5b-done

5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
Teachers:
 * b. exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others.**

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 * Description**

As the MLTI teacher leader for my school, I attended an MLTI workshop in the Fall of 2008 with my district's technology coordinator and my principal. Though I've always shared new information on an individual or team basis, I realized how important it was for all of our staff to be hearing about it as a whole, providing the opportunity for them to discuss their concerns, challenges, and successes mixed in with the chance to learn something new. So, I suggested to my principal that we hold quarterly technology faculty meetings. Thankfully she implemented the idea immediately with me facilitating them. As a part of the Technology Leadership Team for my school, I organize our meeting schedule and work to determine our school's technology goals. In seeing that teacher's wanted more professional development, I figured it was important to know in what it should be offered and the possibilities for who could present, so I created the linked survey for teachers to complete at the technology faculty meeting held in May.


 * Analysis**

These meeting minutes I've attached prove that I work to help improve the technology skills of my colleagues and provide the opportunity for others to lead. It also shows that in order to assist in setting realistic goals, I'm asking for input from my peers. Knowing that I've listened to concerns, teachers are adding technology to their list of discussions with me. We're building a community of technology learners, which can only help our students learn and grow with 21st century tools.


 * Appraise**

At the meeting in May, I modeled annotating text as a reading strategy. I would have done it at the meeting when I introduced the article on it, but I wanted teachers to have an opportunity to digest the information and potentially use it. Those who took the initiative to become familiar with the process became teachers to others and shared their thoughts, challenges, etc. on using this new tool. Conversation will help develop each person's ability with this type of technology and any others they share.

Surveys are a quick way to get information and SurveyMonkey allows easy organization of the data. I asked for names, because I wanted to be able to talk with teachers about easy ideas for them to implement, clarification on needs or understandings, and the possibility of presenting to colleagues about their areas of expertise. Since my fellow teachers completed this survey at the meeting, I got to hear the rumblings of, "We HAVE to give our names?" and "We HAVE to want to learn more about these topics?". I explained my rationale for the first part and my assistant principal stepped in to discuss the second. In order for us to grow technologically, we must be willing to learn more about it. If we aren't willing to learn more, then we're accepting complacency, which isn't good for us or our students.


 * Transform**

I truly believe that we must be willing to accept our own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of others. If we don't do that, we can't grow and celebrate the successes of our colleagues. The merging process of two middle schools has been an interesting transition. Technology is the sole area that puts all teachers on an even playing field, since the expectation is for all to integrate. People may have varying degrees of understanding and comfort in using it, but because there are constantly new tools and resources being made available to us, everyone has something to learn.

I've shared the SAMR model with teachers to inform them of how to improve their use of technology in their classrooms. This is going to be a continuing conversation, as it's similar to how I helped students improve their scores on constructed response quesions on the MEA. If they were at a 1, then I asked them to work on making their answers a 2. This is how I try to advance teachers' use of technology. If they are currently at substitution, I ask them to think about how they can make their technology integration at the augmentation level. Once they comfortably can handle the augmented lessons, then we will focus on modification. Moving from Substitution to Redefinition could be extremely overwhelming and discouraging, unless we break it into "edible" pieces.

Sharing has certainly never been an issue for me. Now, I have a focus for that sharing and since I'm comfortable taking risks, I can relate my own experiences as I share new ideas. I wouldn't say I've always been a leader, but I've not really fell into the category of follower either. I've just marched to the beat of my own drum and done my own thing. Perhaps now I can say that I lead by example.