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4.c. : Recruit and retain highly competent personnel who use technology creatively and proficiently to advance academic and operational goals.

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Artifact: 

 

Description:

During the 2016-2017 school year, I taught three courses at Duquesne University to undergraduate students. I was hired in August 2016 through a connection with Dr. David Carbonara to teach the instructional technology courses to PK-4 students. PK-4 pre-service teachers take their courses in “blocks” which are composed of literacy, numeracy, and science and social studies courses. During each of their blocks, they are required to take an associated instructional technology course worth one credit.

"I appreciated that she would make changes based on our needs and was willing to re-explain or work out confusion whenever it happened. She also explained reasonings for assignments and their use to us well, making much of what we did very applicable to our educations and future experiences or careers as educators. Always encouraged giving feedback and hearing our suggestions, and gave good feedback after grading assignments. The assignment sheets/requirements were also very thorough and helpful when completing assignments."
"She is a recent graduate of the school of education and she knows the expectation of the blocks. It is nice that she is working in surrounding districts as a computer/ technology teacher and provides her students with authentic examples of how students are using technology in everyday classrooms. She also helps to make her assignments coincide to assignments in the block courses to implement technology to a more traditional assignment. She is also available to ask for assistance on assignments when needed and provides timely feedback when corrections need made."
"The assignments had a clear purpose and were extremely useful. Miss Koch has awesome communication skills and
responds to students quickly if they have questions. She always offers help with assignments for those who need it.
Miss Koch's rubrics are so thorough. There is never a mystery as to what the requirements are and what you are being graded on. Miss Koch grades assignments in a timely manner and always gives useful feedback."
"Bria is very passionate about what she teaches and is also very knowledgeable. I always feel like I am learning something in her class. She is very clear with her expectations, and provides in-depth descriptions for each assignment so that her students know exactly what they should be doing. I genuinely feel like my knowledge in technology has grown the past two semesters being in Bria's class. She also gets grades back very quickly and always
leaves a comment about each one! Many professors do not do this, and it is something that I really appreciate!"
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At the end of the course, the students filled out Student Evaluation Surveys (SES) to give me feedback. I took this feedback very seriously to improve the course and my teaching overall. Because this was one of my first academic teaching experiences, I wanted to see what I could do to make my teaching as effective as possible and potentially prepare for work with students in higher education.

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Reflection:

I wanted to include something that demonstrated the impact that I have had on teachers. Though I work side-by-side with teachers at my school every day, I don’t have any direct feedback from any of them to share. Other than documenting the tickets that I close each day to demonstrate my competence with technology, I’d have to purely rely on spoken statements from colleagues.

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As I was thinking about my time in the doctoral program, I realized that I had written feedback from when I taught undergraduates. I went back through my SES reports to glean information that helped to improve my overall teaching and my students’ as they went out into the field.  

 

The SES reports that I have included are quite long at 12 pages each, but I chose to focus the majority of my time on the open-ended responses from the students. These can be found on pages 10-11 of each of the reports. I have isolated some of these responses in the screenshots that I have included on this page. These reports relate directly to the standard because they demonstrate both my impact on these pre-service teachers and show how they felt better prepared to use technology in their classrooms as a result of these classes.

"The teacher is very encouraging and extremely helpful. She immediately gives back feedback that is detailed and writes comments on our work that makes us feel good and then how we can improve. She will give us examples to look at for assignments so we can get an idea of what she is looking for. Her assignment rubrics were very detailed and organized so there is no confusion on assignments. Miss Koch is so nice and cares about all of the students' success."

Teaching instructional technology to undergraduate PK-4 majors at Duquesne University

"Bria provides an excellent sampling of all available technologies. I feel supported as I figure out the new technologies we are exploring, and as a result have grown more confident with technology, to the point it is carrying over into my personal life. I feel better able to troubleshoot my technology issues, and I think to use technology to perform a task more often. She always provides helpful feedback, and emails with her are always helpful. She is very enthusiastic, and is extremely accommodating to her students wants and needs, and is considerate of their schedules and concerns."
"The way you teach this course is better than all other professors I have had. The expectations on our assignments are very clear and never need clarification, you return assignments very quickly and always give constructive feedback. You answer e-mails quickly and are always available to ask questions, even questions that don't really have to do with the course. It is clear you take what you have learned in education classes and apply them to this class."
"Ms. Koch is effective in providing real life things we can use in the classroom. ALL of the the assignments we were given are possible lesson activities, anticipatory sets, etc. Not saying that other class assignments aren't valuable, I'm just stating the idea that everything we have done in this class is realistic in the sense that I can use it in my future daily life and i appreciate that. To me that is what makes the class most effective because I have been given tools to be hopefully a leading teacher in my life."
"Great and Effective teacher! This course has taught me so much in technology and I am doing useful projects to help further my education and enhance my learning! Though it was hard to do, the website was my favorite because without this course, I wouldn't have done it on my own but I think it is something that is going to make me stand out as a future educator! I love this course!"
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