Campus Technology Action Plan

Campus Technology Action Plan




Need #1: The campus will review STaR data accumulated through the annual survey performed on campus. This is a great tool for teachers and the principal to see how we are implementing technology on our campus. Based on my interviews in Week 3 of this course, my campus does not currently analyze this data.



Professional Development: Each year, after the results of the STaR data are accumulated, the Campus Technology Integration Specialist will hold a professional development afternoon where she reviews the results of the campus and how they compare to the district and the state. From that data, we will find our weakest areas. Teachers will break out into groups and brainstorm ways we can increase our weakest areas. For our campus this year, that included actually using technology we had learned throughout the year consistently in our classrooms. After the breakout sessions, teachers will then share their ideas with the campus. This should allow teachers to hear multiple ways to incorporate technology into their lessons.



Evaluation: For this particular professional development, I think the only way to evaluate it is to see evidence of the teachers using technology in their classrooms. Once a month, I would ask that teachers take pictures of their students using technology in a lesson, and email these pictures to the Campus Technology Integration Specialist. This way she can see who is trying new things, and perhaps who is not. The Campus Technology Integration Specialist will then send a monthly report to the principal identifying who has completed the task and who has not. By the end of the school year, this gives teachers the opportunity to try 7 or 8 new technologies in their room.



Need #2: Based on our Campus Improvement Plan, teachers needs to feel comfortable accessing data out of AWARE and using it when planning for instruction. Currently all of our state testing data and benchmark data are uploaded into AWARE. However, there are teachers who don’t know how to gather the data or use it to make instructional decisions.



Professional Development: Our staff would highly benefit from training in how to access data in AWARE, and use it to make instructional decisions. Our Campus Technology Integration Specialist could hold this training in the computer lab after school. This way each teacher can access their classes and follow step by step with our CTIS. Teachers can learn how to access prior year TAKS scores, benchmark data, and learn how to disaggregate this data by gender, race, economic status, testing objective, etc. This will assist the teachers when planning for state testing, working with small groups, and considering tutoring for their classes. This will also drive instruction because the teacher will be able to see where their students are low and what objectives need to be improved. Teachers will leave this training with printed data about their classes so that they are ready to use it in their planning that day.



Evaluation: When evaluating this professional development, I would ask the teachers to attach their AWARE data reports to their lesson plans (which are turned into the assistant principal monthly). This would allow the assistant principal to see how the teacher is using the data when planning their daily lesson with their students.



Need #3: Ensure the technology department has adequate resources to respond to all technology maintenance requests. Currently, our teachers are frustrated because they put in a work order and the technology department sometimes takes weeks to fix their problem. This was a common theme that I heard when conducting my week 3 interviews for this course.



Professional Development: I think our teachers could benefit from a representative from the technology department coming out to our school and telling us exactly how they would like us to put in a work order when we are having a technology problem. Sometimes, teachers do not know all of the options to putting in a work order. For instance, you can put it to a high importance if it is something that you will use daily. Perhaps if the technology department had more detailed information from the teachers, they could respond quickly to their requests. Communication will allow our teachers and the technology department to better understand what is needed. We know that with better communication, we can all work better together.



Evaluation: To evaluate this professional development, I would ask the principal to check the work orders submitted by our campus and look at the average wait time teachers are waiting before the technology is up and working again. This would allow the principal to be able to talk to our Chief Technology Officer if our requests are not being met in a timely manner.



Need #4: Teachers need to apply technology their students are learning in the computer lab to activities they perform in the classroom. Based on my week 3 interviews, this is a problem on our campus. When teachers take their classes to the computer lab, they often leave them with our CTIS. However, when they leave they have no idea what their students are learning, so they don’t know what they are capable of in the classroom. In addition, students only go to computer lab with their science teacher, so for those of us in the higher grade levels, if you do not teach science, you are also not aware of what the students have learned in the computer lab.



Professional Development: At our monthly staff meeting, I think our CTIS should do a brief overview of her lesson plans for our students to the staff. This will show the teachers what their students will be capable of doing, and it will give the teachers ideas of how to incorporate these things into their lesson plans. It is such a shame for the students to learn these applications in computer lab, but then not to get to apply it for the rest of the week in class. This will also benefit those teachers who are not so technically savvy and need a little extra help in basic computer skills.



Evaluation: Based on the CTIS’s lesson plans for the month, the assistant principal will check for each of these technology applications when reviewing the monthly lesson plans of the teachers. Each week the teacher should take what their students have learned in computer lab and incorporate it into at least one lesson for the week.

Texas STaR Chart Presentation

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Texas STaR Chart Presentation

Please click on the following link to access my presentation for the results of the Texas STaR data for my campus:

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/sesser-1313091-texas-star-chart/

Long-Range Plan for Technology - Teaching and Learning

The vision for teaching and learning for all students in the Long Range Plan for Technology 2006-2010, states that students need individualized instruction to meet their needs.  One of the ways of providing this to students is through technology.  Technology can provide an equal playing field for all students regardless of their disabilities.  This includes distance learning and other online learning that will allow students to be academically prepared for their future.  Educators who use technology provide their students with the knowledge to function in a world of technology.  The goal is for all learners to have access to technology 24/7 to access individualized instruction, use technology to communicate, use research strategies to improve instruction, and communicate effectively with diverse audiences.  In the future, Texas students must become active participants in the learning process.  They need to know how to access information, cite it correctly, and apply it to what they are learning.  Challenges in teaching and learning are: (1) including technology in curriculum writing.  For most teachers, this includes the challenge of coming up with the time in their daily lessons to provide the necessary technology required. (2)More time in the classroom for technology.  Again, teachers have to figure out a way to give students the technology they need in the short time given. (3) Flexibility to try new teaching technology techniques.  Teachers need to feel supported and comfortable with teaching their students technology.  I feel that his area of the Long Range Plan for Technology is where the future of technology with our students is most important.  It all starts with our teachers giving our students the time and patience to work with these items in the classroom.  This confidence can be built through teacher support from administration and the technology department.  I also think that by allowing teachers to blog about their results, or have time with their peers to reflect, they can come up with new ways to help each other implement technology in the classroom.

Texas Education Agency, 2006. Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006 – 2020: A report to the 80^th Texas Legislature from the Texas Education Agency. Texas Education Agency. Retrieved from November 11, 2009, from: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/technology/etac/LRPToct06.pdf.

Web Conference EDLD 5352

I attended the 12:00 web conference for EDLD 5352 on Saturday, January 21.  During this web conference, we discussed the upcoming assignment, due dates, and how to respond on the discussion board.  We also talked about the importance of our blog and how we would use it on upcoming assignments.  The web conferece was helpful in clarifying questions that we had for our assingment this week.  I was glad to see that it was kept to a small amount of students, and everyone had plenty of opportunities to ask questions and recieve answers from Dr. Abernathy.

Action Research Reflections

Sara Esser

Can Motivation and Support Lead to Academic Success?

Needs Assessment

When I began thinking of topics for my action research project, I began with a needs assessment for our weakest academic areas.  My assistant principal informed me that to receive a commended rating for the 2010-2011 school year, 25% of students overall must make a commended score on the TAKS test, as well as 25% for each subgroup as well.  This was a concern for my campus because our population of economically disadvantaged students is continually increasing, as well as the demands for state testing.  This led me to think about the teachers on our campus.  Although we all know who are economically disadvantaged students are, sometimes we are just concerned with them passing, not necessarily getting commended.  What if we provided teachers with a list of their subgroup students with projected passing and commended rates, so they would know which students had the potential to meet that commended rating?  Would they be more apt to push and motivate these students as the test got closer, and could this be the difference between an exemplary and recognized rating? 

When I reviewed the testing requirements against our campus population, my campus meets the criteria for the subgroup economically disadvantaged for the following tests: 3rd, 4th and 5th grade reading and math.  We do not meet this subgroup requirement in 5th grade science or 4th grade writing.  When I looked a little closer at 5th grade, I noticed that we have 21 students in our economically disadvantaged subgroup.  At a required 25% passing rate, that is only 6 students on the grade level that could make the difference between an exemplary and recognized rating.  The action research plan that we agreed on is for me to meet with each team of teachers in 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade, to discuss the students in their economically disadvantaged subgroup, and discuss ways we can motivate these students to feel confident and successful on the TAKS test.  Hopefully with this extra motivation, this will provide the students with the confidence they need to succeed.  I am looking forward to this project because it will give me the opportunity to manipulate data, lead meetings with my peers, and discuss across the grade levels ideas for the motivation of student success.

Objectives and Vision of the action research project

Vision

The goal and vision of my action research project is to increase our commended rating on our economically disadvantaged subgroup of students for reading and math, grades 3-5 by using motivational tools and resources. 

Objectives

I carried out this vision by first discussing the action research topic with my site supervisor, with the support of our 2010-2011 benchmark data for our reading and math scores.  Once approved, I looked at the economically disadvantaged subgroup for reading and math grades 3-5, and determined what percentage of these students we would need to get a commended score in order to uphold our exemplary rating.  At that time, after my data was prepared, I met with each team of teachers (by grade level and subject) to review my findings from the data.  This allowed us an opportunity to look at these students and how much further they needed to progress in order to obtain that commended rating.  The teachers and I then brainstormed ways to help these students become more confident in themselves and their abilities.  At this point I looked at research on the topic of economically disadvantaged students in order to gain a better understanding of how to help them succeed.  It was then left up to each team of teachers to organize breakout sessions with their students that we called “commended camp” where they would have small group time to try and motivate their students.  After the students completed the state testing, I then look at the results of our hard work in several ways.  I discussed the “commended camp” with students who had participated, with teachers who were responsible for the sessions, and finally looking at the results of our state testing to see if we indeed improved our commended scores among this group of students.

Review of Literature and Action Research Strategy

For my action research project, I needed to understand how economically disadvantaged students were different from other subgroups of students.  The Southern Education Foundation released a report in 2007 that describes the recent trends of economically disadvantaged students in the South.  In their report, they state, “Low income students in Southern states are behind wealthier students by almost all measures of educational progress within their own states and they often have not performed academically as well as other low income students elsewhere in the country” (p. 11).  The SEF goes on to say that economically disadvantaged students often receive a lower amount of early education than other students.  This leads to significant gaps in education as these children are entering into public schools.  It then continues to increase the gap of education received later for the child.  Taking into account these considerations, my action research project will focus on this group of students, and will attempt to work on motivating these students who are often behind their peers, in addition to them receiving the academic attention of all other struggling students.   At my campus, we are involved heavily in state testing preparation for all students who have received sub-standard scores on our district benchmark tests.  These students are worked with very intensely in both the classroom, and with tutors who are brought on to the campus to pull small groups of students during the school day.  Because of the intensity given to all of our students, I decided it would be difficult to measure the progress of our economically disadvantaged subgroup solely based on academic intervention alone.  This guided me to working with the students on motivation and confidence during test taking.  By pulling these students separately from others in the grade level, and working on confidence and motivation, hopefully we will be able to see improvement on test scores if the students feel confident and know that their teachers and fellow classmates believe in them.  Chamberlain (2007) states that poverty was found to have a negative effect relationship with student achievement in a study that focused on poverty, school size, and student achievement. Most research indicates that economically disadvantaged students will have a harder time academically than other students.  Because of this, I wanted to see how much confidence building and motivation can help these students to succeed in the classroom and on state testing.

Articulate the Vision

Communicating the vision of this project was a critical aspect of my project.  To work with all of our economically disadvantaged students, I knew that I needed the help of all of our classroom teachers. My plan for articulating my vision was to meet with each small group of teachers, by grade level and subject, and speak with them just 2 or 3 at a time. This was so I could relate the conversation to their students and to their subject.  I also wanted to be sure I had all of the data ready for the teachers about their students, so we could specifically talk about who to include in our commended camp.  I wanted to set up the meeting so that we could leave with everyone knowing exactly what they needed to do.  This was important because it saved time, and set clear expectations for all parties involved.  I also ensured that we were able to brainstorm ways to help motivate these students prior to the end of the meeting. The teachers were never asked to come up with anything on their own, so they wouldn’t feel any pressure that they had to create something new.  Taking that stress away from the teachers enabled them to look at my action research project as an opportunity, rather than actual work.

Manage the Organization

In order to ensure I was managing my action research project effectively, I wanted to ensure I planned out my project in detail, so I knew who needed to be involved, how much time they would need to spend on the project, and if I would need any outside funding or help.  Below is my action research plan that was completed prior to the start of my action research project.

Action Research Plan
Goal: To increase our commended rating on our economically disadvantaged subgroup for reading and math, grades 3-5.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Discuss Action Research topics with site supervisor.	Myself,  Ron McCallon (Site Supervisor), and Dawn Randolph (Assistant Principal)	2/28/11 – 3/4/11	* School testing data * Internship Plan	Discussed and created Action Research topic and wonderings
2. Look at the economically disadvantaged subgroup for reading and math benchmark scores grades 3-5.	Myself,  Dawn Randolph (Assistant Principal), Kathy Owings (Coordinator of Assessment and Accountability) and Stephen Travis	3/7/11 – 3/25/11	* Benchmark comparison charts * AWARE benchmark data * Benchmark projection data * All data for reading & math benchmark 3, grades 3-5	Narrow data down to economically disadvantaged subgroup and see the percentage of students that are commended
3. Meet with teams of teachers on all 3 grade levels for both subjects to review data found in step 2.	Myself	3/7/11 – 3/25/11	* Data formulated from step 2.	Discuss student scores and which economically disadvantaged students have the possibility of making a commended score.
4. Determine plan for teachers to implement from now until the TAKS test to increase confidence in identified groups of students.	Myself and Dawn Randolph (Assistant Principal)	3/7/11 – 3/25/11	* Research found on increasing confidence on low income students	Brainstorm ways to motivate this group of students.
5. Implement motivational strategies discussed in step 4. Teachers will do this for their own kids and subject.	Myself and Dawn Randolph (Assistant Principal)	3/21/11 – 4/22/11	* Data presented to teachers on subgroup of students	Receive feedback from teachers about motivational breakout sessions with their students.
6. Evaluate results of data analysis and motivational sessions with students	Myself and Dawn Randolph (Assistant Principal)	5/16/11 – 5/27/11	* TAKS scores from the state	Compare economically disadvantaged subgroup to previous year data to see if there is a difference.

I was able to follow my action research plan as I was scheduled to.  By outlining each procedure, I was able to efficiently and effectively complete my action research project.  I also tried to minimize the time that other people were required to spend helping me with my project.  For this, I was able to complete all of my data organization and research before I met with the teachers on the grade levels.  Therefore, I was able to go into these meetings with detailed information about students, where they currently were academically, and where we needed them to be.  Because my project was about increasing the confidence of economically disadvantaged students, I wanted to ensure that I was not being obvious about which students were being invited to these “commended camps.”  I didn’t want to single the economically disadvantaged students out, but at the same time, I knew that we needed to ensure these students were participating in our motivational gatherings.  Therefore, I came up with the idea to give out invitations to these students, and let them know they were invited to a “special” get together with other students from the grade level because we felt that they were on the road to success.  We pulled these students out of their PE and music class once a week, so it was not obvious to other students that they were being pulled out or singled out.  This process worked really well.  Students who were invited to “commended camp” were excited to be part of a special group, and students that did not attend the camp really didn’t seem to even notice because it was such a small group of students, and was not during class time.

Manage Operations

Leading this project was a great learning opportunity for me because I was able to organize, execute, and evaluate the results of my project.  My main goals for this project were for me to be able to stay organized, and to communicate with others on my campus who were helping me execute my research.  This required me to complete quite a bit of data analysis and background investigation before I could meet with the teachers on the grade level.  Planning out the project with the timeline inserted above really gave me the tools that I needed to stay on track with the project and ensure I was leaving my teachers with enough time to complete the “commended camp” with their students.  From our needs assessment, I knew that we needed to increase our commended scores among our economically disadvantaged students.  This led me to looking at the completed benchmark scores for the year to see which students were close to or in the range of getting a commended score.  My needs assessment really drove my decisions and further steps for my project.  In order to look at the benchmark data, I was really required to dig into our data reporting system, AWARE.  I did not have much experience in this area, and as I learned, neither did any of the other teachers on my campus.  I was able to manipulate data and show the other teachers on my campus specific information about their economically disadvantaged students.  This was a very successful part of my project, because I was then able to relay this information to teachers who could use the data in their classrooms to promote students success.  Meeting with the teachers also helped me to work on my group process skills.  I was able to organize and direct a meeting while conveying my vision for the project and allowing the group to use collaborative decision making skills.  Conveying my vision was essential to the success of my project, and I believe I did that well by ensuring the teachers that we needed to do what we could for these economically disadvantaged students to receive the support and help that they needed for academic success.  Most of the students that we looked at were students that the teachers agreed do have rough home lives and not as much support as some of their other students.  The teachers were very receptive to my ideas and wanted to do whatever they could to provide support for their students.  This led us to brainstorming ways to help motivate these students.  This is where we were really able to brainstorm and communicate ideas with each other.  I left it up to each grade level what, where, when and how they chose to work with their students, but everyone was open to hearing ideas of what my team and myself were doing for our commended camp.  I did have some teachers who were wondering why were targeting a specific group of students and not our entire students population.  Their concerns allowed me to use the conflict resolution skills that I have learned, to help them understand the basis for my project and why I chose to work with our economically disadvantaged students. 

Respond to Community Interest and Needs

My entire research project is centered on economically disadvantaged students.  This covers several ethnic backgrounds and most of these students do have special needs.  Because of the nature of these students, I made sure to make these students feel included and not isolated because they are different.  This was in the forefront of my project the entire time I was conducting my research.

References:

Chamberlin, J.L. (Spring 2007). Poverty, School Size and Charter Designation as Predictors of Student Achievement on a Statewide, High-Stakes Testing Program. Journal of Scholarship and Practice, Vol. 4, No.1., 21-26.

Southern Education Foundation. (2007). A New Majority: Low Income Students in the South’s Public Schools. SEF Research Report. Retrieved from: www.southerneducation.org.

Action Research In Progress

My school has successfully completed "Commended Camp" in three of our TAKS grade levels.  We met with these economically disadvantaged students 3 times before the TAKS test, and really enforced building confidence and how to succeed.  We used a combination of motivational videos, discussions, games, and even created posters to hang in the hallways to encourage and support other students.  Overall, it gave me a better understanding of this subgroup of students and made it possible for me to spend some quality time outside of the classroom with them.  I am hoping they will carry what they have learned over to the TAKS test!!