21st Century Ed Leadership Artifacts and Reflection

 21st Century Ed Leadership Artifacts and Reflection

Stephanie Haberer

I enjoyed working on the assignments during this class while also getting more practice navigating through the Google Apps.  I like that all of the Google Apps that I am getting practice on in here, I can bring back and use in my daily life and lessons as a middle school PE teacher.  I believe that using them in both places is helping me get better and gain confidence.  The first artifact is designing and creating a faculty meeting.  This was a fun experience and more challenging than I had anticipated.  Since I am usually just attending, I did not realize the time and effort it takes to plan and break down a meeting while making sure to cover everything important while still having fun.  As a teacher who sits through these meeting every week, I know that they are not always the most engaging or I find myself thinking of different ways I can be productive with my time.  I now see that sometimes meetings will be more engaging, but sometimes they will be more cut and dry due to what information needs to be covered that week.  I would be curious to see how my plan would go over with the staff in my building.

Artifact 1

My second artifact is creating a learning walk thru that would be used my administration or teachers going in and out of classrooms.  I feel that walk throughs should benefit the teacher as well as the person doing the walk through.  It is so important to create positive relationships in the workplace.  It also helps with information delivery and how to take feedback and advice to better yourself. I would really like to use this set of questions as a guide if I was visiting someone's room and would also like if the people visiting my room would use them as well.  It is a way to get feedback as well as a confidence boost in what the found to be great in your lesson.  It should never feel like a formal observation, and the more we all try to not make it feel that way, hopefully the experience will be better and more beneficial to all involved.

Artifact 2

I enjoyed this class and feel that I am leaving with more knowledge than I started with.  I really liked learning about social media in schools and how that when done correctly, it can really make a big impact for the better.  Since my school is starting to get better with their social media presence, it was great to see how much more we are capable of and how it can be beneficial.  I had no idea that some schools have their own or content specific social media pages that they are in charge if themselves.  I feel that would be another thing added to our plates, but also with split responsibility of a content area, I think it would be enjoyable and rewarding to do so.  I also enjoyed the podcasts and articles dealing with technology.  At work, they expect us to use technology often, but never give us the time to learn or give PD on it during the work day or times that is manageable.  Seeing how much technology is out there and able to benefit student engagement and learning keeps me motivated to continue to push myself to learn it.  Seeing other teachers perspectives to different situations and articles is also great.  From elementary to highs school and all subject areas, I really enjoy being able to partake in discussions over the computer.

Social Media blog post

social media blog post

 As a district, our main sources of social media include Facebook and Twitter.  I feel Facebook has a bigger following than Twitter, but, our admin is always pushing to follow our district on Twitter.  I personally follow the district’s Facebook page, but I am not on Twitter to follow.  I feel following the Facebook page is beneficial as I can see everything that is put out to the public about certain events, pictures, and recognition of teachers and ideas which is always nice to see.  I feel that the people in charge of our social media do a great job promoting and showcasing everything that is being done since they are in the schools daily seeing everything being done first hand.  I do wish eventually that our school will decide to turn on comments so the followers can have discussions that would be beneficial in my opinion.  Even some of the negative ones, we could get feedback on how to make certain events and topics better.

As a teacher, I do not have access to make my own Facebook page for school, but they may be something that families and students would enjoy.  I get a lot of lesson ideas from Facebook, Pinterest and send out a lot of information through the Remind app.  I find the Remind app to be beneficial as I can send out messages to whole classes quickly as well as pick certain families that may need specific information.  The downfall is that the app is optional so not all families have to download it which makes it hard to remember what families got the messages and which did not.  Some parents also complain about the amount of emails/texts they get from Remind because all teachers are encouraged to use it and some do not like to be bothered even though they signed up for it.  Sometimes you get some not so nice messages back which can be discouraging.

I feel that our school's policy on inappropriate technology is handled on a time to time basis.  They take each situation as it comes and depending on the child and if they have an IEP etc.  Cellphones are big at the middle school level.  We are no longer able to take their cell phone if they are on them and have them come get them later.  That used to help a bunch I feel, but now we are allowed to write them a pass to go put their phone back in their locker.  This takes away from class time and many do not like to leave their phones in their locker because their lockers do not have locks and they can easily be stolen.  If the student is caught being on their phone more than a few times, the teacher needs to call home and eventually write a detention.  If they are on it in the locker room, they may become suspended for a day or so and have a phone call home.  When students are caught sending threats on social media, it goes into investigation and can turn into a suspension and possible expulsion if it is a more serious threat like bombing or shooting up the school.  Students also use their phone throughout the day when they are not allowed to to know when to meet up for a fight or where to be to watch a fight and possibly record it.  Recording a fight will also land you a suspension.

As for teachers and staff using social media inappropriately, I feel that is not set in stone either as I do not see something like that listed anywhere.  I am sure if you are caught posting something inappropriate or on social media during school hours, there could be a consequence.

Cyberbullying is a major issue and we as educators are always trying to stop it.  We can help by actively supervising and making sure students are not on their phone during school hours.  We can take it seriously when a student comes and tells us about something that is happening on social media.  We are always told to tell our students to screenshot anything that you find inappropriate and hurtful on the internet in case the bully takes it down or will not admit to it.  We can have PD of how to deal with cyberbullying as well as being able to ask questions any time we want to administrators so we are always aware what to look for.  We also advise out students to not have a social media account so things like this can be avoided and make sure to remind the parents to know what social media their children have and how to help monitor it.  We are also told to remind students that threats and cyberbullying could cause serious consequences including the police having to get involved.  It is also important to stress to students that once they post something, make sure it is something they do not mind following them around for forever because once it is on the internet, there is no getting it back.  I always stress that when they decide to text or post an inappropriate picture, there is no getting that back and at any time, anyone could possibly see that including future employers.