How Do We Give Our All?

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

The question is very important and hard to answer. How do we give our all? We challenge our athletes to leave it all on the field. Not to hold anything back. Is it any different when we approach our Christian life? How do we surrender our all without holding back?

We come to periods in our lives when only God can bring about change. With each person it is a different place or point. Sometimes it comes from tragedy or a crisis, for others it is the emptiness in their life they seek to fill, and certain people have  the undeniable sense they should change their life. Changes in our lives can be disturbing but necessary in our DESTINY.

Choices that we make affect our DESTINY. For all believers there comes a point where we must choose God's will over our wishes. God give us the freedom of choice and we make the decisions each day that affect others. Other people make decisions or choices that affect our lives. Only when we choose to deny our self and seek Christ will we know the abundant life promised in our DESTINY.

Mistakes are made, compromises happen, and we all have sinned. The wages of sin as we know is death. We are separated from God's love when we sin. We become separated from family and friends through sin. But God allows us mercy and deliverance from sin. We will not experience our DESTINY until we depend totally on the power of Christ to cleanse and separate ourselves from sin in our lives.

God has s DESTINY for ALL of His children. To find that perfect peace and place is not easy. We first must surrender everything. Yes ALL. Is that easy? No, but it is not supposed to be.

Once we allow God to lead us, we find our journey will be directed not manipulated. Once we seek more of Him and less of ourselves we come into new dimensions of the spirit. We recognize not just what God is doing but what it takes from us to live in the fulness of our DESTINY.

God wants more from us than just saying we are Christians. Our works and areas of service are by-products of our salvation. They become the evidence of our witness. Our daily actions speak volumes of our relationships and the point of our surrender. God has a perfect DESTINY for each one of us but we must surrender all.

When we choose to deny our fleshly desires and obey God's word, when we learn to say no to sin and yes to service, we begin our journey to complete surrender. When Christ lives in us by faith we can surrender all. We will not be able to live in our DESTINY until we daily deny ourselves and follow Christ.

Matthew 16: 24-25
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

JHS IS GETTIN IT DONE!

Learning for the 21st Century requires new skils, new tools, new online assessments, new knowledge, and new opportunities for when, where, and how learning takes place. At JHS, innovation and creativity are just a sample of the methods we use in leading our students down those Learning Pathways to the Future.

Texas Star Chart

View more presentations from Bill Posey.

Infrastructure for Technology-The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020-An Opinion

A technology infrastructure for Texas schools is defined as having the ability to access high-speed connectivity among schools, colleges, medical facilities, libraries, businesses, and homes and will be equipped with an appropriate amount of digital tools and resources that would satisfy the educational needs for all learners. All Texas school districts must have a technology infrastructure that is safe and secure, flexible, scalable, and reliable. This infrastructure will provide easy access to tools that will allow students and teachers to access online information and materials, do collaborative work and share resources. A strong sense of community will be created with this technology framework that is conducive to a multitude of projects and should enhance learning beyond the normal classroom environment. The human resource area will be staffed with an appropriate number of skilled individuals that will be available to ensure the reliability of the technical environment and support the effective uses of technology in instruction and curriculum delivery. In my opinion, the technological infrastructure of a campus and or district is the critical element of support for all four areas of this plan: teaching and learning; educator preparation and development; leadership, administration and instructional support; and infrastructure for technology.

As computers and technology converge and are added to a school district, the investment has to include an increased number of technicians to maintain and service the equipment and software such as the servers, routers, switches, firewalls, storage, backups and recovery, e-mail, spam and content filtering, web hosting, wired and wireless connectivity infrastructure, security, telecommunications and Internet access, updates and upgrades, Intranet services, and more. In addition, the expanded use of the networks by students, teachers, administrators, and parents for digital data casting, video-streaming, teleconferencing, distance learning, 24/7 access, online student and district records, communications with parents, and much more require that districts provide sophisticated district-level staff to provide technical as well as instructional support. Infrastructure and related technical support is essential to sustainable immersion of technology in schools and should be provided for as "dedicated" funding in both state and local technology budgets. A dedicated infrastructure and related technical support allotment of $35 per student as noted by the State of Texas and is needed to provide these essential functions.

The data examined does exemplify the fact that my school district in every instance (with the exception of 2008-2009, as no state or national data was available) has exceeded expectations that the state and national education oversight authorities have set for our schools. The data trends logically and parallels the funding available to the students from local, state, and national sources. Even though the score to target decreased in the past year the drop is still a positive one; if there is such a thing as retreat to win. The drop simply underscores the high level of stewardship my district has placed on prudent planning all-the-while meeting district and campus expectations as academic scores increased from TEA Acceptable in years 2005-2007, to TEA Recognized status in 2007-2008. Even though our Technology Infrastructure scores decreased for the past year, they still outstripped state and national averages based upon the trending of the previous three years.

For my school as well as the state and national education communities to continue a positive trend regarding the technology infrastructure in my opinion, will require a frugal as well as academically demanding mindset from our leaders at all levels that addresses new and emerging technology. In other words, we must do more with the resources we have at our campuses absent future budget allocations to technology. In that respect, I would recommend that our school leaders initiate now a creative as well as innovative funding plan for this is the critical component for future technology advancements.

A Summary of the Pre-K Technology Applications TEKS

     The learning experiences of the preschool years provide a foundation that guides children academically, socially, and emotionally. These experiences can influence the rest of a child's life. Children's learning and intellectual growth are affected by the specific experiences (e.g., instruction, guidance) they have in a preschool classroom.
     Informed efforts by families and teachers to build on children's motivation to learn play a critically important role in providing children with the proper foundations for school success. The Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines offer detailed descriptions of expected behaviors across multiple skill domains that should be observed in 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children by the end of their prekindergarten experience. The guidelines are developed to be useful to a broad audience including school districts, Head Start programs, child care and most importantly by children's families. The guidelines also offer suggestions on ways to deliver developmentally appropriate experiences for the learning needs of all children to help ensure an effective, efficient prekindergarten year. The guidelines also provide information on responsive teaching practices, the physical arrangement of a prekindergarten classroom, professional development as the key to high‐quality preschool programs, the involvement of families for better readiness of children for school, and methods of monitoring children's progress. Specific attention is given to a discussion of the importance of adopting a developmental approach in order to effectively promote school readiness for 3‐ and 4‐year‐old children. The guidelines can and should be used to support learning in a broad range of skills for children who are English language learners (ELL), including those children receiving instruction in their home language. A discussion of how this can be done successfully and instructional strategies to consider are included. When planning for the education of children with special needs, use of the guidelines is described in relation to the many considerations that need to be taken into account for special needs children's successful inclusion in the classroom. Together these discussions should provide a comprehensive framework for effective use of the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines.
     Research confirms the value of early education for young children. Prekindergarten programs that support effective teaching practices and opportunities for child discovery through play have been shown to lead to significant growth in children's intellectual and social development, both of which are critical to their future academic success. Quality programs provide challenging but achievable curriculum which actively engage children in thinking, reasoning, and communicating with others. With teacher direction and guidance, children respond to the challenge and acquire important skills and concepts.
     The purpose of this document is to help educators make informed decisions about curriculum content for prekindergarten children. The guidelines are based on current knowledge of theory and scientific research about how children develop and learn; they reflect the growing consensus among early childhood professional organizations that a greater emphasis be placed on young children's conceptual learning, acquisition of basic skills and participation in meaningful, relevant learning experiences. The guidelines delineate the behaviors and skills that children are to exhibit and achieve, as well as instructional strategies for the teachers. Finally, the guidelines provide a means to align prekindergarten programs with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
     The guidelines describe specific outcomes for prekindergarten children in each domain skill area. The intent of this organizational design is to ensure that all 4‐year‐old children have the opportunity to strive toward these outcomes. Due to age differences and previous experiences, however, children will have a great range of prior knowledge. Some children, regardless of their age level, will be at the beginning of the learning continuum, while others will be further along. Children with disabilities may need accommodations and modifications of the guidelines in order to benefit from them.
     Under Texas Education Code §28.005, the state's policy is to ensure the mastery of English by all students, specifically in situations in which Bilingual instruction is necessary to ensure students' reasonable proficiency in the English language and ability to achieve academic success. Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 89 further emphasizes the goal of Bilingual education programs to enable limited English proficient students to become competent in the [understanding], speaking, reading, and [writing] of the English language by developing literacy and academic skills in the primary language and English. Such programs shall emphasize the mastery of English language skills, as well as mathematics, science and social studies, as integral parts of the academic goals for all students to enable limited English proficient students to participate equitably in school. Children who speak a language other than English at home come to school with varying degrees of bilingualism and at least some level of proficiency in two different languages. The student's home language should serve as the foundation for second language acquisition, as cognitive skills transfer from one language to another. Children who are English Language Learners (ELL) should receive instruction in a manner they can understand and that is commensurate with their proficiency level in English. Children's current strengths and skills should serve as the starting point for new experiences and instruction rather than become a limitation. To use these guidelines to the best advantage and to extend the learning of skills and concepts, teachers must build on children's existing competencies.
     These guidelines are designed as a resource to help teachers define and implement a comprehensive curriculum. Such a curriculum helps to build connections between subject matter disciplines by organizing the large amounts of information children must learn into a set of meaningful concepts. Using concepts from the guidelines, teachers can work across subject matter to provide many opportunities for children to achieve knowledge and skills. The guidelines are organized to provide descriptions of children's behavior and development at the beginning of the prekindergarten year. These descriptions are based on an average child in this age range. Of course, it is well understood that not all children show this level of development when they enter the 4‐year‐old prekindergarten year. Also, the guidelines describe development and learning for 4‐year old children. As there are many 3‐year‐old children in prekindergarten programs, these children will not be expected to reach these outcomes for two years. Finally, descriptions of children's skills at the beginning of the 4‐year‐old program are not included for several domains (science, social studies, fine arts and technology) as there is not an adequate research base to guide these descriptions.
     My Bible tells me that, "you raise up a child in the way the they should go when they are young and when they become older, they won't depart from those ways". If we know that a consistent and integrated curriculum based on well researched standards prepare our students for future success, why would we not want to prepare our little ones to enter the instructional mindset of our schools? Since the learning experiences of the pre-school years provide a foundation that guides children academically, socially, and emotionally, the experiences that influence the rest of a child's life should be protected as well as directed according to our state-based standards. Children's learning and intellectual growth are affected by the specific experiences (e.g., instruction, guidance) they have in a preschool classroom and the interactions with their teachers.
     In defining a spiral curriculum, I would have to say that this curriculum must begin with the assumption that children are not always ready to learn something. In my opinion, the child's readiness to learn is at the core of a spiral curriculum. The concept of the spiral curriculum is the fact that this curriculum model is dynamic in nature and its framework is not linear or static. In addition, instead of focusing for relatively long periods of time on some narrow topic, a spiral curriculum tries to expose students to a wide variety of ideas over and over. A spiral curriculum, by moving in a circular pattern from topic to topic within a field like, say, math, tries to catch kids when they first become ready to learn something and pick up the other kids, the ones not ready to learn yet, later - the next time that we spiral or get around to that topic. A spiral curriculum doesn't stay at the same difficulty level as time goes by either, the difficulty increases.
     The Math TEKS is an example of students having multiple opportunities to master knowledge and skills. For example, consider the Texas K-2 TEKS http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter111/ch111a.pdf.  Throughout mathematics in Kindergarten-Grade 2, students build a foundation of basic understandings in number, operation, and quantitative reasoning; patterns, relationships, and algebraic thinking; geometry and spatial reasoning; measurement; and probability and statistics. Students use numbers in ordering, labeling, and expressing quantities and relationships to solve problems and translate informal language into mathematical language and symbols. Students use objects to create and identify patterns and use those patterns to express relationships, make predictions, and solve problems as they build an understanding of number, operation, shape, and space. Students progress from informal to formal language to describe two- and three-dimensional geometric figures and likenesses in the physical world. Students begin to develop measurement concepts as they identify and compare attributes of objects and situations. Students collect, organize, and display data and use information from graphs to answer questions, make summary statements, and make informal predictions based on their experiences. The 3^rd grade TEKS then builds upon prior knowledge only at a more difficult level and awards opportunities for the students that haven't quite mastered the concepts more opportunity to learn and experience the successes the spiraling curriculum offers throughout their elementary and high school years.
     The neat thing for our students is that if you don't get it when the book says that we cover it, that's ok! Stay with me, we will be coming back to it again, and again, and again, and again, you get the picture don't you? The kids are beginning to get it and they like it!

Week 1 Assignment, Part 3: Key Ideas for the Long-Range Plan for Technology

To discuss in detail every bit of new information I collected regarding The Long Range Plan for Technology in Texas would be a daunting as well as overwhelming and probably scare off most of the followers of the post but nevertheless, in discussing these plans, one would have to look at the overall impact that technology will have on education. To me, that says, "what will all of this effort equate to in terms of our children's future and how will we ensure that our children have the opportunity to obtain 21^st Century technology skills with 20^th Century funding"?

According to research data and practitioners, technology use in the schools of Texas has had a significant positive impact on teaching, student performance, attitudes and behaviors, and on administration. Benefits associated with the use of computer networks, including the Internet, range from enhancing the learning environment; exposing students to a wider array of information; making learning more student-centered; transforming students into engaged and independent learners; improving students' academic performance, including their performance on standardized tests; improving student retention and job placement skills; and preparing students for the future.

In response to changes in legislation, business, industry, and developments in technology, a new plan was adopted by the SBOE in 1996. The Long-Range Plan for Technology, 1996-2010 charts the course for providing all Texas students with access to quality educational opportunities through the use of technology. As education moved into the 21st Century, evolving technology continued to play a critical role in all aspects of society. The LRPT serves as the state's blueprint for putting cost-effective tools into the hands of Texas students, teachers, librarians, and administrators. These tools enable educators to gain the knowledge and skills required for teaching, learning, and working in the 21st Century. This plan clearly establishes technology as an essential priority in ensuring that all Texas schools, regardless of their size, geographic location, or district wealth, have the ability to provide quality educational opportunities.

The fundamental goal of the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 1996-2010, therefore, is to enhance students' acquisition of knowledge through technology. Inherent in this priority goal is the conviction that technology, equitably distributed, plays a critical role in addressing economic and other disparities among students and is an important tool for meeting the needs of students with disabilities. The goal of the LRPT is reflected in four broad areas: Teaching and Learning, Educator Preparation and Development, Administration and Support Services, and Infrastructure for Technology. The goals for each of these four areas are:

• Teaching and Learning: The students in the public education system will demonstrate technology proficiencies identified by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and will have access to the technology tools, products, and information that support their acquisition of a quality education.
  
• Educator Preparation: The teachers, librarians, counselors, and other educators in the public education system will demonstrate technology proficiencies identified by the State and will have access to the technology tools, products and information that facilitate their work and support student learning.
  
• Administration and Support Services: The administrators in the public education system will demonstrate technology proficiencies identified by the State. Students, educators, administrators, parents, legislators, and community members will have access to the technology tools, products, and information they need to make decisions, to educate, to plan, and to learn.
  
• Infrastructure for Technology: Technology tools, products and information appropriate for Texas schools will be accessible to the students, teachers, librarians, counselors, and administrators in the public school system via a comprehensive, integrated state technology system for voice, video, and data that is complemented by a human infrastructure of trained individuals who use and support technology.
  

Prioritizing campus goals, objectives and funding will allow me to utilize this new learning to aid in leading my campus into the 21^st Century. As I endeavor to move our campus and in a larger sense school district towards higher learning plateaus we must understand that districts are losing valuable time and efficiency of funds due to a lack of standardization of educational and management software. Many times districts try to integrate data systems or online learning management systems across disparate applications and are either not able to make the integration work or have to invest significant human resources or funds into the project to achieve a solution. If data standards were required, then data from different systems could be shared among all the systems in use, saving significant time and money. Data-driven decision-making warrants the ability to have access to a vast amount of data from a host of various software programs and online resources. Data from online testing should easily integrate into curriculum management programs that allow educators to not only analyze data but also tie that data directly to curriculum planning, management, and individual student's needs and instructional plans. The days of teacher isolation and "doing their own thing" is long gone. We are responsible for our students and the opportunities that each must have to realize their dreams. Let us face facts, Texas must adopt standards to help districts work more effectively and efficiently and we must do it now.

 

Week 1 Assignment, Part 1 A & B: Requisite Technology Skills Assessment

The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology http://www.tea.state.tx.us/technology/techapp/assess/teksurv.pdf

The following paragraph from the Target Tech in Texas (T3) Collaborative Grant program guidelines document (page 9 of 47) summarizes what policymakers in Texas view as the ideal 21st century classroom environment:

In a 21st Century classroom, students have access to appropriate technology and digital resources for technology integrated curriculum activities on the campus, in the district, at home, or key locations in the community. Teachers seamlessly integrate technology in a student-centered learning environment where technology is used to solve real-world problems in collaboration with business, industry and higher education. Teachers and students apply technology across all subject areas to provide learning opportunities that are not possible without the technology. Teachers create and integrate web-based lessons which include TEKS-based content, resources, learning activities, and interactive communications that support learning objectives throughout the curriculum.

As I observe my tech skills improve daily, I find my refocusing almost weekly in an attempt to make student experiences in technology more relevant to their future. As I reflect upon the four domain areas of the Long Range Plan, I seem to always hover above the idea of "what do my current technology skills do for my students"? I address the ability of my students to acquire information and be able to evaluate and ethically utilize the chosen data in a variety of ways yet there always seem to be a few students that continue the trend of "not getting it".

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) survey has to me, solidified my technology skills and opportunities for my future development in technology. The survey results in the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology prioritizes my technology skill set the SETDA includes my skills as a part of the overall school district focus for student learning and the necessary components to accomplish that goal.

As a principal and/or technology leader on my campus, I believe that my weakness fall in the area of administration and planning concerning the district technology plan. However, my overall hands-on knowledge according to the Texas Long Range Plan is 98%. My actual classroom experience regarding technology is greater than the norm and provides a solid foundation for on-target technology and integrated learning experiences for my campus.

As far as surveys are concerned, I always find a survey biased in the area of the survey. It always results in a positive slant to the survey author and leaves the survey responder without the opportunity to respond. No opportunities for "yeah buts" to the survey taker if you want to finish the survey as most districts require. Nevertheless, I do feel as though the surveys were generally accurate in content and expectations and therefore, I agree with the results the surveys emitted.