Hensley’s Ed Tech Talk

This week's material focused heavily on the importance of data-driven decision making. As a middle and high school social studies teacher and team leader, I had the opportunity to work with a team of administrators and educators to gather and interpret various types of student data including TVASS data, iReady data, and general data for all course assessments.  Not only do assessment data points allow me to best understand what prior knowledge my students have, whether or not I am effectively teaching students, at what rate students are growing over time, and what needs each individual student has, but also data analyses from all areas of study coupled with regular communication with other team teachers allowed me to implement cross-curricular lessons into my curriculum.  In particular, I worked with the science teachers extensively to creatively bring science concepts into the social studies classroom. In addition to individual data analyses, I worked with colleague...

This week's material was very enlightening, especially because it emphasized the importance of being missional, rather than instrumental as an educational technology leader. As I mentioned in my module 7 assignment, when it comes to technology integration, it is important to strive towards a much grander objective/goal to ensure that technology use goes beyond simple substitution practices, but rather demonstrates  (to students and teachers) an impact on learning that would not otherwise  be possible without technology. By drafting the questions to be more missional, they were inductive to solicit ideas for what solid professional development looks like for social studies teachers. I think this will end up being much more productive in the end because decisions to implement technology would stem directly from the expressed needs and wants of the teachers. This module and the assignments included therein reminded me that part of my role as a technology leader is to st...

Module 6 Reflection The biggest takeaway from this week's material is that technology integration and the processes and procedures associated therein may look very different between districts and sometimes between schools within districts. Some technology leaders in certain districts have well-developed plans for how they see technology being integrated and used in their district and strive to get all teachers on the same page. Others, as was the case with my former school district, technology integration and use is at the will of the teachers. In this system,  the technology leader for the district stays up to date with the latest emerging technologies and is willing to offer supports to teachers only if they seek support. Where I do not necessarily agree with this model of technology integration and facilitation, I understand that due to first and second order barriers, technology leaders have to be flexible and work within the confines of their school context. However, I feel ...

The biggest takeaway from this week's material were the readings regarding effective communication techniques and behaviors. I think that some of the time communication seems very instinctive; however, leaders can slip into ineffective communication practices due to being busy or making efforts to be more efficient. The most useful strategies from the readings were the intrinsic practices to keep in mind when communicating with others. For example, recognizing when you are getting frustrated in a conversation and taking the time to internalize what is being said before responding. This is important to ensure that communication remains respectful and open and that nothing is said on a whim without being thought through carefully. This week I learned that my results for the interpersonal skills self-assessment were as follows:  Listening Skills (52%), Emotional Intelligence (68%), Verbal Communication (77%), and  Communicating in Groups (83%). I also learned from colleagues th...