STaR Chart - Liberty Hill ISD

In 2004, the state of Texas developed an on-line resource tool called the Texas Teacher STaR chart. It was tool for teachers to do self assessments on their technology usage/knowledge. School districts are also given reports to track usage and progress towards the long range technology plan of 2006-2020. The STaR chart is broken down into four main areas : Teaching and Learning; Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support; and Infrastructure for Technology. In my opinion, the most important area for Liberty Hill HS is Teaching and Learning. Teaching and learning involves six catagories: Patterns of classroom usage – in which teachers are asked if the students use technology to become student lead or directed learning activites; Frequency/design of instructional setting used for digital content – teachers are asked how often technology is used in their classrooms; Content area connections – Teachers are asked if technology is a suppliment or used in conjunction with content area objectives; Technology application (TEKS) implementations – How knowledgable are the teachers to the fact that TEKS are in place for the teachers to follow in technology; Student mastery of TEKS – tweachers are asked what pecentage of students have masterd the TEKS; and Online learning – Teachers are asked how often they utilize on-line activities for their students.
Liberty Hill HS has scored a total of 13, 11, and 12 the last three years of STaR chart polling. I feel that this area should be improved upon by our district and our teachers. I know teachers, we like to be prepared for changes and for our lessons. If we implemented more technology in our classes, we ourselves would become more proficient with technology preparing ourselves for teaching the students. We would also be more attentive and more willing to attend technology training to become profcient.