IRHS


 * 1st Semester Report - IRHS**

//The fall semester 2007 was not as productive in any aspect as I would have liked due to the fact that I was recovering from the hysterectomy I had at the start of the school year. With that said here is my update on what has been going on at IRHS://

//We have started really working as a group to get better with our SmartBoards. We were lucky enough to have Mrs. Bejarano come in and give us a great in service to the SmartBoard software. I have also been giving a lot of one on one help as the new SmartBoards were being installed.//
 * 1. Implementing my Technology Professional Development Plan**

//Several new SmartBoards are still being installed and we are all planning to go to district classes together, since I am also a new SmartBoards user I feel I should go with them to learn with them :)//

//This is an area where I feel IRHS excelled during the fall 2007 semester. Because of my surgery, I had to solicit help for all areas of technology from the staff. It was incredible how many people signed on to mentor in various areas. It was absolutely wonderful seeing teachers helping teachers. :) I would have to say that the building capacity has increase tremendously this semester!!//
 * 2. Building Capacity**

//I have been continuing to model new ways to incorporate 21st century skills in the classroom. I have also been trying to share everything I am doing with other teachers. I have also been inviting teachers to share what they are doing, but I have not gotten much feedback. I think this semester I will hold an in service where we can discuss 21st century tools, skills and lessons in depth. Hopefully this will garner a larger response.//
 * 3. Incorporating 21st century learning skills and tools**

//I have not really been able to go into other teacher’s classrooms during the fall to evaluate what people are doing with their SmartBoards due to the limitations of my schedule during the fall semester. I am seeing a lot of drive and interest in the staff in learning and enhancing their skills. This is very exciting!//
 * 4. Evaluating Effectiveness**

=//End of Year Report//=

The main focus of my technology professional development plan was to increase SmartBoard knowledge and use. I feel that I was not nearly as successful in this as I would have liked, though with that being said we have aquired several more smartboards and many of our teachers have learned a great deal about them. My initial goal was to raise our SmartBoard rubric proficiency from beginner to moderate or advanced. I think a lot of us are still in the beginner or moderate stages rather than moving to the advanced level. In my opinion the main reason for this is that I am still hovering near the mid-range.
 * 1. Implementing my Technology Professional Development Plan**

We have increased proficiency by having one inservice at the start of the year and then having small mini-lessons when teachers were wanting them. Additionally a few teachers went to district training. I would like to have more inservices next year on SmartBoards once my proficiency has increase further.

This is an area that I feel IRHS is excelling in, largely due to necessity. Due to my hysterectomy at the start of the school year I was unable to do many of the things I usually do including inservices and individual tutoring. I knew that many people might need my help and I emailed the staff asking them who might volunteer to serve as a tech guru in a number of areas. We had an AMAZING response!! I sent the list of tech people to the staff and they had a huge pool to choose from when they needed help. Many of the staff utilized this new resource and many members are still continuing to assist their peers. It is WONDERFUL!! We still have some people who need help with their grades every week, but overall I would say our tech competancy at IRHS is growing. :)
 * 2. Building Capacity**

As always I model this as much as possible using 21st century technology and several teachers are now playing with blogs and attemping to do more PBL in their classrooms. I have also been modeling interdisciplinary team teaching as a 21st century approach to teaching and it has gad a great impact on the students.
 * 3. Incorporating 21st Century learning skills and tools**


 * My students are doing a number of things including many projects that have real world application such as growing bacteria and testing common anti-bacterial products. The students are then working together in the computer lab to create a report that they will be sending to the companies, as many of the products failed to work. Students are also creating public service announcements about cancer, environmental issues and more. Additionally, I am part of a freshmen team and I am working closely with a math teacher to integrate some of our curriculum. This has had a great impact on some of our at-risk students. :)
 * Students are using many 21st century tools including blogs, wikis, streaming video and student created digital video. Unfortunately my class blog has had little to no use this year, but several of my students have set up their own bio-blogs where they communicate with their group members which is pretty cool :)
 * I think we still need to focus on SmartBoards as well as blogging. We have a lot of teachers who are curious about blogging but are not sure how to implement them in their classrooms.

I believe my increased proficiency in using my smartboard really helped impact student learning because I was able to present information in a more engaging way.
 * 4. Evaluating Effectiveness (from my PD plan)**

I do a LOT of differentiation by giving private tech lessons to teachers rather than holding large inservices. The needs of my teachers are soooo diverse that I have very small attendance at inservices and there is a lack of interest. The good news is that I have 4th period planning so I have both lunches available. I use much of my planning period to help instruct those teachers who are not able to come in before or after school.

I think that we have seen an improvement in the amount of negativity seen on my campus. This is not to say that there is no negativity as there are still some teachers who really hate the idea of using a SmartBoard, and there are those who complain about our windows 98 computers, but at the same time... MANY of our teachers are now using more and more technology in their classrooms. I have also had more teachers coming to me for ideas on how to use more of it in their classrooms. This has made me a very happy bunny! :)