Reflecting on Education and Organizations

Exercise 1.2 Reflecting on Education and Training Program
I am currently a member of two organizations. One of the organizations is OHI- Organizational Health Institute. The other is Soul Harvest Choir. OHI is made up of a select group of teachers. My role in OHI is to attend meetings about the organizational health at my school. As a team we try to identify reasons for various complaints made by faculty and or staff. Then we create solutions for the different concerns. In Soul Harvest choir my role is to attend rehearsals and sing in the choir. The choir sings ever Sunday at church and every third Saturday. I have planned an event concerning a fundraiser, but have not yet planned a training program.
Program planning Wish List
I hope to plan training programs for parents at my school to show them how to perform basic computer skills such as checking their email and using search engines. I would also like to show them how to use Microsoft Word and other Microsoft programs to help parents become more computer literate
Also I would like to plan a professional development demonstrating how various programs such as Microsoft Database and Excel could save time while analyzing test results. I believe it is important for teachers to know different affordable software that will help them in planning and implementing instruction. Therefore planning a training that identifies different software, tools and programs and how to use them during instruction would be beneficial to teachers. For example, the funds for supplies at my school are low, so instead of ordering books on tape the teachers could download Audacity and read a book, then upload the audacity file to Media Fire or burn file to a cd. Performing these tasks will allow teachers to have instant access to “free” books on tape.
Exercise 1.3 Defining the purpose of education and training programs
Within the framework below, list examples of educational programs I have participated in and/or planned within the last two or three years
To encourage continuous growth and development of individuals- I have attended various professional developments with focal points such as analyzing TEKS, making science and social studies lessons more interesting, and different trainings demonstrating how to be a more effective reading and math teacher.
To assist people in responding to practical problems and issues of adult life- Depending on your views someone could say that singing in the choir would assist people with issues of adult life. Music helps with stress and the answer to some problems can be solved by listening to the words of song.
To prepare people for current and future work opportunities and To assist in achieving desired results and adapting to change- Attending the various professional developments such as those listed above which focused on different subject areas such as reading, math, science and social studies. The professional development I attended this summer would fit into this category. We had to view and analyze the newly adopted TEKS during training. I also attending trainings on how to become a more effective teacher in science helped me to achieve the results I wanted from my students.
To provide opportunities to examine and foster change related to societal and global issues- none
2. Highlight the positive point of these experiences as either participant and/or planner and indicated what problems or disappointment you encountered. In the various professional developments that I have attended I have learned valuable information and received good instructional materials such as alphabet arcs. I also have learned new techniques from other teachers. However, one disappointment is that the way the instruction was delivered did not capture my attention. I do not like to sit and listen to lectures. The instructor did require us to get up at times, but I think the training would have gone better if the instructor used some sort of attention grabber at the beginning.