Technology Action Plan

Goals: What do we want to accomplish as a campus?

According to our campus STaR Chart report, one of our goals is to improve teaching and learning by utilizing a variety of technology tools. Our second goal is to improve educator preparation and development.

Looking at my campus’ CIP, goal one focuses on accelerating TAKS gains for economically disadvantaged, African American, and Hispanic students to reduce the achievement gap. Action steps for this goal included: implementing technology curriculum requirements created by the Curriculum Council, implementing the Campus Technology Plan and utilizing new technology including webcams, flip-video, and wikis in grades 3-5. This is the only place on my campus’ CIP where technology is mentioned. After analyzing both my campus CIP and STaR chart, I feel it is necessary that as a campus, we include more technology goals into our CIP. All grade levels are not addressed in the CIP with regards to technology. It is important to focus more on technology as well if we want our campus to meet the needs of 21st century learners.

Based on research from the week three assignment, my main focus for this action plan is to help teachers implement technology into their lessons and make sure students are meeting grade level expectations in technology.

Organizational Chart – Who is responsible?
The following chart shows the responsibilities of all stakeholders who are accountable for integrating technology and instructional leadership. (The chart would not copy and paste from my word document)
Staff Development – How are we going to reach our goals?

The first step in meeting these goals is to provide training to all teachers on how to use the technology that is currently available on campus. Each grade level will receive half day training with the campus technology specialist. The goal for this training is to show teachers the grade level technology expectations chart and support teachers in developing technology lessons that meet these expectations. Teachers will be given the opportunity to work together as a team to experiment with the available technology. Throughout the year faculty meetings will be devoted to technology training updates. Teachers will be encouraged to collaborate with each other on what is or is not working in their classrooms. They will also be given the opportunity to share student work. During the summer, teachers will be encouraged to attend technology staff development offered by the district. Teachers who attend summer staff development will share their learning with the staff before school starts. Based on data collected from evaluations, future professional development sessions will focus on areas of improvement.

Evaluations – How do we know we have met our goals?

Developing evaluations is important because it provides information on all aspects of the programs that work well and any potential problems that might occur. They also determine what impact the program is having on its participants. Most importantly, the purpose of any evaluation should be continual program improvement. When using the results of an evaluation, an administrator can better understand how their programs are working and where it is headed. With all this data, they are better able to make decisions that will improve the programs in the long run. At my campus we do not participate in PDAS each year but instead focus on Appraisal by Collaboration (ABC). This is, in essence, our appraisal system. Each year teams develop a banner question to research and then share the results using qualitative and quantitative data. This year the entire campus has the research question, “How can using technology in the classroom improve student achievement?” This banner question is a great way of evaluating how teachers are doing with technology integration. The data collected can provide us with crucial information that we can use to make future decisions about technology. I think it is important for teachers and students to fill out the STaR chart survey each year. This is another evaluation tool that allows us to see how our campus is performing with regards to all four technology components. At the beginning of the year, teachers should also fill out a survey that shows how “comfortable” they feel with using technology in their classrooms. This information will help administrators choose appropriate staff development for their teachers. Of course teachers should evaluate staff development sessions they attend in order to help the district eliminate ineffective classes and enable them to improve upon others. I think it will also be important to develop a technology checklist and periodically do walk-throughs of all teachers’ classrooms to see how technology is being implemented in the classroom. Teachers who are having difficulty using the technology available or helping students reach grade level expectations in technology should be given the opportunity to attend more training. They would also receive assistance from the campus curriculum specialist.