done by meeting with them to discuss the significant challenges. During the interactions, a discussion was staged, and parents were asked to give opinions on how they perceived the plans. For those who did not manage to attend, communications were made through mail and phones. Staff development involves attending projects conducted by the members to acquire knowledge and skills. Assignments and departmental passes were some of the activities involved.
Professional development was aimed at equipping more skills to teachers for them to know how to handle learners. This was one by the demonstration on the use of Google Docs to create the spreadsheet, edit documents and prepare lesson plans. Media coordination was done by work orders by assigning each teacher a task and ensuring the procedure was followed to completion. Leadership opportunities involve organizing the participants into groups and selecting the leader. They were responsible for giving direction and communication. Evidence of participation was checked by signed accounts through Gmail.
The standards that I was able to address included parent participation in technological advancement. Learners spend most of their time at home, and parents should play a critical role in their learning by active participation. Leadership development was attained by ensuring the participants developed skills essential for directing. Media coordination was achieved by following the set procedure to create and edit documents. Standards that I was unable to address included the failure of some teachers to coordinate in the teaching process. The fear of technological integration and illiteracy posed a significant problem. Time was a limiting factor since demonstrations needed one-on-one interaction, making them less efficient. I needed enough interaction with the learners since I am the new leader. Further, the pandemic hindered the process since most schools closed, and learners were expected to stay at home.
Outcomes
The outcomes of the proposal aimed at imparting knowledge and gaining of practical skills by the participants. Teachers became more familiar with the practical applications of the Google Documents by cooperating with them in their teaching. They were able to refer to the other three real-world contexts using Google Documents. Further, teachers will understand the applications and formats of Google Documents. Teachers were able to create Google documents and add text to them. Skills gained in using Google Documents would be used to change text-wrapping formats in a spreadsheet, come up with different slide formats and their orders and apply them during presentations. I learned the importance of the safety of Documents by setting passwords to limit access. Sharing of documents as a file or link to specific users is another essential knowledge gained.
My main goal in technology in cooperation was to educate the staff on the advantages of using technology devices to improve the students’ performances. My outcomes aligned well with my proposal since the teachers who were the primary stakeholders attained skills and knowledge in technology. They were able to utilize it in the teaching and learning process. Activities such as creating lesson plans and administering quizzes and demonstrations were achieved.
Reflection
During this internship program, I conducted a variety of activities aimed at attaining my goals and objectives. I engaged my mentor, who had excellent knowledge and expertise in technology, and she offered great support. Parents’ conferences were held to discuss the use of technology in learning. They were, therefore, able to support learners and monitor their performance from home. Projects aimed at professional development were done where I was the leader. I used PowerPoint demonstrations and YouTube videos to educate on the usage of Nearpod and Google Docs. Needs assessments aimed at using effective pedagogy to infuse the curriculum with 21st-century skills.
ISTE standards were achieved, including technology adoption in teaching by teachers. Learners, on the other hand, benefitted by learning on how to use the websites. Significant outcomes in gaining practical skills by all the participants were achieved. However, a problem of diverse learners’ needs to be made it difficult for me to achieve my objectives. Areas of growth were applying technology for long-term changes in the learning sector. Involving the community in technological applications would increase awareness of the usage of digital websites.
From my knowledge, I would make changes to the mode of learning by ensuring the modern technology meets the required standards. I will advise the institution to cater to learner differences and consider the disadvantaged. This can be done by employing teachers who can handle the disabled and the slow learners. My next professional steps would be advocating of application of digital websites in learning for all the levels of education. I will emphasize it to begin at an early stage for competency. To improve critical thinking skills, I will organize programs where I will invite the learners, teachers, and community members to learn from each other.
References
Bicer, A., & Capraro, R. (2019). Mathematics achievement in the secondary high school context of STEM and non-STEM schools. School Science and Mathematics, 119(2), 61-71. Web.
Ling, L., Pang, V., & Lajium, D. (2021). A case study of needs assessment of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) education in lower secondary schools. Journal of Nusantara Studies (JONUS), 6(1), 242-264. Web.