Curriculum Portfolio
For
Donald F. Spencer
Distance Education / ECOT
Adjunct Professor
Taught six workshop hours of
online classes through
Programming
Created a program through Visual Studio.NET that tracked the progress of each student in the credit recovery program (Success Academy) and made it available to each teacher on the team. Saved the comments made to each student by the team teachers and made them available to each member of the team. Information was made available through the Internet and was always current.
Evaluated
curriculum
Chaired a committee charged
with reviewing and evaluating curriculum and curriculum software employed in an
intranet school. Committee hearings were
held to examine current practices and vendor provided curriculum software. Strengths and weaknesses of existing
curriculum and practices were discussed.
Teachers were interviewed as well as company representatives.
This resulted in the
adoption of a new, vendor- provided software curriculum. The curriculum is currently being tested in
the academy I administer. Pending a successful
trial, the curriculum will be considered for other schools within the system. Students will be exposed to a broader and
more in-depth curriculum. The students’
chances of success have been greatly increased.
Implemented Best practices
I researched best practices
for at-risk students and applied the research to the academy for which I am an
administrator. I did a thorough
literature review of best practices for at-risk students. I then adopted the practices for my intranet
academy. These practices included an
online orientation, mentoring, interdisciplinary activities, and greater social
presence among the students. An online
orientation was created that included a personal call from a teacher, an online
written overview of the academy, and an online Power Point summary
presentation. Each student had a clear
idea of what the program was about from the beginning.
Each student had a teacher
assigned to him/her as a mentor. The
mentor had a grade summary for the student’s classes and was able to discuss
overall progress with the student. The
mentor also asked the student to establish a tentative weekly schedule for
study with the student.
Simple interdisciplinary
activities were created in the form of forum postings and live chats. The emphasis was on the relationship between
the disciplines and their applicability to the real world. Social chats were also held to increase
social presence for the students.
The result was increased success for students who previously had failed. All students in the intranet academy had previously failed their subjects and were engaged in credit recovery. Each student success represented a victory over past defeat. The success rate was roughly equal to that of the regular high school.
Traditional Classroom
Developed Integrated Curriculum Units
The
teachers with whom I was working were not using integrated curriculum. My task was to introduce them to the concept
of integrated curriculum and enable them to incorporate it into their teaching
practices.
In
two separate years, I lead an eighth grade team of teachers in an integrated
curriculum unit. On both occasions we
centered the project on community service in the form of improving school
landscape. Each teacher taught to the
activity. The math teacher taught the
students how to compute the number of plants and how many plants we could
afford. The history teacher taught the
history of conservation.
The result was that the students were more engaged. The Dean reported a decrease in the number of referrals and the teachers reported improvements in grades. The teachers continued to employ integrated units of their own design.
Developed Computer Applications Curriculum
My
task was to create a curriculum for a new computer lab being developed at
I
read appropriate literature and visited existing labs throughout
The
result was that the students were able to do research on the Internet and
develop multimedia presentations. The
interdisciplinary aspect created a synergy effect on the students’ ability to
do research and create presentations.
Developed Statistically Valid and Reliable Instrument to
Measure Curriculum Effectiveness
I
was a member of an eighth grade team that had implemented an integrated
curriculum unit and we needed to assess the impact upon the students. My task, as the leader of the project, was to
devise a valid and reliable measure of our success.
I
created a survey that would provide a valid and reliable measure of the four
areas in which the team waned to see some improvement. The goals of this project were to increase
student involvement, collaboration, perception of curriculum relevance, and
student satisfaction with the lessons. I
developed three survey scales, one for each goal, to measure the effectiveness
of the unit.
The
scale development followed guidelines presented in DeVellis’ Scale
Development: theory and applications.
The scales were tested for internal reliability through the use of
Cronbach’s Alpha. Statistical analysis
was performed with SPSS base 8.0. A
two-sample (independent) t test was conducted comparing the survey results from
the two teams.
Mentored New Teachers
We
had a number of new teachers join the staff at my school. Although seasoned teachers are assigned to
them as “buddies”, occasionally a rapport between the two did not develop. I have had a number of the new teachers come
to me to me to talk about their first year experiences. I have also had experienced teachers stop by
to talk about frustrations and challenges.
My
task was to mentor these teachers and enable them to develop a critical
paradigm and discover their own solutions.
I encouraged them through conversations and mutual classroom
visitations.
The
result was that the majority of the teachers I mentored are now established in
very productive careers. One in
particular has begun a Masters Degree and Educational Leadership.
Facilitated Electronic Staff Meetings
Created Instruction Booklet for Staff
At
our school we held meetings in the same way faculty meetings have always been
held. They were time consuming and not
stimulating: certainly not as productive as they could have been. The Principal wanted to initiate electronic
staff meetings.
However,
the school was being renovated and one-third of the teachers did not have
access to their regular computers and had to get their email from whatever
computer they could log onto. My task
was to use my technology skills to enable administration and teachers to
communicate in a more efficient and productive manner.
I
helped the Principal develop a Power Point presentation and send it
electronically to the teachers as a group. I helped the teachers to gain the
ability to access their email accounts from any computer they could
access. I developed a small booklet with
instructions graphics reproducing the actual screens the teachers would see as
they configured the machine available to them to access their email.
The
result was the first successful use of an electronic faculty meeting. The teachers were able to receive their mail
at any computer that was part of the local area network. Teachers began to use email more frequently
and continue to use email as a venue for group meetings.
The result of our assessment was to recommend and implement changes for further integrated curriculum units that resulted in improved instruction. We streamlined our operation. Future units were of shorter time duration, of a smaller scales of operation, and more discrete in scope.
Created curriculum to celebrate cultural diversity
My
school has a diverse population with large Hispanic and African American
populations. Not enough was being done
to celebrate the contributions from those groups. My task was to supplement my regular American
History curriculum with an enriching experience that celebrated our nation’s
diverse origins.
I
organized a field trip to the city of
The
result was that the students were exposed to unique and interesting
accomplishments .of diverse groups that to which they could relate. The climate in the classroom became warmer
and more open.
Used Technology to Improve Parental Communication
There
was a lag in communication between myself and the parents of students who were
not progressing satisfactorily. Using
the established policy of progress reports alone was not getting information
fast enough to the parents of struggling students. With better communication, t he parents could
act more effectively. My task was to
find a way to provide that timely communication.
The action I took was to more effectively use technology to communicate with my students’ parents. I used Microsoft Excel along with Microsoft Access to instantly generate letters to the appropriate parents after every graded activity. As soon as I entered the grades into the computer, the computer commuted the grades, selected any student whose grade had gone down and generated a letter home.
The
result was much improved communication between my students’ parents and me. The number of unsatisfactory grades was cut
in half.
Conducted Doctoral Level Research
I
had to conduct research and present my research in the form of a written
dissertation to satisfy the requirements for a Doctorate in Education. My task was to write a five-chapter
dissertation explaining my research.
I
wrote 162-page dissertation that passed a review by a committee of five
professors at the
The
result was that I advanced, to a small degree, the body of knowledge regarding
distance education as compared to traditionally mediated education.
Faculty Presentation on Concept Mapping
Our
staff was largely unexposed to the benefits of electronically based concept
mapping. My task was to present to the
staff the benefits and the means to use electronically based concept mapping in
the form of the software, Inspiration.
I
arranged for a nationally known presenter, who was also part of the county
administrative staff, to come to our school and present the benefits and use of
Inspiration software. I was part
of the presentation. I also made
arrangements for the purchase of the software for any staff member who wanted
to use the program in his/her classroom.
The
result was that ten teachers opted to use the software in their
classrooms. The quality of instruction
was improved for those classrooms.