3/16/2009 - Today I looked at other blogs and commented on a few.  I then listened to the podcast and wrote the question down for our final week.

3/17/2009 - Tonight I read a few posts and worked on my final blog.

3/19/2009 - Tonight I finished up most of my ETEC assignments and read and commented on other blogs.   

Here is the report of my findings for Project #3:

http://mojave60.bravehost.com/623project3report.html

Of all the professional development opportunities that I have had the ones that I generally like the most are the ones that are not repetitive or similar to past experiences.  Of course what is repetitive for me might not be for another person.  I have been to some that I walk away after it’s over and say “wow, that was great, what a surprise”.  The problem is that these are not the usual situation but when they do happen it is very refreshing.  I also teach the work experience class, I remember my first conference for this subject was so informative, I loved it.  Or one of my first few conferences on classroom management were awesome, I could not wait to go to the next to learn new strategies but as I went to each new one on the same subject  it seems all you get is repetitive information it gets old quickly.  Sometimes you get to participate in a great ice breaker activity but all too often they can be annoying and occasionally embarrassing.

One thing that irks me about some professional development is when they go overtime.  There is no larger disregard for a group of people’s time than to go overtime.  When you approach the scheduled time to leave you lose people’s attention anyway so I don’t understand why some presenters feel that they can’t leave any information out.  This does not happen often but when it occasionally does I usually just shake my head wondering what they were thinking.  Other staff developments that I dislike are the ones at the beginning of the school year when everyone is in one group receiving the information that mostly seems geared toward new teachers and the older teachers just have to sit through it.

I find a third category of professional development very entertaining and sometimes helpful, these are the motivational speakers.  These can be very helpful at times with teaching strategies but other times they are just motivational , this can be a great encouragement.  Overall I enjoy and like a good professional development opportunity.

3/12/2009 - Today I finally was able to work on my ETEC projects, I have had a hectic week with other classes, now I have a weekend to commit to ETEC.  Tonight I read and commented on student blogs as well as my own, I listened to the podcast and I started a little bit on every paper I must finish as well as my Power Point presentation on fire.

3/13/2009 - Tonight I worked on my final project #3.  I posted it to my blog and read other blogs and commented on them.

3/14/2009 - Tonight I finished most my ETEC projects and commented on blogs.

Here is the report of my findings for Project #1:

http://mojave60.bravehost.com/index%20623%20proposal%20no1.html

Here is the survey that I developed for Project #2:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=tlepB6PoOJ_2bboDbyyJKwAQ_3d_3d

Here is the report of my findings for Project #2:

http://mojave60.bravehost.com/623project2report.html

Go to this website to find a downloadable link to the Power Point Presentation for Project #2:

http://mojavepines.homestead.com/Party.html

What is a positive use of data driven decision making and a negative use of data driven decision making?  How does leadership factor into both the positive and negative use of data driven decision making?

Data driven decisions are needed because how else are we to assess the needs of our students.  Decisions must be based on data otherwise every data decision would be based on an opinion rather than something you can put your finger on.  Not every decision should be data driven, that is what makes us human beings, we can reason about things but overall our decisions must be made based on data, otherwise results could be easily skewed either intentionally or unintentionally.

An example of this would be the Career Pathways Program at my school site, one branch of this program involves student job shadowing to explore careers.  How can you assess if job shadowing has contributed to the success of a student.  There really is no way to know this besides the fact that students get very excited after a job shadow and they say it helped them decide on a career that is best for them.  This fact would help them focus on a career but shadowing really has no measurable effect on a students grade point average because it helps them in a different way that does not directly effect grades.  This program has been in existence for 13 years and I believe it is of great benefit to our students just based on logic.  With this being said I think data driven decisions are best in general but as my example shows, not always.        

3/2/2009 - Today I listened to my podcast two times and took notes.  I  then began research on my blog post and I checked out  and commented on a few student blogs that were already posted.

3/3/2009 - Tonight I read a few blogs and worked on my project. 

3/7/2009 - Tonight I read student blogs, commented and am finishing up my projects as much as possible.

3/8/2009 - Tonight I read and commented on a few blogs and I worked on project #3.

All my work can be accessed at this website:

http://mojave60.bravehost.com/

The theory of the Ed Norman Syndrome sounds very familiar to me from past experiences at my teaching job and also at my drafting job.  First let me discuss my drafting job.  I am a part-time drafter at a local water district that has a computer company monitor and maintain the entire water district computer system for a monthly fee.  This company has also blocked many internet sites with their firewall.  The on-site IT employee does not even have the password and gets very frustrated when he has research to do and a site is blocked.  I remember one instance when he found a video on youtube that demonstrated how to solve an issue with a GPS device.  His computer blocked the site and he had to call the company that blocked it so they could unblock it so he could watch the instructional video. 

At my full-time teaching job I teach Computer Assisted Drafting and Geographic Information Systems and at times I find internet sites blocked that would really help me or my students.  I have students come in at lunch to use my computer lab and I remember one recent issue where a student was doing a report on alcoholism but could not do any internet searches with the work alcohol in it.  I understand having to protect our children but it seems to be overboard at times.

            These two examples show me that the Ed Norman Syndrome is not only common in the educational field but also in the business community.  Yes, we probably can’t have a totally open internet at a school where minors are present but we also don’t want to hamper their education because of paranoia.  There must be a happy medium and as instructional designers it is our job to find that place.