Bri Dunckley's ITEC Blog

Go Falcons! Go Braves! What a great weekend for Atlanta sports! Prior to this fantastic sports weekend, I had a very busy week at school prepping for two big events coming up in our instructional technology department. Next week, I will be assisting SLED/iSchool team members in training our Gladiator Tech team members. Our GladTech team at my school is so amazing and I am so proud to be their sponsor and coach. GladTech is made up of 19 students who have a passion and curiosity for technology. They are so eager to learn and make our students and teachers feel comfortable with technology in the classroom. They will go through a three day training this week where they will dive deep into troubleshooting, educational support, Office 365 tools, and so much more. That will take up a fair amount of my time this week and I will definitely take some photos for next week's blog. I am also in the process of planning my face-to-face staff development which I plan on delivering in the followin...

Hello (and goodbye Hurricane Irma)! Why is it that shorter school weeks are more chaotic than normal 5 day school weeks? After having Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off due to Irma, I dove right into my busy schedule upon returning on Thursday. My main goal for September is to ensure all students have received their Microsoft Surfaces in order to make our innovative technology class run smoothly. We are currently having issues with students refusing to complete the Digital Citizenship course and sign the permission form; however, the biggest issue I am noticing (and the main reason we are delayed in our full deployment) is parents. It's quite unbelievable how many emails I have received from parents saying technology has no place in the classroom and "technology is what makes my child have bad grades" (that is a real quote from a parent). I am spending an exhausting amount of time responding to parents, explaining the benefits of technology in the classroom and the path o...

This past week has been a busy one to say the least! I have attended a Personalized Learning Assessment meeting, organized sessions for parent night, and interviewed students for our Glad Tech team. I have also assisted several teachers in setting up their OneNote Class Notebook for their courses. My highlight of this week was attending the Personalized Learning Assessment training--one of three meetings this year. The focus of this meeting was to initiate change in how our teachers currently assess our students. Often times, teachers are afraid of change and this meeting opened my eyes to how I can help teachers help their students (and not be afraid of change). When I think back to my least favorite classes in high school, I think of the classes where the majority of assessments were timed multiple choice tests. I was never able to prove my intelligence to my teachers in those classes because my name was always associated with a numerical score. Whether it is creative essays, speeche...