Courtney Ruggiero

7/7/15
Reflection on Achievement of Technology Goals

The first goal I had for this class was to learn better ways to use the Chromebooks in my
classroom. During this class I have now signed up for SmartBrief on Edtech. This gave me
access to many different articles about people who are using technology in their classes. One of
the articles I read was about a teacher who participated in senate simulations. For the
simulations the students used devices to read about the specific people they were supposed to
portray1. This is something I can tangibly use in my classroom. It is really hard to provide
students with enough material to accurately portray a senate discussion; however the site the
teacher used has a ton of stuff that I can use in my curriculum. This idea of using technology in
a discussion is something I had not thought of doing before. I usually try to put computers away
when we are talking, but this gave me the idea that it could actually be useful in a discussion if
used the right way. This is just one example of a specific way I accomplished my goal.
However, this brings me to the less tangible ways I have worked towards this goal. This class
has also helped to change my mindset. After reviewing the NETS, specifically standard one and
two I realized that I have to stop looking for specific tools for the Chromebooks and really shift
my thinking to look for ways students can use technology to personalize their learning. I was
focusing too small and looking at standard two really helped me think about how I had to change
my focus. The standard specifically states that you have to sustain a dynamic, digital-age
learning culture. Finding one or two new cool tech tools is not a sustainable way to maintain a

1 Piehler, Christopher. "A Teacher Shares His Lessons Learned From a Simulated Senate -THE Journal." THE Journal. Public Sector Media Group, 2 June 2015. Web. 23 June 2015

digital-age learning culture. However, keeping personalized learning in the forefront of your
mind while you continuously expand your learning communities will help to keep up with a
dynamic digital culture. Therefore, because of this new mindset I am going into my curriculum
planning thinking about the ways the Chromebooks can enhance personalized learning. For
instance, we are always trying to think of ways to have kids maximize unstructured time. I
would like to the give the students the same kind of task we had in this class. I would like to
have them think of three things that would like to know more about and then show their learning
by the end of the year. Because this could be done in enrichment time it could be very flexible
and personalized.
This new mindset was the reason I changed one of my learning goals. Prior to this class,
I thought I was doing a pretty good job keeping up with educational technology. I had been to
ISTE, I work a lot with the tech teacher and I like to try new things. However, being exposed to
even just something as simple as SmartBrief I saw how much untapped knowledge was out there
for me. I decided I needed to change my learning goal to be more focused on finding more
digital resources to help me professionally. I think this will continue to help me with my first
goal as well. The first thing I did was sign up for more SmartBrief newsletters. I really enjoy
getting a list of headlines each day. I find it is a really efficient way to peruse news and click on
the most interesting/ relevant articles. I also got myself back on twitter. I had used it when I was
younger as a way to connect with friends, but I had not yet started to use it professionally. I
started following Eric Sheninger, Patrick Larkin and Scott McLeod. I also put in a tech request
to have access to twitter on my computer at school. Prior to taking this course I would have been
nervous to ask that because I would have been afraid that I wouldnt be able to defend the
request that well. However, now that I have seen how many people I could be following and

how much learning I could be doing I know I have a strong case. I also know that I need to be
looking at this information at school and making a good amount of time for it. This class has
also shown me, specifically threw standard three in the NETS*A that if I am looking to be an
administrator I will have to make sure I continually educate myself about current practices in
education and having some old books from grad school is not going to accomplish that. In
addition to adding to my own professional network I also established a professional online
presence. I added a LinkedIn profile and I am currently working on updating this. Prior to
taking this class I did not know LinkedIn was even used by educators. This is another example
of this class broadening my perspective on things. I am going to share my LinkedIn profile with
my students as well as a way of showing an effective use of digital citizenship. I think it is a
good way to model how you present yourself online.
Another goal of mine was to look at the library media center and the library media
specialist position and examine ways we could improve this in the middle school I work at. The
first thing I did to support this goal was to ask the kids how they felt about their library. Most of
the students said that they did not go there. I followed up with them to see what the reason for
that was. Many of them said that they could not find books that they liked. My students are in
eighth grade and because our middle school is 6-8 the books tend to be on the younger side.
However, most eighth graders are reading well beyond their grade level and therefore feel that
the LMC has nothing for them. Something I noticed a lot in the NETS was the importance of
modeling. This got me thinking that maybe we could improve the usefulness of the LMC if
teachers were using it more themselves. I discussed this with the LMS and we talked about ways
that we could do this. We had the idea to create a meeting room that could be used by teachers
and that might influence students to do the same thing. We also said it would be nice to have a

teacher section for books where teachers were recommending things to each other and the school
could bring in books that were interesting to adults. The students also mentioned that they were
not allowed to use their own computers or the schools laptops while they were in the LMC. This
was so that the LMS could see what they were doing at all times on the desktops. I think that
this needs to be a cultural shift in the library. The library needs to be a place that promotes a
digital learning culture and provides an environment to support that. The LMS and I discussed
how this could be changed next year, by changing the policy and discussing that with students
from the outset of the year. This could also be changed by providing a variety of devices.
Perhaps students do not all like to use desktops or even regular laptops. By providing a variety it
might encourage students who need different learning tools.
The library media specialist and I also discussed the integration model at length. Prior to
getting the LMS job she was an ITL teacher for 8th grade and the old LMS was an ITL teacher for
6th grade. We discussed how this division is not necessarily the most productive way of
integrating because things can get repeated too easily. Instead the LMS could work with all
grades specifically in the research area so that the skills can be scaffolded and the strengths of the
LMS could be capitalized upon. Then, teachers who can focus on some of the other aspects of
technology integration can work across grades as well. For instance, the person hired to replace
her has particular skills in the video production area, which is something many teachers would
like to integrate more. I think a process like this can insure much more equitable access when it
comes to an ensured experience for all students in the middle school.
The LMS and I also discussed the need to make a more clearly defined digital citizenship
curriculum that is integrated into our schools curriculum. I passed along the first SmartBrief
article that I read that discussed how middle school is a sweet spot for teaching digital

citizenship, because it is just starting to be relevant to them and they are ready to understand the
issues associated with it.2 The article also included a link to an already designed plan that may
be helpful for us to use as a guideline.
This is my last class for my 6th year degree and I think I am finally ready to start looking
for administration jobs. It has been hard for me to see beyond the walls of my classroom and
focus on what could be useful to know as an administrator. However, focusing on the NETS for
administrators really started me thinking about the impact that leadership could have. I consider
most of my goals to be ongoing. I have set a goal for myself to read two articles a week that
could help integrate technology into my classroom. When I have my schedule for next year I
will designate time in my schedule to accomplish this. I think this is really important in order to
be successful in regards to standard two and three of the NETS. In terms of my third goal, I have
already made plans to work with the LMS specifically to create the digital citizenship
curriculum. After our discussion in class of standard five I feel that I can bring even more to the
table. However, I am also going to continue to look at strategies that are used in other schools. I
am realizing now what it will take to make a serious impact and I am hopeful that the areas that I
am starting to improve upon will only get better
Work Cited
Johnson, Chandra. "Teaching Students to Be Good Citizens in a Digital Age." Deseret News
National Edition. N.p., 28 May 2015. Web. 3 June 2015

2 Johnson, Chandra. "Teaching Students to Be Good Citizens in a Digital Age."

Deseret News National Edition. N.p., 28 May 2015. Web. 3 June 2015.

Piehler, Christopher. "A Teacher Shares His Lessons Learned From a Simulated Senate -- THE
Journal." THE Journal. Public Sector Media Group, 2 June 2015. Web. 23 June 2015