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board

Step Up Your Leadership

by Lori Gracey October 9, 2016

written by Lori Gracey

As a district leader, you already wield considerable influence, making decisions each day that affect every student and staff member. But I would like to ask you to ramp up your leadership and become one of the TCEA leaders on the board of directors.

TCEA and its 17,000 members are led by a dedicated group of 27 educators like yourself who make decisions on the direction of the organization. Their work during their terms of office impacts students and teachers and librarians and administrators across the entire state of Texas and beyond. They set policy and legislative agendas, working to ensure that learning with educational technology becomes stronger and more prevalent each year. They make a difference.

Nominations for some of the positions on the board are now open, and I would ask that you consider running for an office position. The positions available for this election are as follows:

Vice President (three-year term)
Convention Chair Elect (two-year term)
Finance and Records Chair (two-year term)
Area Director in areas 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 17 (three-year term)

Service on the board of directors is not arduous, but it does require a commitment to excellence. The board meets in four regular board meetings during the year (May, July, October, and January) and may also have special called meetings, which are held virtually. All board members are required to work the entire week of the TCEA Convention & Exposition in February. In addition, each area director is responsible for providing services to the members in his area, including a robotics contest and a second event, which could be a small conference, a workshop put on by TCEA staff, a webinar, or anything else needed by the members. Every board member has the full support of the TCEA staff and the organization’s resources, making it easier to serve.

In addition, board members receive advance information about new technologies and have the opportunity to network with and learn from the best minds in educational technology today. Professional development opportunities are provided as well.

Nominations will close at midnight on October 31. The election will be held November 7-18. Those elected will assume their duties on April 1, 2017. Won’t you nominate yourself and step up to a higher level of leadership service for the benefit of the students and educators across Texas?

October 9, 2016 0 comment

The State Board of Education Gets a Tech Update

by Jennifer Bergland November 23, 2015

written by Jennifer Bergland

The Texas State Board of Education met the week before Thanksgiving and discussed some important issues related to educational technology. On November 17, the board met in a workshop entitled Learning Roundtable – Educating the Digital Generation. There were eight panels of experts and two individuals that discussed the various issues related to the use of technology in an instructional setting. Some of the panels dealt with broadband infrastructure, the instructional use of digital materials, the support of instructional materials, blended learning, OER (Open Educational Resources), and the technical support of technology. Donna Bahorich, the chair of the State Board of Education, wanted to deepen the board’s understanding of the possibilities and realities of educating students who are immersed in technology outside of school and are frustrated that their classrooms don’t offer the same types of opportunites. TCEA will be producing a white paper on the testimony with some suggested next steps in the near future. In the meantime, you can access the testimony on the TEA website.

The remainder of the week was devoted to a series of meetings, during which they took up a variety of topics. Two of the issues dealt with computer science education. HB 5, passed in 2013, provided a new graduation requirement option of substituting two credits in computer programming languages for two LOTE credits. In January 2014, the State Board of Education designated Computer Science I, II, and III as courses that could satisfy this new option with the added provision that these three courses would cease being an option to satisfy this requirement on September 1, 2016. The purpose for this expiration date was to force the board to revisit this issue so that they could gather more feedback from the districts to determine if these are the right courses that should meet the HB 5 requirement. On November 18, the SBOE voted to delete the expiration date, which would make their original recommendation permanent. This was approved on first reading and will be taken up by the board in January for second reading. Once that happens, it will be final. Districts should plan on continuing to offer these three courses as an option for students who want to substitute two computer science credits for the LOTE graduation credit requirement.

On Thursday, the Committee on Instruction had a discussion about adding AP Computer Science Principles to the Technology Applications curriculum beginning in the school year 2016-2017. This is a new AP course that will be tested for the first time in 2017. The board will vote on adding this to the curriculum in January on first reading, and then again in April for second reading. Once it is approved by the board on second reading, TEA can assign it a PEIMS number. It is fully expected that this will be approved by the board.

TCEA will continue to work with the state board on these issues in order to provide more opportunities for Texas students.

November 23, 2015 0 comment

Good Teaching

It’s Time to Let the Kids Choose

by Lori Gracey November 23, 2015

written by Lori Gracey

Part of the growing up process is learning to make good choices. From the time babies begin to talk, we encourage them to think about their actions and the choices they make. But sometimes in school, we limit the choices that they have in the assignments that we give them. That’s where differentiation comes in.

Educational research has shown that choice leads to more confident, more capable, and more interested students. Alfie Kohn’s classic article “Choices for Children” cites the findings of a number of studies on student choice. He describes a study that showed that giving second graders choice in learning tasks led to greater task completion in less time. Another study concluded that high school students asked to write up chemistry problems without step-by-step instructions completed better write-ups and later remembered the material better than those who had been told exactly what to do. Student choice, when implemented correctly, works.

Giving Students Choices

So how can you give students choice? A simple way is to use choice boards. Also called extension menus or Think Tac Toe, choice boards present a variety of choices for students to select from. This Think Tac Toe board on The Hunger Games for eighth grade students, for example, requires all of them to complete the activity in the center of the board (the “free space”) and then complete three in a row by selecting two other activities to do. The teacher remains in control of the content being covered and the depth to which students must learn the content. But the students are able to showcase their learning in ways that meet their individual needs.

To allow even more choice, the teacher can add a “Free Choice” square to the board that lets a student come up with his/her own activity. The choice must be cleared with the teacher first, however, to ensure that it meets the required standards.

This multiplication Think Tac Toe for elementary students is another example. And to find more ways to incorporate student choice, take a look at the Dare to Differentiate website on choice boards. It has numerous resources, including videos.

While students shouldn’t have a choice about every single assignment they have to complete, they should be allowed some choices based on their particular needs and interests. Begin with just a few choices and then, once they are better at making these choices, allow them more. You’ll both be glad you did.

November 23, 2015 7 comments