Sharing & Evaluating the Process

I started this blog as part of one of my early graduate courses. I have maintained this blog, posting challenges and triumphs, ever since. The blog has collected a few followers, and received a few comments, but it was not until recently that I have begun posting my blog entries on Twitter to try and gain more readers and followers. As I continue my journey through the ever-changing world of educational technology I hope to continue blogging and documenting the process. 

The stakeholders with whom I will share my findings, successes and shortcomings include my mentor and professor, my students, my fellow Northeast Hamilton teachers and administrators, the parents of my students, community members, and school board members. As a direct result of this project the primary stakeholders are students, teachers, and parents. As I continue the professional development of our staff and general awareness of educational technology it is important to share the results with those directly affected. 

One way I will do this is through this blog. I will also look for an opportunity to share at a school board meeting, prepare a piece for the school newsletter, and will be contacting the local paper about our community night. This is in addition to staff emails, student meetings, and staff and student trainings. Finally, I continually tweet my progress, making myself accountable to my professional learning network and opening up my work and writing to critique and public opinion.

I introduced this project on my blog already, have begun staff emails, and continue to tweet about my project. The newsletter article will take place at the end of March, and the board meeting is yet to be determined. I am working to make my students and parents more aware of my blog, and parent-teacher conferences fall at the end of this practicum, at which time I will have a greater opportunity to share with parents the work that their children and myself have been collaborating on.

The final step of my planned project, although I expect the work to continue throughout the year, is to host a community night in mid-April. It’s difficult to add something to the calendar this late, but with the continued support of my administration I am hoping we can find a date. This will be the final step in sharing information. The community night, however, will be more of a night of celebration and education than information. We will celebrate student achievement and educate parents and community members on the new practices that are taking place within the classroom. 

The blogging, newsletter, emails, and tweeting are a continuous process. I have been documenting my work, taking notes of meetings, and collecting data and survey responses. These things will be transformed into what I hope will from here on out be weekly blog posts. In order to successfully complete the community night I will need to meet with my building principal within the next week. We will need to arrange a date, location, and advertisements, as well as identify potential participants and stakeholders. My concern in that this may be overwhelming to my administrators. This is something I will discuss with my mentor in the coming days.