5352 Action Plan

EDLD 5352 Week 4 Action Plan

School Technology and Readiness: STaR Chart

School Technology and Readiness: STaR Chart

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National Education Technology Plan

The Executive Summary states that the Obama administration has made education a serious priority by establishing two goals to be met by 2020. We have a need to increase the number of people with a two or four year degree from 39% to 60%. We also need to close the learning gap regardless of race, income, or neighborhood of our students. By meeting these goals, we will benefit from higher earnings, and being able to work more collaboratively with those across borders and cultures to solve our timely challenges. The five goals are recommendations for states, districts and federal government and other stakeholders and these include: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure and productivity.

The 21st Century Model of Learning Powered by Technology responds to learning that is engaging and empowering learning experiences for all of our students. Our students are surrounded by technology opportunities 24/7 and as educators; we need to use their interest to create engaging and relevant experiences. We must begin to empower our students to take control over how, when and where they learn. When our students are learning about their interests, that learning becomes more relevant, inspiring and motivating for us all. Personalized and differentiated instruction is much more possible for our students with the use of technology/instructional resources. We would also have more resources for students to work with others on projects based on real-world questions. Students will manage their own portfolios, set personal achievement goals by understanding their strengths and weaknesses.

This technology model will require teachers to be more connected to one another more than ever before. Connected teaching puts teachers, students, and professionals from a variety of professions, and parents create situations where all stakeholders can learn from others no matter the hour. Teachers are building on-line learning that encourages collaboration and the access to a multitude of resources and others' experiences.

While reading this model for learning driven by technology, my concern became that a majority of our students are not empowered to learn on their own. How do we instill that intrinsic motivation in our students? As our teaching changes to become more personalized, our assessments will also evolve. Our teachers slowly understand the benefits of collaborative teaching, but we have much more to learn from each other.

Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology

The Long-Range Plan is a very proactive plan for implementing technology into Texas Schools. I think the premise of the plan is great but I think the actual implementation is going to be difficult for many school districts. The Progress Report offers a wealth of information on the progress of the Long-Range Plan for Technology. As an instructional leader I think that it is a great outline to use to help implement technology in my district. We are a very progressive district and are already on track with our technology usage. I think the Plan will help with integration among teacher because it will show teachers the outline of what we are following. I think teachers are more apt to come on board if they see the big picture and see what is going to be accomplished. Many teachers get bogged down in the "new initiative" idea and won't "buy in." I think seeing the Long-Range Plan will allow teachers to see that this is not just a new idea we are doing for a few years and then it will go away. As an instructional leader I should be leading the way in implementing technology practices in my classroom and in my professional development sessions as well as in my professional learning communities. If other teachers are able to see my successes with technology they will be more willing to be a part of technology. In order to reach our goals for the advancement in the Long-Range Technology Plan, we must help teachers incorporate new technology effectively.

Texas STaR Chart

Infrastructure for Technology is part of the Texas Long-Range Plan as well as the Texas STaR chart for public schools. The infrastructure of a school is the critical element of support for all four areas of the Texas Long-Range Plan. The infrastructure always access to broadband resources 24/7, technical assistance for students and teachers, ensures all data is secure and accurate and support interoperability and accessibility for users.

My district has remained constant in this area for the last three school years, 2006-2009. In the 2006-2007 school year we needed improvement in the distance learning capacity field and this continued through the 2007-2008 school year and finally made progress in the 2008-2009 school year. In the 2008-2009 school year we fell in the Internet Access and LAN network area. I think this was in part to the roll out of the notebooks for all high school students and our technology department has already made improvements in this area. The one area that has stayed low is the students per computers area. This will be coming up in the next couple of years with the roll out of notebooks this year for the high school students and next year for all middle school students. When you look at my district compared to the state data we are still in the advanced tech are which is where more districts are moving towards since 2006. There is still room for us to move up to the target tech which is what we are shooting for.

My recommendation for the school district is to have no internet access problems or LAN access problems once the middle school students have their notebooks. I think that most of the issues have been resolved since the high school notebooks were rolled out and they have a better foresight as to what can happen and are making preparation for that.

Action Research Plan

Does Math Navigator have the same impact on student growth for special education students vs. general education SSI math students?

GOAL: The goal of the action research plan is for improved student performance in math as a result of the implementation of Math Navigator. General education and special education students will be the stakeholders who potentially benefit from the implementation of the Math Navigator Program.

Action Research Texas Style

After watching the videos from the scholars from various districts in Texas, I was glad to see the great data driven research that is taking part in our state. My district is very motivated by this and it's great to see that is happening across the state. Action research only leads to postive change and improvements for our students.