STRUCTURED

Field Experience Log & Reflection

Instructional Technology Department

Candidate: Mentor/Title: School/District:

Allison Gonzalez Chris Douglass/ Tech Heritage High
specialist School/Catoosa County
Field Experience/Assignment: Course: Professor/Semester:
Data Overview Project ITEC 7305 Data Analysis Dr. Judi Jones /Fall 2022

Part I: Log
Date(s) Activity/Time STATE Standards NATIONAL Standards
PSC ISTE NETS-C
9/26, 10/5, Research/compile data resources from 2.8, 4.2, 6.3 2h, 5b
10/7, 10/9, various sources (5 hours)
10/10
10/14, 10/18 Meet with academic coach and assistant 5.1 4a
principal in charge of testing (2 hours)
10/19, 10/20 Build slide show template (3 hours) 2.8, 4.2, 6.3 2h, 5b
10/22, 10/23, Create and insert data tables and graphs into 2.8, 4.2, 6.3 2h, 5b
10/28, 10/29 presentation (6 hours)
11/3, 11/6 Finalize presentation and record data 5.2 4b
overview (3 hours)

Total Hours: 19 hours

DIVERSITY
(Place an X in the box representing the race/ethnicity and subgroups involved in this field experience.)
Ethnicity P-12 Faculty/Staff P-12 Students
P-2 3-5 6-8 9-12 P-2 3-5 6-8 9-12
Race/Ethnicity:
Asian
Black x
Hispanic x
Native American/Alaskan Native
White x x
Multiracial x
Subgroups:
Students with Disabilities x
Limited English Proficiency
Eligible for Free/Reduced Meals x
Part II: Reflection

CANDIDATE REFLECTIONS:
(Minimum of 3-4 sentences per question)

1. Briefly describe the field experience. What did you learn about technology facilitation and
leadership from completing this field experience?

The process of constructing a Data Overview for my school was one of the more challenging
processes. However, the process helped me develop a thorough understanding of what types of
data are generated and used at my school. Part of this process required me to establish a data team
that would assist in an in-depth review of our school improvement plan and to create a list of all
the different types of data at our disposal. An essential role of an instructional coach is to be able
to bring a group of important individuals together to work towards a common goal. Working with
a data team was not an area I thought I would be involved with but I learned that this is a n
important role for an instructional coach.

This process required me to become familiar with all the different forms of data. I learned that my
school like most, has a wide range of data collecting sources. Some sources don’t seem all that
useful from a teacher’s standpoint. The experience however, will allow me to take a closer look at
my own classroom data and help me better identify areas where improvements would be
necessary. My data overview project was primarily based on 10th grade Biology EOC scores in
over a 3-year period right before the Covid Pandemic. Biology is rated as one of the hardest
courses for on level 10th grade students. I can take what I have learned to my PLC group and
together we can take a closer look at assessment scores from a whole new prospective instead of
just identifying major topics in our content where students were or weren’t successful. This will
help us try to find some commonality between our teaching and help us identify areas to improve
upon.

Working with Excel spreadsheets was never a requirement so my understanding and use was very
limited before starting the Data Analysis class and learning how to create graphs within Excel. I
really enjoyed this part of the process as I gained much needed experience with the process of
converting data tables into functional graphs.

2. How did this learning relate to the knowledge (what must you know), skills (what must you
be able to do) and dispositions (attitudes, beliefs, enthusiasm) required of a technology
facilitator or technology leader? (Refer to the standards you selected in Part I. Use the
language of the PSC standards in your answer and reflect on all 3—knowledge, skills, and
dispositions.)

Knowledge: For the Data Overview project, I must know how to research and locate different
types of data that exists in the school and know how to interpret the data. I need to know how to
use Excel to create graphs appropriately to best represent the data being reviewed. I also need to
know how to analyze the data appropriately to drill down on the data to find trends.

Skill: Developing an understanding of the Drill Down process is essential for several reasons. For
one, the process allowed me to improve upon communication skills about different forms of data
collected. Data on student achievement can be gathered and analyzed more efficiently by using
digital tools and various other resources, as suggested by members of data team. This process
required skills for the interpretation of the different forms of data using tables and graphs created
in Excel. Creating the Data overview gave me the skills necessary for communicating the findings
of the data analysis so the data team can make informed decisions about how to make adjustments
to the school improvement plan or to identify new methods for intervention that will meet the
needs of the students.

Disposition: The process of developing my data overview was insightful and beneficial to me in
many ways. I never envisioned myself as serving in a big role like that of those who are a part of
the data team. But I am an important member of this team because I teach a class that has to give a
high stacks Georgia required Biology End of course at the end of each semester. This process of
collecting data and creating a visual representation of the data to share with my PLC group,
academic and graduation coaches, administrators was a valuable experience. The process led to
more collaboration as we discussed current teaching strategies and identifying ways that might
help us improve teaching practice to improve student success rate on our Biology EOC.

3. Describe how this field experience impacted school improvement, faculty development or
student learning at your school. How can the impact be assessed?

The process of drilling down the data will impact school improvement as well as give some
guidance towards faculty development as the team digs deeper into the current data. By using
various digital tools that can provide various forms of data, this data can be organized and
analyzed to provide a deeper understanding of our student’s current academic level and give all
personal the necessary information to identify instructional strategies that will be most effective an
increasing student performance on these high stake’s tests. This process will allow the school to
implement new initiatives for increasing student learning. Most importantly, this process of
drilling down on data will help all involved identify students who need more academic support.
This additional support might be achieved by utilizing more effective digital instructional
resources that have a greater impact. The impact of this process can be assessed by repeating the
Data Overview at the end of each year using the latest Biology EOC test results and hope that our
efforts will lead to increases in our biology test scores.