|
Proposal |
Justification |
Implementation |
Timeline |
Budget |
Budget Justification |
|
Personnel |
Evaluation |
Supplies |
Equipment |
Conclusion |
References |
Proposal
Abstract – Technology availability and ability is growing
rapidly. There are more resources available
than ever before for making schools technologically advanced. The School
Improvement Plan and the District Technology Plan have one common thread – they
both want parents and the community to be more involved in education. In order to accomplish that goal, there are
many things that need to happen. Many
schools in the district have started programs to encourage parents to volunteer
at the school building. However, most
parents cannot make that time available during the school hours. There needs to be another way to get parents
and the community involved. The purpose
of this proposal is to provide teachers with technology training, award each
classroom with one new computer with printer and scanner for student use, and
allow the parents and community to get involved in the schools via
Internet. This plan will work to its
fullest potential as all school staff, administration, and community get
involved.
Funding
Source – Local district funds
Justification
The Go Internet Plan (GIP) will allow the parents and community to be
involved in education. There are many
professional parents who work during the day and are unable to participate in
their child’s school activities. The GIP
will bridge that gap! An additional
benefit will be for the students to learn specific computer programs and basic
knowledge of web pages. The computers
can and will also be used to reach other goals included in the District
Technology Plan.
Currently, each classroom has one to three computers that are each
outdated. The computers are primarily
for teacher use. Teachers rarely use the
computers for anything but to type a monthly letter home to parents and print
out a worksheet or two for the students to complete. Every classroom has internet access, but is
not used as designed. Parents are
concerned that they are not able to be a part of their child’s education
because of their strenuous work schedule.
They want to be more involved but are not sure how. The parents seem to be interested in knowing
exactly what their child is learning that week and what homework they should be
bringing home with them. They want to
know how to help their child at home.
Edutopia states, “Reach out to parents through increased communication
via mail and email”(p.120). As the
typical parent in this area is single and/or working at least forty hours per
week, the only way to be involved is by doing something at home. This particular area of working parents have
access to the internet daily through work and/or home. A survey, which was given in September 2003
proved the desires of the parents in the community to be involved through the
internet. The survey results showed 28
out of 32 felt the internet was a beneficial way to be involved with their
child’s education. Thirty-one out of thirty-two
stated they have internet access daily through work, home, or an alternative
place. “[Parents] wanted technology and
computers available beyond school hours, both for their children and
themselves.”(Edutopia p.128)
GIP is a three-year roll-out plan that
will eventually provide the school with one new computer for each first,
second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classroom. There are two classrooms for each grade
level. The reason this is such an
important plan is because it will allow the school, district, and state
technology plans to reach their goals and get the parents involved in their
child’s education.
- Engage the public, community,
and parents in improving student performance.
- Use interactive applications
of technology to promote more active involvement and engagement of students in
their learning.
- Provide on-going training for
educators to become skilled in using technology for engaged learning.
- The competent teacher will apply
tools for enhancing personal professional growth and productivity; will use
technology in communicating, collaborating, conducting research, and solving
problems and will promote equitable, ethical, and legal use of
computer/technology resources.
Goals of GIP
1. Each teacher will be able to create web pages.
2. Each student will be able to create web pages and/or
add to a web page.
3. Each teacher and student will be familiar with
navigating through web pages.
4. Parents will be more involved on a daily basis through
the internet.
5. The School Improvement Plan and District Technology
Plan will meet goals through GIP.
6. Each 1st through 6th grade
classroom will receive one new computer with printer and scanner.
7. GIP will gap the communication barrier between
community and education.
Implementation
Year
#1 - The first and fourth grade
classrooms will each receive one brand new computer. The first and fourth grade teachers will be
trained during the school day at two conferences, one during the third week of
school and the other during the sixth week of school. A substitute teacher will be provided for
each training session. Each conference
will be 6.5 hours per day with the conference length being one day. The teachers will create a classroom webpage
and learn how to operate the basic functions of a computer. That training will allow them to go back to
their classrooms with a complete working webpage. They will also be able to teach the students
how to add to and have a part of the web page.
Teachers will be able to post homework assignments, lesson plans, tips
for parents, extra practice worksheets, and any important information that
parents are interested in. The students
will be able to scan some of their exemplary assignments to post on the web
pages for parents to view. The computer
teacher will attend the first two conferences as well. However, the computer teacher will be
required to attend at least three hours of technology training per month
throughout the entire school year.
Computer teachers in this district are full time but are officially
teacher assistants. They have not been
trained to teach anything using a computer.
They were only hired to manage the room.
The particular computer teacher at this school is excited about learning
more, but is only able to teach the basics of how to save, edit, and print
currently. Training the computer teacher
how to troubleshoot, navigate the internet, create web pages, and maintain a
computer lab is vital. This teacher will
be able to provide answers as the classroom teachers have questions. At the end of the first year, the first and
fourth grade teachers, as well as the computer teacher will meet to reflect on
the past year’s technology growth. This
will be a time to share creative ideas and learn from each other. They will set goals for the following year
and document ideas for improvement of the program.
Year
#2 – The second and fifth grade
classrooms will each receive one brand new computer with printer and scanner
and follow the same conference schedule as the previous year’s first and fourth
grade teachers. This will be the second
year of this program so the students will already have a very good idea of how
to create a web page. The computer
teacher will not need to attend these two conferences, assuming that teacher is
the same teacher from the previous year.
During the second year, the computer teacher will be required to attend
at least fifteen hours of training throughout the year. At the end of the second year, the first,
second, fourth, and fifth grade teachers will meet to reflect on the past two
years’ technology growth. They will set
goals for the following year and document ideas for improvement of the program.
Year
#3 – The third and sixth grade
classrooms will each receive one brand new computer with printer and scanner
and follow the same conference schedule as the previous year’s second and fifth
grade teachers. This will be the third
year of this program so the students will already have a very good idea of how
to create web pages. The computer
teacher will be required to attend at least fifteen hours of training
throughout the year. At the end of the
third year, all of the first through sixth grade teachers will meet to reflect
on the past two years’ technology growth.
They will set goals for the following year and document ideas for
improvement of the program. They will
then choose a technology team of three classroom teachers and the computer
teacher. This tech team will be the only
ones to actually go to technology conferences and workshops. They will be the team that continues training
the teachers in the building each year to give them the updated information.
Timeline
First
year – AUGUST 25th >1st
grade and 4th grade classrooms receive computers
SEPTEMBER 15th >1st
and 4th teachers, and computer teacher attend 1st
training conference
OCTOBER 7th >
both 1st grade teachers, both 4th grade teachers, and the
computer teacher attend their 2nd
training
conference
LAST WEEK OF EACH MONTH
(during the school year) > the
computer teacher attends at least 3 hours of
additional
training each month
MAY 15th > the 1st grade and 4th grade teachers meet with
the computer teacher to evaluate the first year of
the
program
Second
year - AUGUST 25th >2nd
grade and 5th grade classrooms receive computers
SEPTEMBER 15th >2nd
and 5th teachers, and computer teacher attend 1st
training conference
OCTOBER 7th >
both 2nd grade teachers, both 5th grade teachers, and the
computer teacher attend their 2nd
training
conference
LAST WEEK OF EACH MONTH
(during the school year) > the
computer teacher attends at least 3 hours of
additional
training each month
MAY 15th > the 1st grade, 2nd grade, 4th grade,
and 5th grade teachers meet with the computer teacher to
evaluate
the first two years of the program
Third
year - AUGUST 25th >3rd
grade and 6th grade classrooms receive computers
SEPTEMBER 15th >3rd
and 6th teachers, and computer teacher attend 1st training
conference
OCTOBER 7th >
both 3rd grade teachers, both 6th grade teachers, and the
computer teacher attend their 2nd
training
conference
LAST WEEK OF EACH MONTH
(during the school year) > the computer
teacher attends at least 3 hours of
additional
training each month
MAY 15th > the 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade,
4th grade, 5th grade, and 6th grade teachers
meet with the
Computer
teacher to evaluate the three years of the program
Budget
|
Computers |
4 classrooms per year x 1
computer each = 4 per year 4 computers x 3 years
= 12 computers total |
$9,600 |
|
Computer Teacher |
40 hours for first year + 15
hours for second and third year each = 70 hours total training |
$1,000 |
|
Conferences |
13 hours per teacher x 4
teachers = 52 hours per year 52 hours per year x 3 years
= 156 hours total training |
$2,500 |
|
Substitute Teachers |
4 substitutes x 2 days each
= 8 days 8 days x $75 = $600 |
$600 |
|
Printer/Scanner Combo |
4 classrooms per year x 1
printer combo each = 4 per year 4 printer combos x 3 years
= 12 printer combos total |
$1,800 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL |
$15,500 |
Budget Justification
Personnel
Every classroom teacher and the computer teacher will all be a part of
this program in order for it to succeed.
They show their desire for a change like this during meetings. The teachers and staff feel we need to make a
technological change. Each teacher will
attend a total of two conferences the year that it rolls out into their grade
level. It is important for every teacher
to attend the two conferences, even after the program has been working for two
years. The reason for this is the
conferences will be changing and updating, just as technology will be changing
and updating. If only a few teachers
were trained and then passed along what they learned the next two years, the
training would be outdated by the end of the three years.
Equipment
The equipment needed for this plan includes one new computer with
printer and scanner for each classroom.
There are twelve 1st through 6th grade classrooms,
each receiving one new computer with printer combination. On the average, each classroom currently has
one to three computers that are at least six years old and are outdated. Therefore, they will each need a new computer
with printer and scanner. The scanners
will be used to add pictures to the web pages.
Supplies
No additional supplies will be needed outside of the regular allotted
school budget.
Evaluation
The success of this program will be evaluated a few different
ways.
- The first way is with a survey
that the school staff, parents, and students will complete at the end of each
year. As Boschee suggests, “Education
leaders must expand traditional school boundaries to involve the community in
planning, financing, implementing, and evaluating technology.” (p.15) This survey will include questions such
as:
Do you feel this program has met its goals?
What are some changes you would like to see in the next three years?
Are you satisfied with the program or do you see room for improvement?
What are your favorite aspects of GIP?
Do you feel the program should continue in your school?
Do you feel this program should roll out to other schools in your
district?
- The second way is for the
technology team to evaluate the School Improvement Plan and District Technology
Plan to see if this program truly satisfied each. In their evaluation, they will evaluate
whether or not the goals have been met.
If they have not been met, the team will discuss ways to improve in
order to meet the original goals. If the
original goals have been met, the team will create new goals for the future.
- The final way to evaluate GIP
is for the community to gather at the end of each year for a presentation of
the program’s success. Each classroom
will present their web pages and students will show how much they have learned
to the community. They will demonstrate
how to navigate through a web page and the internet in general.
Conclusion
GIP hopes to turn around the lack of technology use. After its success in this one building, it is
designed to roll out into other buildings within the district, state, and
nation. “In many districts, parents and
community members are now communicating with teachers in their classrooms via
email, school hotlines, and interactive web pages” (Planning for Technology p.14). The constantly changing technological society
will work well with GIP. The future is
bright for the GIP because if its funding is there next year or any year after
that, it will still be effective and needed.
The schools in this area are so far behind technologically, GIP will be
a valuable program in the years to come.
“It may not always be profitable at first
for businesses to be online, but it is certainly going to be unprofitable not
to be online.” – Esther Dyson.
Schools need to keep up with society technologically to educate the future
businessmen and women in this world.
References
1. Armstrong, Sara, and Milton Chen, eds. Edutopia:
Success for Learning in the Digital Age. The George Lucas
Educational Foundation.
2. Boschee, Floyd,
3. District Technology Plan http://www.dps61.org/technology.htm
4. School Improvement
Plan http://www.dps61.org/schools/enterprise/mission.htm
5. Illinois
Technology Standards http://www.isbe.state.il.us/profprep/CASCDvr/pdfs/24120_coretechnology.pdf
6. Esther
Dyson Quote http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/estherdyso100355.html