1. Classify technology goals in a proper domain (technology, management, funding).
Management:
Goal 1: Teachers will attend professional development to enhance their use of technology in the classroom to support and increase student achievement.
Goal 2: Teachers will be supported by a technology liaison full-time on campus for instructional technology support
Funding:
Goal 3: Find potential sources of funding for technology improvement at Hopper Middle School.
2. Identify the major steps required to accomplish technological goals.
Goal 1: Teachers will attend professional development to enhance their use of technology in the classroom to support and increase student achievement.
Steps:
1. Conduct a survey for the teachers to determine professional development needs, desires, and available times.
2. Find or develop professional development trainings that address these needs.
3. Communicate openly and often about the times and advantages of teachers attending professional development.
4. Conduct the professional development trainings.
5. Track teacher hours.
6. Reward teachers with monetary compensation or a day of leave as desired and requirements met.
7. Review teacher lesson plans and walk throughs to determine of more support is needed and if desired level of integration is being met.
Goal 2: Teachers will be supported by a technology liaison full-time on campus for instructional technology support.
Steps:
1. Develop a hiring committee and determine the role of the technology liaison to be hired.
2.. Post a technology liaison position online inside of the district and outside of the district.
3.. Communicate openly to the teachers about the technology liaison position hiring.
4. Review submitted applications.
5. Conduct interviews.
6. Hire a qualified individual to fill the position.
Goal 3: Find potential sources of funding for technology improvement at Hopper Middle School.
1. Hire individual to fill technology liaison position.
2. Send new hire to trainings on grant writing.
3. Give technology liaison role of grant writing and searching for grant opportunities.
4. Require liaison to write 3-4 grants per year.
5. Have technology liaison make connections with at least 20 local businesses in the school year.
5. Communicate openly with teachers about grants and opportunities for technology improvements.
3. Develop assessment instruments to test the objectives for the technology plan. Describe the desired instrument/s under each objective.
Objective 1.1 Provide technology training for teachers on the daily use of technology in curriculum.
Assessment: Success of training participation will be determined by teacher sign-ups and graphs of teacher response to offerings. Also surveys will be given at the end of each training asking teachers for their response.
Objective 1.2 Provide an incentive for teachers to attend trainings.
Assessment: Review the budget on incentive spending.
Objective 1.3 Require teachers to integrate technology into their curriculum on a weekly basis.
Assessment: Requirements of integration will be assessed through looking at teacher submitted lesson plans and administrative walk throughs.
Objective 2.1: Hire a full-time instructional technology specialist to serve at Hopper Middle School.
Assessment: Hiring committee will successfully review candidates and hire a full time specialist.
Objective 2.2 Encourage teachers to communicate with the instructional technology specialist to support their classroom needs.
Assessment: New instructional technology specialist will document all communication with teachers which will be reviewed with the director of instruction twice a semester.
Objective 3.1 Have newly hired instructional technology specialist write 4 technology grant requests a year.
Assessment: At least 4 technology grants within the current capabilities of the school will be successfully submitted for Hopper Middle School in the current school year. At least one will be granted in best case scenario.
Objective 3.2 Contact local businesses to support Hopper Middle School's technology improvement efforts.
Assessment: Technology Specialist will keep track of contacts with local businesses and will make at least 20 connections in the current school year.
Casey,
ReplyDeleteGrants are a great source of additional funding. Would you only have the technology specialist writing grants for your school in order to provide additional funding for your school? Would each grant applied for be reviewed by adminstration before being submitted. My last question is what types of grants does your school apply for?
I think that the grants should definitely be reviewed by administration before submission. Communication is key, and the admin needs to be on the same page. I have the idea of starting with the technology specialist for grant writing, but I think that it would be great to expand that role to others as well. I do not really know that my school has any technology grants right now, which is why I would love to see them implemented in the future!
DeleteCasey,
ReplyDeleteGoal 1 states “Teachers will attend professional development to enhance their use of technology in the classroom to support and increase student achievement.” One of the ways my district has started training teachers on integrating technology, is doing it through their conference period. Some teachers complain, but over all most teachers appreciate the one conference a month they give up for this training and not having to stay late after school or coming on a Saturday. According to the Technology Integration Specialist, after starting this professional development administrators have seen an increase in the use of technology integration in teachers lessons (Moreland, 2012).
Cara
Reference:
Moreland, J. NISD, NISD Technology Integration Specialist. Personal communication March 5, 2012.
Cara,
DeleteThat's AWESOME! How does your school get around the dilemma of the teachers being required to have their conference time each week? Are these trainings voluntary? What a great way to offer some extra training!