I was fortunate to already be immersed within the data team process in the Madison County School District. The data teams that we run are content and grade related, however, we do not really have a team to look at school wide data. From what I learned in this class, I am going to try to bring a school level data team to my school so that we can understand our student population, as a whole, better.
Three important things I learned during this course:
Of all the major field experiences in this course (Elevator Speech, Data Team Summary, Data Inventory, Instructional Initiatives Inventory, Data Overview, Action Plans), I believe the most valuable was the Instructional Initiatives assignment. I believe that every decision made within a school should be made with the improvement of student learning and achievement as the force that drives decisions. If the instructional initiatives already in place are redundant or not effective, changes need to be made. Sometimes, a school can do too much and miss out on building relationships with the students. Sometimes, less is more.
I am currently one of the school/district leaders in the data team process. I will continue to perform in the same roles as before, but now with added knowledge from ITEC 7305 in my binder. The materials on the CD from "The Data Coach's Guide Book to Improving Learning for All Students" will be extremely helpful, along with the Action Plan I and II, for the upcoming school year and beyond.
The major challenge that I anticipate as I will implement these ideas in my school is that my main responsibility is of a classroom teacher, that works within a classroom teacher's schedule. Time is always an issue, but added to my job responsibilities, I would need another person to help make this intervention possible. Perhaps I can find that person on the administration or another few educators.
Three important things I learned during this course:
- Build relationships with staff to encourage true collaboration within the data team
- Access to data that is immediate and relevant is critical to the decision making process
- Data collection and analysis can take a long, long, long time.
Of all the major field experiences in this course (Elevator Speech, Data Team Summary, Data Inventory, Instructional Initiatives Inventory, Data Overview, Action Plans), I believe the most valuable was the Instructional Initiatives assignment. I believe that every decision made within a school should be made with the improvement of student learning and achievement as the force that drives decisions. If the instructional initiatives already in place are redundant or not effective, changes need to be made. Sometimes, a school can do too much and miss out on building relationships with the students. Sometimes, less is more.
I am currently one of the school/district leaders in the data team process. I will continue to perform in the same roles as before, but now with added knowledge from ITEC 7305 in my binder. The materials on the CD from "The Data Coach's Guide Book to Improving Learning for All Students" will be extremely helpful, along with the Action Plan I and II, for the upcoming school year and beyond.
The major challenge that I anticipate as I will implement these ideas in my school is that my main responsibility is of a classroom teacher, that works within a classroom teacher's schedule. Time is always an issue, but added to my job responsibilities, I would need another person to help make this intervention possible. Perhaps I can find that person on the administration or another few educators.