Lisa+Bohon+and+Jason+Stoltzfus






=//If you had a network that connected every school building in your Intermediate Unit, what advantages/opportunities does that provide to you as a teacher? What would you like to see happen over the network?// = = = = =



__LISA's comments will be in RED__ There are so many things that we could do. I’m going to start small and work towards the bigger ideas. 1. Within our grade level, we could do projects within our classes and then compare and share them with the other classes. We could have students compare opinions on a story we just ready by doing a real-time chat. Students could conduct polls with the other classes. As teachers we could share information and plans for lessons. We could organize our ideas, activities, lessons, etc. It would allow us to have a common planning period so-to-speak at any time of the day. You could do teacher exchanges where one teacher would teach a topic to all kids in that grade level one section at a time. Each teacher in that grade level would have a topic and the kids would rotate through to all teachers.

2. Within our own building, we could do all of the things mentioned above, but extend it into other subjects and use the older students to be peer mentors for the younger students. Older students could read to the younger students. Students could get to “sample” teachers in another grade level. Upper level teachers could communicate with lower level teachers to help determine what is being taught, what needs taught, what is working, what is not working, and to help create the curriculum.

3. Within our own district, we could have high school kids mentoring middle school kids. Middle school kids could mentor elementary school kids. Younger kids could ask questions to the older kids. For example: How do you solve this math problem? High school teachers could observe middle school lessons over the network to see what kids are being taught and even to see which kids will need help. This would help anticipate kids who will have problems in a specific area and may help the guidance counselor in his scheduling. Administrators could conduct district wide meetings without requiring building staffs to leave their own building. This would save time and allow for more meetings to be conducted in less time.

4. When our district would be connected to other districts, you multiply all of the above things that I mentioned by the amount of other school districts. This exponentially increases the opportunities. An intermediate unit could conduct a live, real-time in-service for all of the staff of an entire intermediate unit at one time. This would save time, money, and bring a feeling of unity to the entire unit. You could potentially save districts and IU’s money by eliminating some positions as they may not be necessary if they are being duplicated in each district. An intermediate unit could offer online courses to all of the districts within the unit that all schools could access within the same IU. This may potentially cut-back some on the need for online charter schools and help the public schools maintain some of their students which they currently lose.

5. All of these things would be advantages and opportunities for me as a teacher. The things that I would like to see happen over the network are: media type="custom" key="4145739"
 * intermediate unit-wide e-mail system so that all teachers within the IU would have the same e-mail address suffix and a standard prefix (for example teacher’s first and last name). Mine might be…….lisabohoncenterarea@aiu3.edu
 * videos available on-demand across the entire IU for all teachers within that unit. This would save money and offer more resources for all teachers and more opportunities for all students.
 * in-services offered across the network to all of the schools in all of the unit.
 * have schools operate on the same calendar across the entire IU to facilitate sharing of classes, etc. across the network.
 * teachers offering remedial help to students across the network and not just within their home district. This could be done in a live videoconference type of setting as-well-as a chatroom or e-mail situation.
 * teachers collaborating on unit-wide lessons and activities for students of the same level in the same classes.
 * teachers posting student projects at a central point for students and teachers in other districts to view and learn from. Students could gain an appreciation for each other over the network and even learn from other students.
 * The unit could share software across the network and save money.
 * Use teleconferences to connect administrators of all unit districts.
 * Have technology coordinators available at a central location but allow access to them over the network for all the schools within the intermediate unit.
 * Have students collaborate to complete a project with students from the other districts. They could meet over the network, work on their project, and publish their results to the network for all students to view from all districts. Imagine the same project assigned to all 14 schools in the IU. Each kid works with 3 kids from a random district to complete the project. That would be awesome!
 * Have a teacher exchange program where a teacher in district A could teach students from district B and vice-versa. This could start small with one or two lessons and grow bigger. This could be done over the network.

(JASON'S COMMENTS WILL BE IN BLACK)

Question 1: If you had a network that connected every school building in your IU, what advantages/opportunities does that provide for you as a teacher?

The field of education has always relied heavily on collaboration. In the past/present, teachers would meet according to department, meet by grade level, share lesson plan ideas, and often even exchange lesson plan books. I've heard teachers say "why re-invent the wheel, when we already have something that works" more times than I can count. What happens, though, is that our day is immersed in so many things that we are unable to meet from time to time. Social networking allows the opportunity to communicate at your own pace when the time permits. We can literally post everything that we use in our classroom for other teachers to share, provide feedback on and even help to fine-tune. It gets me excited to think of the possible ramifications at the building level.

When you start to think of the scope of the effect that this could have if all the buildings within an IU could network, I am unable to fathom how great the outcome could be. Imagine a district that is performing well, sharing the recipe to their success via computer with other districts that may be grasping at straws to find anything that works. They can share videos, curriculum ideas and provide feedback to each other. The consistency within curriculum could be established so that all districts within an IU are all studying basically the same thing. Although this doesn't sound like a big deal, it could potentially revamp the way that education is viewed in our country. I realize that we have state and national standards that our students are expected to study, but this would establish a consistency within those standards that our educational system has never seen.

I have looked into lesson study (a Japanese PD technique) ([|http://www.tc.columbia.edu/lessonstudy/lessonstudy.html]) enough to understand that it is a successful way to approach lesson planning. A cohort of teachers plans a lesson (or series of lessons) together. One of the teachers delivers the lesson while the rest of the cohort observes, looking for areas of improvement. The lesson plan is rewritten accordingly. The process is repeated until the cohort decides they have the "perfect lesson" for their students. Our district tried to implement this strategy, but we were unable to follow through because of the time constraints and need for subs on a regular basis. The sharing of video, pictures, and ideas via social networking sites would be a tremendous way to alleviate some of these concerns.

The only disadvantage that I could foresee would be the loss of originality of certain teachers. If ideas were shared and evaluated too frequently or harshly, teachers may attempt to conform and lose their own sense of personality in the classroom. This could be very detrimental in the long run.

Question 2: What would you like to see happen over the network?

I would like to see teachers share things that work and things that they need help with. They could share documents, videos of activities, or anecdotal records. Other teachers could provide feedback or "steal" ideas to be used in their own class. Come to think of it.....this is exactly what we are doing in this class. We are modeling the exact behaviors that we ultimately want to achieve in our classrooms, districts, and IUs.

IN SUMMARY We see this as an almost NO LOSE scenario where the educational experience is improved for students.