Week 4 Assignment, Part 1: Development of an organization chart integrating technology
Using the campus and district improvement plans, and any suggested technology improvements, develop an organization chart that includes the following:
· Identify by title or job description all personnel/stakeholders responsible for integrating technology and instructional and organization leadership from the district office to the campus and classroom;
· Provide a brief description of the role and responsibilities of all identified personnel in your organizational chart;
· Discuss the role of the principal in making sure the organizational chart is implemented and monitored.
Answer:
As with any district, there is a chain of command that should be followed when addressing specific matters. It is no different when concerning the technology department. As campus principal, responsibility lies within to make sure the organizational chart is monitored and followed by all campus staff. The principal must first introduce the chart at the beginning of the school year. In addition, the administrator must properly promote and train staff members in appropriate technology usage, so all rules and regulations are followed. All personnel must understand the proper procedures when requesting technology assistance.
Using the campus and district improvement plans, and any suggested technology improvements, develop professional development activities that include the following:
· Reference analysis and lessons learned about the technology needs from the Week 3 report;
· Addresses professional development designed to improve the gathering, analysis and use of data from a variety of sources;
· Includes professional development to improve decision making in the integration of technology with instructional and organizational leadership.
Professional Development Activity One:
After interviewing the principal last week and talking to multiple teachers, the STaR chart is often a document that teachers complete, but do not always understand why they are doing what they are doing in terms of the bigger picture. For example, many teachers have never seen the district or campus data to show technology proficiency. While administrators look at the data, the teachers do not.
Therefore, a valuable professional development activity would be for teachers to analyze and review the state, campus and district results from the Texas STaR Chart Survey. Initially, teachers would view the STaR Chart power point which was constructed in week two as one of our assignments. This will give a basic overview of the STaR Chart. Once teachers have a chance to clarify any information, they will then look at the state, district and campus results. From there, they will compare their own outcomes of the Teacher STaR Chart summary in the 4 key areas of Teaching and Learning, Educator Preparation and Development, Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support, and Infrastructure for Technology. Weaknesses will be evaluated and a plan of action will be made on ways to improve their technology usage in the classroom to enhance instructional support for their students. Between evaluating the state results and their own areas that need improvement, teachers will be able to gauge where they are compared to other schools in Texas and what they need to do to improve their own skills to best help their students. Finally, teachers will fill out a survey to indicate what areas they need the most help from administrators so that can also be taken into account and reviewed.
Professional Development Activity Two:
As discussed in the week 3 assignment, the district has just added PD-360, a professional development system for teachers. Since it is a web-based system, there is a wide-ranging variety of options for employees to further their knowledge of technology as well as other subject areas. However, at this time, the employees are not engaging fully in this program as it will not be fully implemented until next year.
It will be essential for a professional development session to be used to introduce employees to the PD-360 system. In order to do this, teachers will be divided into their instructional fields and begin learning the system. The instructional technology coordinator will first check to see that everyone has the correct login and password information. Once everyone is logged in, teachers will learn to navigate each one of the tabs. The tabs cover the following categories: Focus, PD videos, Common Core, Communities, Groups, Colleagues, Courses, Livebook, and Search. Hands on experience are essential for teachers to truly learn how to use the system. In addition, hands off approach must be used by technology instructors in order for the teachers to retain the information they are learning. After exploring the tabs, teachers will then click on PD video and watch “Role of the Teacher in Technology-Infused Class.” Upon finishing the video, teachers will brainstorm ideas for their particular subject group on how they can further use technology in their classrooms and even explore different units in the textbook to begin to collaborate together on future assignments. Along with future projects, teachers will discuss any technology items they would like to add to a “wish list” and give to the instructional
technology coordinator. In the Campus Improvement Plan one goal is for teachers to become 30% more proficient in technology use in the classroom. With a myriad of over fifty training courses on PD-360 in the technology area, this goal will be attainable as long as the proper training occurs to have teachers become more comfortable with the program.
Professional Development Activity #3
Analyzing data is of utmost importance for teachers to understand and be able to dissect. Both AEIS and AYP reports as well as previous TEKS scores are areas that need further examination. All listed reports contain a great amount of information that a campus can use to increase student achievement. However, most teachers are not familiar enough with the breakdown of the data to use it appropriately to develop instructional goals for their own classroom and the students.
For the final professional development activity, intensive teacher training on analyzing data through the Region 7 DMAC (Data Management for Assessment and Curriculum) program will be required at the beginning of the school year with follow up activities throughout the year. An introduction on how to interpret scores from all reports will be present first to check for understanding. Through this program teachers will access student scores from the year before and determine student need for intervention. Teachers will work in collaborative groups by subject area to look at demographic and subject areas to see where students are struggling most. To check for more in-depth understanding, teachers will then build their own sample department assessments using DMAC.
Week 4 Assignment, Part 3: Evaluation Planning for Action Plan
The technology action plan integrating instructional an organizational leadership must include evaluation components that provide measurable outcomes designed to address the following:
· Uses data and other analysis from the Week 3 report, including using the campus and district improvement plans, and local or state technology plans;
· Provides assessments and/or monitoring reports measuring professional development designed to use technology to improve the gathering, analysis and use of data from a variety of sources;
· Provides assessments and/or monitoring evaluating professional development to improve decision making in the integration of technology with instructional and organizational leadership.
Evaluation Activity One:
One way to evaluate the new PD-360 program will be to see how much teachers are actually using the program. When a teacher’s name is entered, the records show exactly what job-embedded professional training has been completed. Specific courses should be added to each teacher’s profile with pertinent information relating to their course load and how to use technology within those classes. Teachers will post summaries of the training in their journal that is already a part of their PD360 program. Furthermore, at the end of each video segment the program incorporates questions and reflections that require completion by the teacher. In addition, teachers will also begin to use the “groups” feature in their tool bar to link together with the current Professional Learning Communities within the campus to post valuable information that everyone can use and share. Finally, if teachers are not completing required work in technology proficiency, the Instructional Technology Coordinator will meet with teachers one-on-one to make sure they are taking steps in the right direction.
Evaluation Activity Two:
According to the Lindale Junior High campus STaR Chart summary, one of the lowest areas of development was in Key Area II: Educator Preparation and Development, specifically, in professional development opportunities including online learning. In order to meet the 30% more teachers proficient in technology use in classroom instruction goal as stated in the Campus Improvement Plan, a survey would be introduced by the Instructional Technology Coordinator. This survey would ask teachers to be very specific about the technology that is used in their classrooms and how proficient they are at using certain programs. In depth questions would include teacher knowledge of both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 web applications and additional professional development would be produced based on answers given in the survey. This information would move all teachers towards the “Target Tech” STaR Chart goal. The survey would be completed at the beginning, middle and end of the school year to determine growth.
