Final+Reflection

 Mindy Allee ET650 Internship  USC Aiken  December 6, 2011 **__Final Reflection Paper __**  For my internship project, I chose to conduct training for our faculty on student response systems used in the classroom. I first conducted a needs assessment to determine if the training was even wanted at our school. Then I spent time learning how to use the system myself and researching literature surrounding the topic. I chose to keep a reflection blog to monitor my progress throughout the internship. I was able to plan and conduct a school wide faulty training, followed by grade level meetings and five individual one-on-one trainings for interested teachers.

 When I first began the project I had a lot planned. I spent much time organizing my timeline and deciding on the deliverables I would be turning in. Little did I know I would need to be very flexible throughout the progress of the semester. The first bump in the road came when trying to download the SMART Notebook software onto my classroom computer. The program was so large that the computer was not able to handle the system efficiently. With the help of my school technology coach, we would eventually work out the kinks and were able to use the system. Because of this technology issue, I was set back a bit with the planning of my trial lessons. Once I got started though, everything started to fall into place. I experienced another change in my schedule when I was presented with the opportunity to present my training to our school faculty on an early release day of October 5. I originally planned to begin working on my agenda and handouts for the training on October 18, and then actually conduct the training the first week of November. However, I felt like I could not pass up this opportunity. I worked hard preparing the week beforehand, and I was able to get everything ready the way I wanted. I think I was able to handle the internship, and all its challenges, by being flexible with my schedule and willing to settle on mediocre work.

 One lesson that I learned really stands out to me, not everything will always go as planned. Changes in my schedule helped me understand that I had to be able to accept whatever was going on and find a way to adapt to make it work. If I would have sat and complained about everything, than I wouldn’t have been able to be successful with this project. Another lesson I learned is that speaking in front of my peers does not have to be that intimidating. I can teach children all day, but when it came to teaching my colleagues, I was terrified. One way I was able to calm myself was to ensure that I was extra prepared. It reminded me of the first few times I taught in front of students. Once I got up there and started talking, I realized that it wasn’t near as bad as I thought it was going to be.

 One difficulty I faced during my internship was to convince teachers to take the extra time to set up the student response system in the classroom in order to benefit from the results. Of the teachers who came to my training, ten said they were thinking about implementing the technology. The ones who said they were not going to implement the system listed reasons such as no time, to difficult, students can’t handle it, slows computer down, and just not interested. I found myself answering many questions and trying to “sell” the use of the system while conducting the training. One way I tried to get teachers excited about the system and see how easy it was to use was to allow the teachers to use the clickers to answer questions. I even had a novice teacher use the computer to run the assessments. The teachers really seemed to enjoy the new experience. I was able to secure five one-on-one trainings, which made me feel successful. My hope is that by training these five teachers, they will in turn, share their results and get others interested in the system. The conclusion I reached from this difficulty was that even though I think the student response system has great value and works for me, it is not something that will interest everyone or work with everyone’s teaching styles and classrooms.

 One success I would say I had throughout the internship was the implementation of a new technology into my classroom. When I first started the educational technology program, one of my goals was to be able to utilize technology as a component of my instruction. Learning how to use the student response system, successful implement it into a lesson, and then analyze the results was a whole new idea to me. From the research for the annotated bibliography I was able to learn best practices of the student response system, research based justification for using the systems, and proper ways to format questions to best utilize the technology. Another success I feel I gained throughout the semester was conducting my first faculty training. I had never spoke, or taught, in front of our faculty like that before. I think they were surprised, and I think I surprised myself as well.

 If I were to do something different, I would have spread out the work a little more throughout the semester. I feel like I could have used the time at the beginning of the internship and the end of the internship a little better, instead of planning much of the work for the middle. If I could go back to my needs assessment that I first handed out to the faculty, I would add one more question. I would ask the teachers whether or not they would use a web page with resources for the SMART Response System. What I found out after meeting with the grade levels and follow up one-on-one trainings is that the teachers were not really interested in another web site to go to. They stated that they would just go to the one already available. I spent a lot of time in the middle of my internship researching information and resources for a site that I did not complete. After hearing feedback from the teachers at my school, the only reason I was creating the site for was the sake of the internship. I did not see a need to create something that was not going to be used. I was however happy about the research and interesting activities I found throughout the process. If I had assessed the teacher’s interest at the beginning of the internship, I would not have run into this issue.

 One of the main ways I noticed that this internship experience related to work I had completed previously in because of the ADDIE process. I found myself relating back to this process in order to develop my internship project. I started my project assessing the needs of my faculty, I designed what I wanted the training to include and how it should be formatted, then I developed all of the materials, I implemented the training, and finally I evaluated my training through surveys. I feel like I was really able to utilize this information about instructional design in this project. It all really seemed to come together.

 Overall, I am very satisfied with the experience of my internship. Not only do I feel like I learned a lot about the student response systems, but I was also able to utilize a type of technology that was not being used at our school. I think the teachers were excited to try something new, even if they do not continue to use it. I know the students in my classroom have found the SMART Response System to be very exciting and motivating. I see so much participation when I get out the clickers. Even students who are normally shy and reserved are willing to participate. I can’t wait to see what else I am able to do with this type of technology, and I look forward to introducing new types of technology to my colleagues.