Wednesday, July 30, 2014

What is a Blog?





Here is a quick video for the new Castleberry Bloggers that explains the various parts of a blog!

Monday, July 14, 2014

Wrapping my Mind Around how to Implement Instructional Rounds from a Digital Leader's Perspective

Today, I attended the 1st day of a very beneficial training for our district called, Instructional Rounds in Education. Our presenter, Dr. Sheila Maher, held everyone's attention and kept me contemplating the use of technology in the classroom and asking myself what is the main problem of practice when it comes to students using technology to learn?

Just like in many districts, we employ technology support staff, provide technology professional development, provide support documents and websites for teacher use; however, there seems to be only a few pockets of  student improvement in learning geared to the higher level of  Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. Teachers, technology coaches, instructional administrators, and myself are all working many hours in hopes of seeing student learning improve through the use of technology resources.

This year my department will spend time researching and asking the question of what are the problems of practice when it comes to implementing technology to increase student learning? We will begin this journey by identifying what specific technology tasks can illicit the higher level learning skills that our students need in order to be prepared for living in the 21st Century. The CISD Bloom's Digital Taxonomy is a good place to start, but we know that technology support resources should be reviewed and dynamic in nature to reflect proven strategies.

http://www.castleberryisd.net/departments/technology_services/bloom_s_digital_taxonomy/