Internship Reflections and Journal

Things to note/people who will be mentioned:

- FMS = Farquhar Middle School
- Jennifer: FMS Professional Development teacher
- Joel: FMS Principal
- Adam: English Department Content Specialist

March 2016
I led my first professional development session and I was so nervous. Jennifer asked me
to lead a session this month about something or some tools I have learned about it grad school
so far. I chose to lead about Zaption and it was actually really successful! I dont know why it is
so intimidating to present or teach things to peers and co workers. Even though I was nervous, I
thought it went really well. I taught professional development during each team period. I had
directions on how to use Zaption, instructional videos, and Jennifer and I made examples to
show how the tool works. One thing I would have changed about this session would be to give
the staff more time to explore and create. Joel came in about halfway through each session to
make a few announcements, but ended up taking the rest of the time I had to work with the
staff. In the future I think if Joel needs to make announcements we should arrange for him to
come at the beginning and set him a time limit so that I have enough time to get through
everything I would like it, including interacting with the staff.

August 2016
The school year has officially begun! We are in a brand new building and it is SO
different from being in the old school. We went from being the oldest middle school in
Montgomery County to now one of the two newest buildings. We just finished preservice week
and the school year starts for students in a few days. During preservice week I presented my
internship to the staff during one of the whole staff meetings. I explained the goals of my
internship and how Jennifer and I hope to run professional development sessions and Tech
Thursdays this year with both macro (whole staff) and micro (staff who wish to attend)
sessions.
While being in a new school is great and Im so excited for the opportunities it creates
educationally and technologically, there are so many teachers that are still hesitant to try new
things even though we have the technology at our fingertips. From all the talks we had
throughout preservice week, it seems like teachers think they are too busy to try new things
when it comes to technology. Jennifer says they are using the new school and having to set up
their new classrooms and adjust as an excuse to not have to do anything new, even if it will help
our students. I was really excited about moving the new school and it was much needed and
great, but everyones focus is on themselves now and not how we can use and utilize
everything new we have in this building.

September 2016 (first week of school)

I gave a survey to staff this week in an attempt to gather data and help guide what I am
going to do this year. We had told the staff during preservice that I would be sending out a
Google Forms survey that I would really appreciate if they would fill out for me. I received a
range of feedback and am looking forward to diving deeper into it and really seeing how I can
help.
The school year is going okay so far, but there have been lots of technology related
complaints from the staff. We are 1:1 with Chromebooks this year but students do not have
them yet. We are starting a process called Tech Grab which will be kind of like a homeroom
each morning when students will get their Chromebooks and watch the announcements. It has
not been decided how the tech grab classes will be organized, so it has not started. I am helping
with the process of figuring this out, as well as the process for getting cases for each
Chromebook in an attempt to try and protect each computer.
Because we do not have tech grab yet, getting access to Chromebooks has been
troublesome. I was able to lead a micro session of professional development about the basics of
Chromebooks which was nice. I had a good amount of teachers show up, ranging from our
student teacher interns to teachers who are close to retiring. It was nice to see that people did
want to learn.

September 2016 (end of month)

I decided to hold an impromptu micro session of PD to help our student teachers and
first year teachers have a better understanding of how to use the Promethean boards and the
ActivInspire application required to make slides for the promethean. I really just went over basic
stuff (backgrounds, colors, text, insert and embedded, clickables) but everyone seemed very
receptive and appreciative of the time we spent together. I also led a session at our English
department meeting this week and introduced Padlet. I love Padlet because it allows students to
remain anonymous while answering questions. I also like that the Padlet updates as people
respond, so students can see all responses. I challenged the department to use Padlet for either
a few warm-ups or summarizers and to report back at our next meeting with what they did and
experienced. We will see what happens!

October 2016
October was a super busy month! I led several different sessions of technology related
learning. During our English department meeting on the 17th I presented about Google
Classroom. I displayed and demonstrated how to use each feature and everything. I also
showed how to use Google Docs for feedback and how to comment on things. Much of my
department is older teachers and these things that seem more simple to us are not as simple for
them.
I also introduced the whole staff to the concept of SAMR during our staff meeting. Joel
and Jennifer asked me to somehow help the staff realize that Chromebooks do not just mean
that we dont need pen/pencil and paper anymore. I thought that SAMR was the most
convenient and easy way for non tech related teachers to understand. I had staff discuss
several questions in groups about a SAMR image and we shared out as a big group. We talked
about the different levels of SAMR and why it is important to strive to be out of the substitution
stage asap.
I also tried to introduce Screencasting at macro professional development, but the staff
was super burnt out. I used this as an opportunity to lead a micro session about the topic
instead of a forced macro session. I announced I would be holding a micro session and the
science and English departments both showed up. It was nice to be supported.

November 2016
My internship plans are starting to fall apart and it is really upsetting. I feel like I was just
getting into the swing of things and so were the staff as seeing me in a leadership role. Our
assistant principal has not been to school since early October and we have no idea when she is
coming back. Because of this, Jennifer has been taken from her professional development
position and made an acting administrator. There are already talks amongst the staff about how
this means we dont have to go to PD anymore. It is not a good feeling.
 I was able to help facilitate our staff meeting on the 14th. I introduced Plickers and
announced we would be holding a macro PD session about them during December. We have
had several staff members complaining that the school did not buy new Activotes for the
Promethean when we switched schools. We used time this meeting to demonstrate how
teachers can use polling tools that are free instead of paying for Activotes. We started the
meeting by asking staff members questions and having them respond with a white board. Then
we introduced Poll Everywhere and demonstrated it. We discussed how this is a free version of
what Activotes can do. At the end of the staff meeting I gave staff a chance to ask any
technology related questions they had. I had a few ask questions and we had a good
discussion.

December 2016
December was a busy month too! At our staff meeting on the 5th I held an optional micro
session following the meeting. Based on feedback I had received from teachers, there was an
interest in learning about different ways of creating presentations. I decided to introduce Prezi.
We actually took a lot longer than I had planned going over how to use it and everything
because many teachers took it as an opportunity to set up (or begin to set up) some
presentations for lessons.
I also led a macro, whole school, professional development session on the 8th about
Plickers. In the process of planning for this session I even printed out and made enough sets of
Plicker cards for each staff member to take with them after the session. I thought this maybe
would be a way of making things easier for them and encouraging them to plan lessons that
involve Plickers. All staff members seemed really engaged and interested during the session!

January 2017
Even though I held a micro session at the beginning of the year about Chromebooks and
different apps that can be used, many teachers are still requesting help about GAFE and stuff.
Since staff hasnt been being held accountable for attending professional development
sessions, I figure I might as well continue to lead micro sessions when I can even if it is sharing
repetitive information. I have to keep telling myself that everyone learns at a different pace and
some people are still super hesitant to use technology.

February 2017
 Things with my internship and the plans we made have taken a major pause. Our
assistant principal has not been to work since October and has not provided the school with a
date that she will be starting back again. Because of this. Jennifer has had to step up as an
acting administrator. While this is great for the school and will help so much with whole school
issues (especially discipline), it has put a complete stop to our Thursday PD sessions that have
become standard throughout the school year.
While this is happening I have become the point person for professional development
needs. Im totally fine with this but there is no accountability for teachers to attend the
professional development sessions. I led PD the first two Thursdays of the month with PD but
barely anyone showed up and I was really frustrated. Im so frustrated it doesnt even feel like I
should talk about the session. For the third time, I tried to help teachers with using different
Google Apps. And for the third time, barely anyone showed up. There is no accountability for
the teachers and it seems like there is even less need for teachers to attend because it is only
me running the sessions and not Jennifer. I wish there was a way to hold staff accountable but I
am viewed as just another teacher still since professional development and my internship have
not been seen as an important thing or priority this school year.

March 2017
We held a professional development session for each grade level team to discuss
Chromebook plusses and deltas and what they want to change for next year. It was a very
negative meeting. Teachers hate Chromebooks because they are distracting, but when we said
that students may not carry them around next year and each teacher will just have a cart,
teachers were in an uproar that it would be such an inconvenience. I also gave an end of year
survey about technology asking staff what they have learned or would still like to learn and how
to improve professional development for next year.

April 2017
Today I met with Jennifer to review the data and results from the staff feedback survey I
gave during the last required PD session I could give in March. There were a few common
themes within the feedback:
- Staff should be held accountable for attending PD sessions or they wont be successful
sessions
- Introduce technology during more macro sessions
 - Do more with Chromebooks
- Technology is still overwhelming
I honestly feel like this internship was a complete epic fail. I had such genuine, big plans
for the school but I didnt take into account that the staff can be completely defiant and not
receptive to information and new ideas. My hope for next school year is that Jennifer and I can
lead PD sessions following the action plan I had originally made for this school year. I feel like I
set up a plan that could work really well, but this school year just completely worked against us
in every way possible.