Legal, Safety, Ethical, and Curricular Considerations

Ensuring Success: Legal, Safety, Ethical, and Curricular Considerations for School Leaders

As we move into the 21st century, school environments are becoming more technology-rich. There are many considerations leaders of a school/district must take into consideration in order to make responsible decisions regarding technology.  These include but are not limited to:

• Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) - monitoring the online activities of minors (filters and acceptable use policies)
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (Ferpa) - privacy of student records
• Copyright Laws - protect works so owner has the right to control the sale, distribution, performance, display and adaptation of works
• Fair Use Doctrine - small amounts of copyrighted material is allowed for educational purpose
• Creative Commons - allows creators of work to decide the extent they want their work copyrighted
• Evaluating Websites - webpages need to be evaluated for accuracy, authority, currency and objectivity
• Digital Citizenship Curriculum - create a curriculum to train the faculty, staff and students about proper use of technology (Common Sense Media/free, iKeepsafe/Faux Paw the Web Surfing Techno Cat/free, Generation Safe, YouTube, Google’s Curriculum:  Understanding YouTube and Digital Citizenship, Cyberwise and BrainPop)
• Web 2.0 tools on intranets protected by firewalls

Knowledge brings confidence.  By staying up to date on laws and policies, administrators should feel safe and secure with the teaching and learning possibilities of using technology.

Gerry Brooks

Gerry Brooks - April 1, 2017

If you have never seen a Gerry Brooks video, be sure to search for one on Facebook or Google.  He is a current principal in Tennessee that places humor on teachers and school employee’s daily ‘struggles’ at school.  His most current video has to do with state testing and how dry the test administrator’s throat gets while reading the directions.  Hysterical and so true!!

On April 1st I had the opportunity to attend his presentation/workshop in Hickory.  It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.  The room was packed with educators.  

He began by explaining that he began the videos as a way to relieve the tension among his staff at state testing time.  He showed his first couple of videos which most everyone in the room could relate to.  He continued to share his views on different situations that school employees encounter from snacks in the faculty lounge to the copier repairman.   

The following are some acronyms that he shared with us that I found true to ‘school life’.

Parents

DE - Daily Emailer

NMB - Not My Baby

BET - Blames Everything on the Teacher

LAS - Lives at School

NKN - Never Knows Nothing

WBF - Wants To Be Your Best Friend

Students

HWH - Hallway Sloth Walker

ARNN - Always Raised - Never Nos

AFS - Apple Fall Syndrome

HHGH -  How’s He Gettin Home

IDKR - I Don’t Know Repeater

BBG - Big Bow Gang

MMG - Monogrammed Mean Girl

N2C - Number 2 Claimers

PDD - Parent Deficient Disorder

Teachers

MGT - Mean Girl Teacher

FCD - Fancy Car Driver

JCers - Jenny Craiger’s

NCGTE - Non-Contributing Goodie Table Eater

HHAD - Happy Hour at Applebee’s Dresser

CTT - Constant Time Taker

OVC - On the Verge of Crying

SCJ - Sneaky Copier Jammer

SAHM - Self Appointed Hallway Monitor

WFF - Walgreen’s Flip Flopper

I hope you enjoyed and can relate to some of these acronyms.

Collaborative Conference

Collaborative Conference - March 20-22, 2017

I am little behind on these posts (and everything else).  A few weeks ago, I attended the Collaborative Conference in Greensboro.  This is sponsored by North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. There were so many interesting sessions to chose from that it was difficult to narrow them down.  Since our school is in the process of revamping our MTSS program and have begun using NCStar, I chose several that pertained to those subject areas.  I did find  several that dealt with technology and went to a few of them. Listed below are some of the sites and/or apps that can be used by educators.

Closing the Feedback Loop with Google Apps provided user friendly add on apps in Google that will digitally collect information and provide timely feedback.  These apps include:

Doc Appender - informal assessment, immediate feedback, shareable with students, parent and administration, and great for recording student conference notes

Goobric with Doctopus - writing and project feedback, works with analytic rubrics and Google classroom, immediate feedback

Flubaroo - Google forms quiz option

Quizziz -  informal onLine assessment

Kahoot - informal online assessment

Quizlet Live -informal online assessment

Orange Slice - rubric tool

JoeZoo Express -rubric tool

Another session was Digital Tool for Connecting with Parents.  This session looked at various tools and social media to connect with patents.  It looked at the following:

Instagram - photo and videos sharing and captions

Twitter - text messages with a limit of 140 characters per tweet

Facebook - social media that can be used for marketing and public relations

Facebook Live - real-time online live streaming of a live event

YouTube - create a YouTube channel for sharing videos about the school l

Remind - text or email messages

Canvas - platform that can connect parents

Google Classroom - connect parents

S'more - create attractive digital newsletters

Seesaw - share student photos, videos and work

Bloomz - teacher to parent communication tool (can be translated to another language)

Class Dojo - classroom management, sharing updates with parents

Technology is Key in Learning in K-3 provided different sites to allow students to collaborate, create, think critically and problem solve while using the digital competencies for teachers.

Kahoot - create quizzes

Class kick - share texts and thinking maps

ChatterPix - retell, research projects, oral presentations and fluency practice

Tellagami -  retell, research projects, oral presentations and fluency practice

Telestory -  retell, research projects, oral presentations and fluency practice

Padlet- post photos, texts and videos to show what students know

Paper Slides - use the video on your camera by sliding paper and upload on Padlet

VR - Virtual Reality to explore a setting for a story

Epic - free for educators to access books and videos

The last one to discuss is Top 10 Free Websites for Immediate Classroom Use.  This session provided free sites to improve communication, promote creativity and  put fun back into assessments.  The free websites include:

Communication

    QR code Generator - create free QR codes

    Remind - text or email parents

    Weebly for Educators - create free websites or portfolios

    WIX ShoutOut - newsletters

Assessments

    Kahoot - create fun learning games

    Flickers - real time formative assessment dates using cards

    EdGames - game templates for model for modifying cation

Creativity

    Readwritethink - create letters, Venn diagrams, cubes and newspapers

    Canva - create posters, flyers and invitations

    Blabberize - create talking photos

    Mixbook - create photo books

I hope you enjoy these sites.

2/26/17

2/26/17

"Tools for School Leaders"

This chapter in "Leading 21st Century Schools" is ironically timely when looking at the current events at my school.  The chapter talks about tools  school leaders can and should use to communicate with stakeholders.  It addresses PLNs, Websites, Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts and various social media sites.

Currently,  the School Improvement Team (SIT) at my school  is using a program, Indistar, to assess, plan and monitor our School Improvement Plan (SIP).  Indistar provides indicators for the team to look at (assess).  The team then chooses one indicator to develop a plan to evaluate in detail.  The first indicator we chose to address was the indicator E1.06 - The school will regularly communicate with parents/guardians about its expectations of them and the importance of the curriculum of the home (what parents can do at home to support their children's learning). (5182)

As part of the plan, we need to describe how it will look when this objective is being fully met in our school and how we can provide evidence. As part of the process, we will be sending out a questionnaire to the staff requesting the various tools they use to communicate with parents.  The Team is also looking for additional ways for the school to communicate with parents.  Some members have negative feelings about using social media.

This  chapter gave some excellent tools to suggest to the team as well as practical ways to implement the changes.  I particularly liked how one principal describes how she manages and uses the school Facebook page.  She suggests starting "tight"  as in who can post or comment on the page.  She wanted to ensure that the page was not used to express 'unhappiness'.  She also suggest that multiple people have administrative rights including the district office, school secretary, counselor and a few teachers.  That will take the burden off of just one person trying to keep up with it all.  Most important, be positive on the page. Use this page to share  ALL the good things going on in the school.

I plan to share the ideas in this chapter with the team and the principal.  I think it will help him to visualize what would be by looking at the examples and suggestions given in this chapter.

3/5/17

Technology Plan

This past summer, the technology inventory process was revamped.  Previously, each teacher was responsible for completing a inventory form and turning it in before leaving for the summer.  While this was 'complete', there was a concern about validity of the inventory.  This past summer, the school secretary and media specialist went room to room and completed the technology inventory.  As items are replaced or added to a room, the teacher and/or technology specialist is to report it to the secretary.  While there is still room for error, there is a valid inventory to start with.

The district required each school to use the North Carolina Digital Learning Plan and complete a scoring sheet as to the status of the school.  Ours was completed last week by a team consisting of 1 school administrator, 2 support staff and 2 teachers.   Each member completed a scoring sheet on their own and it was complied into one report and turned into the district.

Based on the combined scoring sheet, our school scored a total of 28 (developing).  The lowest categories were leadership and professional learning, with the most '1's in the leadership category.  Four of the six subcategories scored a 1 which supports my previous blog where I indicated that some (principal) are unsure of social media (technology).  This is a great starting point in digging deeper into the technology plan.

2/19/17
Infographic

This week was spent researching and creating an infographic on Technology in K-12 Education.  After many attempts to narrow down the topic, I finally decided to use K-12 Education.  Creating the infographic on Piktochart had it's own challenges. 

While I did use a template, I wanted to change the color scheme.  I had to experiment with different options until I found what I liked.  The images that were available to choose from were limited.  Sizing and location of text boxes were challenging at first until I practiced with it for awhile.  After I finished, I wanted to wait and look at it the next day before submitting.  I panicked when I went to look for it today and couldn't find it.  The original one was there but not the updated one.  I logged out and logged back in several different ways and still couldn't find it.  Yes, the panic at this point was real.  After hours of working on this infographic, I was going to have to start over.  I clicked on the original and the updated version was there.  Oh what a relief!!  That assignment is now turned in and off to start the next. 

February 12, 2017

February 12, 2017

21st Century Students and Teachers

The 21st century learner is not the same as their parents as learners.  According to Couros,  to be successful, the 21st century learner need different types of  opportunities to be successful.  These opportunities include:

• Voice - the opportunity to share their learning.
• Choice - the opportunity to choose how and what they learn.
• Time for Reflection - the opportunity to reflect of what they have learned.
• Opportunities for Innovation - the opportunity to create.
• Critical Thinkers - the opportunity ask questions and to challenge what they see.
• Problem Solvers/Finders - give students a chance to find and solve problems with a purpose.
• Self Assessment - help in letting students understand what they know.
• Connected Learning - allowing experts on various subjects share their knowledge.

Technology is not required to offer these opportunities to students but it does open more sources for the learner.

The 21st century learners are digital natives who use technology in their daily lives.  For the most part, schools today do not allow the use of students' personal devices.  The students use Internet for learning outside of school.  Social Media and Web 2.0 tools are used for communication outside of school but these options are not allowed in school.  Students disconnect from the traditional methods of learning.  The mind set of educators needs to change in order to reach the 21st century learner.  Educators will need to provide opportunities for students to learn 21st century life and career skills.

With the shift in school culture due to technology, school leaders need to promote a positive school culture.  Communication is the key when initiating changes in technology.  In exchange, a school culture can support or limit a school leader.  School leaders need to realize that by distributing leadership, there will be a better acceptance or 'buy in' of the changes in the school culture.  The school leader will also need to model and use new technology.  The 21st teacher will  need develop technology rich lessons based on data.  Professional development needs to focus on student-centered teaching strategies with follow up activities.  

Technology is here and ever changing.  In looking at my current school,  technology has been available for several years.  In the  last year or so, devices have become more abundant for student use.  The infrastructure has been updated and can handle more devices.  With the positive changes, it varies how much time students spends on devices.  Some teachers/classes still rely on the lecture method while others use more technological methods to deliver instruction.  There is discussion on developing school/teacher social media sites as  a way to improve communication.  While we are moving forward, I think we are not as advance as other schools or districts in the use of technology in the school.