08/25/04 Comfort Zone

The Intermediate's Remedial Program consists of approximately 80 teachers/auxillary personnel. The majority of these teachers are certified elementary or secondary with reading specialists certification. These teachers also perform math remediation services. Additionally, some of the personnel are guidance counselors and speech specialists. Students receiving math or reading remediation participate in the program for approximately 20 minutes one time per week. Students who are especially weak may receive services two times a week. Most teachers service 5 to 8 schools each week, I will be remediating at three schools each week.

I have been leaning towards action research related to remediation in mathematics. The program director is very supportive of technology and would like to explore this avenue. I also feel that I could do a lot in my own practice related to using technology in this "limited-time" environment. Not only would this assist me in my role as a remediator, it would also eventually provide a framework for the other remedial teachers. Some beginning questions to address: Is it practical to use technology in a remedial program where students receive services for 20 minutes, once a week? Could technology play a role in increasing student time in mathematics outside of the scheduled remediation session? What types of software programs are available that teachers could use individually with students while working with a smaller group? How can technology be used as a communication tools/support tools with/between the regular classroom teacher, the parents, and the remediator? What resources and research are currently available related specifically to remedial math instruction? These are just a few of the beginning questions that I might want to look at. I need to develop other questions that dig "deeper," however, I'm still orienting myself to this whole new system.

One concern that I have is that I won't begin remediation services until October 1st as this entire month is spent testing the students in both reading and math. This may cause some problems related to various assignments for 638b.

An area that I probably should concentrate on for action research is the instructional technology component. My role, practice, as an instructional technology specialist is to assist teachers in finding ways to use technology in their jobs. How can I help the IU teachers integrate technology in meaningful ways in their remediation services. This component is still vague as we haven't even set up the parameters of the job yet. A decision has to be made regarding whether my services will be limited to just the IU staff and/or the teachers employed by the non-public schools. There is a gray area here as the Intermediate Unit has a new Executive Director that started in July who is from New York. He is perplexed by this idea of an Intermediate Unit that services non-public schools. Apparently New York does not have this division, and NY doesn't have legislation similar to Act 89 (provides funds for specific purposes for non-public schools). Additionally, it has been decided that the instructional technology portion of my job must be supervised by the Director of Instructional Media Services. This equates to my reporting to two separate divisions. It's a work in progress and all the particulars haven't been worked out yet. I'm actually going a bit crazy right now because of all these "ifs." I'm hoping that these details are ironed out as soon as possible so that I may get on with my work. While I consider myself to be flexible and a "go with the flow" type of person, I'm beginning to get a bit of anxiety to get "the show on the road" so to speak. If this portion of my job is to service the teachers who are employed by the non-public schools, I could use action research to develop my practice as an instructional technology specialist. I see some of the tools that we've been using in our coursework as having tremendous value to me in my own practice related to instructional technology. One way that I could improve my own "ITS practice" is by using tools such as Tapped In to bring a faculty that is spread across a county closer together to collaborate with each other. Many of these teachers do not see each other from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. I'd also like to use wiki as a way for these teachers to share their best practices with each other. While I don't have a "practice" yet (because it's a new role), I could use my action research to develop my own practice that is based on reflection and research. My next step is to begin to review the available literature related to math remediation and technology. We'll see where that takes me.

There are hints that I will be part of a core team that goes into specific schools. I've received an email from the Director stating that she wishes to speak to four of us about a unique situation at one of the schools and the role that the four of us will play. It's possible that this may also be opportunity for some type of action research. The four new positions that I am referring to are:

an ITS person (me), a teacher-mentor person, a english language learner person, and a speech person.

Maybe I'll have more answers tomorrow....or perhaps more questions......and the saga continues.