pART A

1 REPLY WITH 150 WORDS DUE FRIDAY 8AM

Whole school reform is capable of reducing discipline problems. However, schools and districts must be intentional in their actions. Districts and schools need to first recognize that “the application of consequences is an insufficient step in preventing future misbehavior” and therefore, need to “make improvements that engage and re-engage students” (Adelman & Taylor, 2008, p. 2). One of the ways that some school districts have done this is by utilizing the School-Wide Positive Behavioral Intervention Support (SWPBIS). SWPBIS is a systematic program that seeks to increase school climate, provide clear behavioral expectations, tiered discipline and positive reinforcement. This program does include social emotional learning and support. SWPBIS has been evidenced to decrease “school suspensions and improves student perceptions of school safety” (Steinberg & Lacoe, 2017). SWPBIS is the only school wide program that is considered evidence based.

           However, with any program there has got to be “buy-in” from the administrators and staff. Due to teachers not having this type of training in pre-service, there needs to be constant training to reinforce the expectations and gain “buy-in”. During this time, it is most important that through our own individual actions, we demonstrate our Christian responsibility to “warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thessalonians 5:14, NIV). This goes for being patient with students, teachers, staff and administrators knowing that we are not working in vain. The “empirical evidence increasingly demonstrates that school discipline policy and educational quality are inextricably linked” (Black, 2016, p. 73). Therefore, by being encouraging, patient and remaining busy in the work of Christ, we can improve not only the overall climate within the school but a student’s overall academic success.

References

Black, D. W. (2016). Reforming school discipline. Northwestern University Law Review, 111(1), 1-74. Retrieved from 

http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/1864047835?accountid=12085

Steinberg, M. P. & Lacoe, J. (2017). What do we know about school discipline reform? Education Next, 17(1). Retrieved at https://www.educationnext.org/what-do-we-know-about-school-discipline-reform-suspensions-expulsions/

PART B

2 REPLIES WITH 200 WORDS—FRIDAY 8AM

Although, I am not in a professional educator role in academia I do consider myself to relate to the International Society for Technology in Education standards for coaches.  In the last 5 years I have been in a management type role as an Electrical Project Engineer.  In this role I have been paired with multiple new college graduates as a coach and mentor.  My goal as a mentor and coach is to grow the new hires confidence and experience so that they can be a successful contributor to our engineering team.  As an engineer our education is all technology based and we have to conform to new digital technologies constantly with new automation products.  ISTE is a society that I am not familiar with but now I am through this discussion board post.  Without knowing I have been implementing the 5th standard under the ISTE standards by helping support new hires learning needs by being a mentor and coach.  Also, as a coach my job is evaluating the new hires professional learning in order for them to see our companies’ vision and get to the learning expectations.  One other standard that I have to explain as a coach to new hires is Digital Citizen Advocacy in that they need to use technology ethically and to be aware of what is said on social media can effect your job so be careful with what is posted. 

            One of the ways we help develop learning is through the development of technical education in the engineering group where I work now.  According to the article, The Degree of Implementing ISTE Standards in Technical Education Colleges of Palestine, ISTE standards are to be used as a vision for the development of education in general education and technical education (Fuad & Ajrami, 2017).  It is important for students and graduates to be able to keep up with the demands of the labor market and its also important to continue education to keep up with technology developments. 

            Its apparent to see technology in every aspect of life and in the educator’s classroom.  As a coach it would be important for myself to keep up with technology since it’s the driving force behind an ever-increasing pace of change.  Its important to now understand that the standards of ISTE for coaches are there to layout a foundation for those that are charged with helping teachers develop confidence and effectiveness in supporting a technology-rich environment to maximize student learning (Cooper, 2015). 

Fuad, I. A., & Ajrami, S. J. (2017). The degree of implementing ISTE standards in technical

education colleges of Palestine. TOJET : The Turkish Online Journal of Educational

Technology, 16(2), 107-118.  Retrieved from http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?

url=https://search-proquest

. com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/ 1919938503?accountid=12085

Cooper, O.P. (2015). How ISTE’s standards for technology coaches inform AASL’s standards for

school librarians.  TechTrends, 59(3), 48-53.  doi:10.1007/s11528-015-0852-z

REPLY 2

The ISTE standard for Educators 4- Collaborator is what most relates to my current position and technology philosophy.  Trust (2018) states that the collaborator standard will use digital tools to support learning by means of the use of social media and conferencing tools. I believe that the role in higher education is a collaborative effort by everyone within an institution.  This collaboration not only involves professors and administrators but also librarians, instructional designers, and all academic support service providers. Kachel (2019) focuses on the collaboration of a librarian and a teacher. This article emphasizes the role that librarians play as a partnership of instructional curriculum. Librarians have experienced the shift of the impact of technology. Their role in the higher education system has shifted to learning new digital resources and assisting in search engines.

 In higher education, technology has been a big learning curve for a lot of professors. In a recent 2019 Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology study completing by Inside Higher Ed and Gallup, the survey found that 72% of faculty using technology as a learning tool still describe themselves as “early adopters” and 54% of faculty members describe themselves as “someone who typically adopts new technologies after seeing peers use them effectively”. These results reflect the necessity of faculty to feel properly trained on technology tools and also demonstrates the collaborator role from the ISTE standards. Unfortunately, a lot of educators report that they are not experiencing the collaborator standard within their workplace.  For example, Vie (2017) found that educators are excited about social media implementation into their teaching and learning, but conversations surrounding the lackluster teaching training and online instructions for social media led to a feeling of missed opportunities. Instructional design trainings typically offered by institutions are centered around the institutions learning management system (LMS); however, more trainings need be offered on how to implement Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, GOOGLE tools, etc. into the classroom appropriately and effectively.

As a younger faculty member who feels more comfortable with the use of technology for teaching and learning, I have taken on the challenge of collaborating with others who do not feel as comfortable. My university has taken many steps over the past few years to train everyone on how best to utilize technology and opportunities to share some of those real-world learning experiences using digital tools. This most recent year, my university now requires all courses to use our LMS with a minimum use of the grade book, a posting of the course syllabus, and one assignment. As the current Dean, I had a lot of faculty last semester that I had to work alongside to help ensure their courses were meeting the minimum expectations. My current university is a small institution of approximately 900 undergraduate students. We are way behind on technology advances and digital tools (we have many classrooms still that have no built in technology), but we are making efforts to catch up to digital tools and to modernize our campus and classrooms because there is added learning value when we have digital tools being properly used. I believe in the value that technology can bring to the learning experience, but it simply cannot be successful with collaboration.

 
References

Inside Higher Ed (2019). Faculty attitudes on technology [PDF file]. Retrieved from  https://www.insidehighered.com/system/files/media/IHE_2019_Faculty_Tech_Survey_20191030

Kachel, D.E. (2019). Advocating for collaboration, Teacher Librarian, 46(4).

Trust, T. (2018). 2017 ISTE standards for educators: From teaching with technology to

using technology to empower learners, Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 34(1), 1-3.

Vie, S. (2017). Training online technical communication educators to teach with social media: Best practices and professional recommendations, Technical Communication Quarterly, 26(3), 344-359.