Describe the steps you would take as a principal to ensure that the curriculum is implemented and assessed at the classroom and school levels so that students learn the intended content.
As a principal, I would take several steps to make sure that curriculum was implemented and assessed at all levels. The first step would be to make sure that teachers have the time to review curriculum, especially when curriculum changes take place. Secondly, I would give them time for collaboration, in order to explore ideas for teaching and to address questions that they might have. As a principal, I would frequently stop in classrooms for observations and would look at lesson plans and pacing charts.
When it comes to assessment I would take time to examine assessment results. For example, on one of our standardized state assessments, each grade level content and expectation is clearly listed with the percentage of students who scored correctly on that particular item. It is easy to see what standards the students are learning, and which ones they are not learning. This is useful information to the teachers, they can see what they have covered and retained and what was not either covered or retained. The teachers seem to enjoy looking at these assessment results. They, of course, realize that one assessment does not completely show what has been learned and taught in the classroom, but it can be a start.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Week Five - Reflection
Reflection
As a school administrator and instructional leader, I would like to see various tools and applications written into the curriculum. Such technology as Power Point, Photostory (or another application were pictures and music can be downloaded), Email, Spreadsheets (Excell), a word processing program (Microsoft Word), should be seen in the written, taught, and tested curriculum of a school district in order to prepare students for the future. With technology changing so quickly, I feel that the instructional technology piece would need to be reviewed and updated at least every other year, where as we have a curriculum review cycle that is set up on a 4 year rotation. Our district currently assesses our 8th grade students with a formal assessment and the percentage of students who are “technologically literate” are reported to the state. Our current assessment includes excell, powerpoint, and Microsoft Word, but it does not include any Web 2.0 tools.
There are so many wonderful Web 2.0 tools that can be used to differentiate instruction and it would very much depend upon the age, grade and objective of the lesson. There were several excellent suggestion in the Week Five UDL blog, such as LetterPop for newsletters, Photostory for telling stories, ZohoShow for creating posters, Timeliner to help students create and visualize the concept of time, PowerPoint can be used for many different things, Blogger and Google Docs are great tools for collaboration. I also like Starfall and BrainPop for fun tutoring type exercises. Many of the textbooks that we purchase for our district have companion websites that use videos, quizzes, and other fun activities that students seem to enjoy.
As a school administrator and instructional leader, I would like to see various tools and applications written into the curriculum. Such technology as Power Point, Photostory (or another application were pictures and music can be downloaded), Email, Spreadsheets (Excell), a word processing program (Microsoft Word), should be seen in the written, taught, and tested curriculum of a school district in order to prepare students for the future. With technology changing so quickly, I feel that the instructional technology piece would need to be reviewed and updated at least every other year, where as we have a curriculum review cycle that is set up on a 4 year rotation. Our district currently assesses our 8th grade students with a formal assessment and the percentage of students who are “technologically literate” are reported to the state. Our current assessment includes excell, powerpoint, and Microsoft Word, but it does not include any Web 2.0 tools.
There are so many wonderful Web 2.0 tools that can be used to differentiate instruction and it would very much depend upon the age, grade and objective of the lesson. There were several excellent suggestion in the Week Five UDL blog, such as LetterPop for newsletters, Photostory for telling stories, ZohoShow for creating posters, Timeliner to help students create and visualize the concept of time, PowerPoint can be used for many different things, Blogger and Google Docs are great tools for collaboration. I also like Starfall and BrainPop for fun tutoring type exercises. Many of the textbooks that we purchase for our district have companion websites that use videos, quizzes, and other fun activities that students seem to enjoy.
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