Fall 2006 Quarterly Update
Posted by psteffen on November 14, 2006
Give an update from your site about what you have done this fall 2006 – Share how you doing the following at your site:
- Building Capacity
- Incorporating 21st century learning skills and tools
- Differentiating
- Evaluating Effectiveness
Mary Damiani said
Our staff selected United Streaming as our focus for this coming year. There is a group of about a dozen teachers that have agreed to participate as well as others that have indicated interest in US inservices. Teachers were recruited via an announcement at our first staff meeting as well as by e-mail invitation. After receiving their responses I sent them a preassessment survey with 3 questions about their level of United Streaming usage. I will use the same survey at the end of the year for assessment of learning and application.
About half of the participants have no experience with US and the other half has some experience. No participants have taught students to use US.
I plan on having an entry level inservice on US and a followup inservice for the more experienced users. We also have a mandatory staff inservice on incorporating 21st century learning skills and tool presented by the talented Peggy Steffen.
Katie Collins said
I sent out the following email to my staff stating the following:
-times available in the lab for teachers to bring in their class
-gave ideas of how they could use technology in their everyday
lessons
-indicated school tech goal (incorporating 21st Century Skills
via Microsoft Office Programs)
- indicated the importance of technology and how both students
and teachers need to become more proficient.
- Offered assitance in lesson planning preparation
- reminded them that they have to stay in the lab and teach
- suggested that this would be ideal time to achieve their
grade level tech goals
So far I have quite a few upper grades taking advantage of the typing time. One class is working on their podcasting project. The younger grades are waiting til after the holiday to take advantage of the extra computer time.
ASSET group said
Building Capacity & Incorporating 21st century learning skills and tools:
* Committee members will find and use resources through ASSET.
* Committee members will then share with other teachers to encourage more use of technology.
* Coaches are locating United Streaming videos and saving them on the server in the general shared folder for easy access.
* Katrina is giving a mini workshop on the use of the SmartBoard.
Differentiating:
* Coaches are sending e-mail offering support of technology.
* Creating templates in Kidspiration,which is mult-level, for easy use.
Evaluating Effectiveness:
* As a precursor to evaluation coaches provided the 5W Model to the members. This was to be used to help them plan their lessons. We are still collecting the forms and plan on more assessment in the future.
Liesl Scheffel said
At Coronado we are focusing on unitedstreaming as our 21st Century Tool this year. To that end, we have begun our tech school collaborative with almost 20 participants. We are hoping that once we have these people comfortable with using unitedstreaming effectively, more will follow. It is also our hope that these teachers will be able to help the other teachers with this resource. This is how we hope to build capacity. We’ll see how this goes.
At our first tech school collaborative meeting, we attempted to differentiate the training by having two separate groups: a beginners group and a more experienced group. The more experienced group would work independently on some of the tutorials or in finding clips to use, with us there as a resource if they had questions. The beginners were going to work through the first tutorial at their own pace, again with Michael and I as a resource. However, the connection in our lab is so slow that the entire unitedstreaming site came to a screeching halt when we tried to have everyone log in. So, we resorted to the old stand and deliver while a few more confident people worked on their own. We still don’t have a good solution for how to make this work better.
As far as evaluating the effectiveness of our work with the teachers, we are going to have a brief form for teachers to fill out stating how they have used the resource (this is part of our SIP). As an instructional coach without a classroom, I hope to be able to observe teachers actually using video clips in their lessons to more directly assess the effectiveness.
Robert Walling said
During the fall, we conducted a few informal polls to help determine our school wide plan. We chose overwhelmingly to go with the SMARTBoard. We did not conduct any inservices during the fall, as we decided to focus on planning and seeing what the staff was interested in.
We took note of all teachers who has a SMARTBoard and which teachers have taken classes in order to begin the process of planning for differentiation in the trainings.
Overall, we took the time to do some planning while the focus for the staff was on Curriculum Mapper trainings.
lcelaya said
Cross 1st Quarter Update
Building capacity
Certified staff: 52
Students: 952
6th grade:
7th grade:
8th grade:
Computers available:
1 PC in each teacher’s room
9 PCS in the library
29 PCS in Portable 6
28 PCS in Lab 203
32 PCS in Lab 507
30 MACS and 3 PC’s in technology lab (504)
Incorporating 21st Century learning skills and tools
Cross is currently working on developing Power Standards in reading and in the core subjects for our school. We have chosen to incorporate the skills necessary to show adequate scores on the 8th grade technology test by creating technology Power Standards that will entwine and work in tandem with the state standards for core subjects.
No meeting/planning times have been selected at this point. Work on writing technology Power Standards should begin sometime in the second semester.
Differentiating
A class will be offered to each core department. It will focus primarily in helping the teacher obtain an understanding of the skills in a selected Office program and assist the members of the department find ways to spiral the program effectively through sixth to eighth grade in their core subject.
Evaluating Effectiveness
At this time, evaluation of the new goal would be the current 8th grade Technology Literacy Assessment test.
Barbara Robeson said
This fall at Donaldson, we had a real push to have all of our teachers update/create Teacher & Staff websites that allowed parents & students to access current info. Support, as well as time was provided to help teachers & staff update/upgrade their web pages. This occurred on some early outs, but also individually & with small groups after school
• Each teacher has important information (i.e. class expectations, schedule, contact info, etc.) as well as a link back to the Donaldson Home Page now.
• Revision dates are consistently updated now so parents & students now know if the info provided is current.
• The Donaldson home page was revamped significantly based on input of the faulty, staff, parents & students.
• A teacher resources page was created as teachers requested along with links that parents requested.
• The Daily announcements and are now available on-line.
Our staff also responded to a 21st Century survey & voted to learn more on how to incorporated United Streaming into their curriculum.
Ron Nason said
Amphi Middle School
Fall Update
Building Capacity: In November/December we migrated to Microsoft. 32 Teachers got new computers and our 809 lab was updated with 31 new computers. All teachers got some kind of computer and/or OS upgrade. In addition, 6 additional computers were added to the library computer lab so that it could be used by classes working on curriculum-based projects.
When teachers sign up for lab time, we get together and discuss their projects. I share with teachers what resources we have available (such as an online subscription to World Book and Web Path Express, a list of previewed web sites organized by subject in our library’s catalog) and will give suggestions, such as creating a template for students to start with.
Some of the projects AMS teachers have completed are:
(1) Writing a business letter to local businesses soliciting money for the Amphi Clothing Bank.
(2) Using Power Point to create a “movie trailer” about a book—to create interest the book.
(3) Participated in the National Parent/Teacher Mock Election. Students learned about voting.
United Streaming: In September, the staff chose using United Streaming as a school emphasis. During the past few months more interest is being generated in the use of United Streaming at AMS. I have worked individually with teachers on this.
Lourdes Oros and Joanna Myhr-Arrison said
Give an update from your site about what you have done this fall 2006 – Share how you doing the following at your site:
Building Capacity
At Nash, we are implementing our four session UnitedStreaming Mini-Grant series. Based on money allotted from our principal, we will offer it to up to ten participants.
We’re receiving a small number of questions on EasyGrade Pro, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
One of our fifth grade teachers is piloting the “Fifth Grade Technology Exam.”
Peggy presented to our staff her “21st Century Learning Skills and Tools” presentation to a good response.
We e-mail ideas and good sites for teachers to use.
We will be having “Tech Moments” at staff meetings to give the teachers “snacks” of ideas.
Differentiating
In our United Streaming class we are providing a variety of tasks that will challenge teachers to improve from the level they are currently at. We are encouraging teachers to leave their comfort zone.
Evaluating Effectiveness
We use informal feedback from teachers to evaluate effectiveness.
Cris Robson said
Here is another time warp message from me! So sorry for the late post, I did not realize I had to post here
The technology collaborative at IRHS was been asked to examine several things this year:
1. What technology skills are students coming into IRHS with?
2. What skills are they being taught in middle school?
3. What skills are we supposed to be teaching them according to the Arizona State technology standards?
4. What skills are we presently teaching them, and in what classes are those skills being taught?
5. Where do the gaps occur between the standards and how will we address those gaps?
In order to begin this process a survey was sent all staff to answer #4. We asked that all staff complete the survey by November. (I do not rememebr the specific date now – problem with time warp posts)
The technology collaborative will examine these surveys in the spring in order to evaluate question #5 this spring. Additionally Dr. McClung has asked that the collaborative decide where these skills will be taught (in what content areas etc) in the future.
An ad hoc committee will be forming within the collaborative, at the request of Dr. McClung, whose purpose will be to fully answer questions #3-#5. I emailed all staff to remind them that it is imperative that we have representation from each department in order to fairly answer these questions and decide which departments will be responsible for teaching which standards. Several departments already have volunteers on the committee that have served during the fall semester, but some departments are still not represented.
Betsy Wilkening said
Wilson Middle School Fall Update
Building Capacity
The beginning of the school year in middle school was spent getting new teachers trained in creating a Web page and helping them set up grades online.
PTO bought 2 SMARTBoards and several projectors for our school. The SMARTBoards will be installed in the elementary and middle school computer labs, and another older SMARTBoard from the elementary lab will be put in Betsy Wilkening’s classroom. The projectors were spread out across the grade levels and teachers.
Incorporating 21st century learning skills and tools
Peggy Steffens gave her 21st Century Learning Presentation in a K-8 school staff meeting. Teachers brainstormed and shared different ways that they are teaching 21st Century Skills in their classrooms.
Differentiating
Teachers’ use of technology and skill level varies widely across the middle school. Training was provided for K-8 on the SMARTBoard basics in December by Jan Horetski and Betsy Wilkening. Jan’s classroom was used since it has a SMARTBoard. The teachers were given instructions on how to use a SMARTBoard and some basics in preparing for a SMARTBoard along with using projectors in their classrooms.
Evaluating Effectiveness
At this point we don’t have a way to evaluate the effectiveness of our training. The computer lab SMARTBoards are not up and running yet
noble23 said
Canyon Del Oro High School
The C.D.O. staff is eager to learn more about technology and 21st century skills. There are groups of teachers that are interested in different technologies:
* Digital video (The athletic department, the Economics/Government teacher and the ASL teacher)
* Digital Photography (The Counseling department, Art Department, The Library, Newspaper teacher, and Athletic Diector)
* Most teachers are interested in creating an Amphi teacher website (Beth Malapanes has been very helpful in this area.)
* Most teachers need help with Easy Grade Pro (It is a school goal to have everyone’s grades online, Casey Smythe has been very helpful with this.)
* Core FTP (Every problem seems to have a different solution, thank you Debbie Anthony)
* Curriculum Mapper (Lots of questions… I attended the conference given by Dr. Susan Udelhofen on curriculum mapping. My principal, two teachers and I are taking on the task of educating the staff about Curriculum Mapper and helping them to create Master Maps)
* Patrick Nelson put together an exploritoy committee to visit two 21st century schools in California ( http://www.bobpearlman.org/BestPractices/Napa.htm ). I had the opportunity to witness two 21st century schools modeling what needs to happen in education so that our students are able to thrive in a global community. Both schools relied heavily upon Project Based Learning environments, a schoolwide communication network, and a strong sense of community. Many teachers have expressed an interest Project Based Learning and how to integrate PBL into their curriculum.
The teacher’s technological knowledge ranges from mastery (wanting to build on their skills) to extreme beginner. Many calls for help are a result of not understanding handouts and tutorials given to teachers during meetings. (I would like to compile a bank of handouts/tutorials that can address the teacher’s different learning styles and ranges of technological knowledge.)
I have been regularly checking up on the teachers that I have helped, and address problems as they arise. The teachers at C.D.O. aren’t shy and often come to me in groups looking for answers. I recieve emails from faculty and administators thanking me for my support and letting me know how their individual projects are going. If I’m not getting emails or phone calls, right now I take it for granted that everyone is okay.
Katie said
My staff here at Rio Vista has been very eager to learn about the SmartBoard. Unfortunately, we have spent several of our early outs working on our Curriculum Mapper. We have discussed with our FTO that SMARTboards are what is needed in our classes. The FTO have decided that will be our goal and that we need to raise about $85,000.00 to have them in every class. We had a large fall festival in October which was planned AND executed by your truly. We made a whopping $3,000.00 and are well on our way to our goal! I have sat down with several teachers and had an informal training on United Streaming and the benefits of it. I have gotten most of my teachers set up with a correct password and they are at least showing videos from it.
Monica Schott & Irene Barrantes said
Building Capacity
In the fall we approached our staff for buy-in with our school learning focus about Microsoft products. They agreed that this would help increase knowledge, capacity and outcomes. We incorporated volunteers from each grade level for our feeder pattern.
Incorporating 21st century learning skills and tools
We encouraged each grade level to engage the students in using technology. Teachers brainstormed ways to us the 21st Century skills in their classrooms.
Differentiating
Every grade level representative will discuss differentiation with their team about the Microsoft products
Evaluating Effectiveness
We will gain feedback from our feeder pattern representatives, and through the student products that are developed throughout the year.
wpike said
We examined the student achievement based on users of smart boards versus non-users. Using the key ideas from math and english common curriculum, we looked asked “Do students in classes with high use have better averages than students in classes with low use?” The results were mixed. With 26 teachers as low use and 10 teachers of high, the results did not show any strong correlation, even with a common curriculum. We need to examine how the boards are used and is that method effective?