Painted+Sky


 * 1st Semester Report

During the first semester, the technology plan was created and approved by the administration. Due to a very limited amount of time available, a short Smart Board presentation was done for the entire staff. During this presentation, the idea of increased rigor and relevance(Dagitt) was shared as something that we would like to adopt now that we have a significant percentage of classrooms with Smart Boards. After this presentation, an email was sent out to the staff asking for people who would like to form a Smart Board Cadre on site. I have a representation from each grade level who has asked to be on this team. We have not met yet, but are planning on meeting by the end of Januray to discuss our mission as a leadership team for Smart Board change.

In order to build capacity with Smart Board use, teachers have been identified at each grade level who have demonstrated through their usage to be proficient in using the boards. These people have been asked to deal with any questions that are Smart Board related before coming to me as the Tech Coach or Cathy as the Tech Specialist. One grade level in particular have started creating Smart Notebook Lessons as a team and sharing in the creation of the lessons. I have given them school acknowledgment at a staff meeting and hope that others will follow in their footsteps.

We have not done much in terms of focusing on 21 century skills as of yet. This is something that is a focus during the second semester as we discuss rigor and relevance in our cadre. Many of the teachers at Painted Sky already incorporate 21st century skills into our lessons, without really knowing that we do. One of the ideas that we want to bring up is what are we already doing well, and how can we continue to grow and challenge our students appropriately with ever changing technology.**

=End of the Year Report:= Our goal was to start implementing higher rigor/relevance and 21st century skills into our Smart Board lessons. As this was a very large, broad goal, we did not fully achieve the goal as this is something that we will be working on in stages. What we did accomplish was introducing the ideas of rigor/relevance into our teaching habits. We did this through informal presentations at staff meetings and Curriculum Mapper trainings. In order to start building capacity and strength on campus in terms of knowledge of rigor/relevance, I was able to assemble a small group of teachers who are tech savvy at their grade level. This group of people have shown interest and strength in implementing technology into their teaching. We were only able to meet at a virtual level through email discussions and very informal meetings at lunch, etc. The impact this year was small, but will be the foundation to creating a stronger base of learning for next school year as we continue.
 * Implementing your Technology Professional Development Plan**

Building capacity at Painted Sky has been fun and interesting. Again, I have gathered a small group of teachers who are tech savvy enough to be a "front line" for struggling teachers. These teachers are the go to people before they come to Cathy or I for help. We have set up a share folder set up on the server where teachers are being encouraged to save specific lessons and activities as they are creating them. Because of this, I have heard many discussions on staff between teachers who are planning and creating in a more effective manner. Smart Notebook Lesson are being created and shared among all grade levels on staff. In terms of level of competence, we are seeing more competent teachers overall at our site. Computers are being used in all classrooms and in both lab settings. Teachers are teaching their students to be creative users of Office Suite, Smart Board Software, Effective decoders of internet information, among other things.
 * Building Capacity**

I believe that at Painted Sky we are effectively teaching and assessing most of the 21st century skills. We are definetely hitting on the core content by teaching standards driven lessons daily. We have really done well with the learning and innovation skills. We are teaching creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration in each grade level. Students are making projects and creating electronic forms of learning through PowerPoint, Notebook, Word, Publisher, etc. I think that one of the things that we could work on better is communication and media literacy. It would be great to be able to tap into all the resources that we have surrounding us in the Tucson area and help students make more relevant connections to their learning and the outside world. Media Literacy is always something that we need to work on to ensure that we are all working ethically and legally in our work with students and each other!
 * Incorporating 21st Century Learning Skills and Tools**

My professional development impacted student learning greatly. Everything that was done on site was done in order to impact student learning and increase usage of 21st century skills and higher rigor/relevance. The teacher who took part in our discussions have dedicated themselves to going back to their classrooms to implement some of the material that was discussed/will be discussed next year. Each of the in services that was taught was taught at a variety of levels. For example, the web page in service that I taught at the end of the year for next year, I tapped into other experienced webedit users and had them take part of the group and teach some higher level content. I worked with the beginning users to create a basic page. At the end of the year, I have seen many teaching teams planning and implementing smart board lessons, to the point that we are having to contact Technology more frequently to have server space increased for many teachers! :) Also, each teacher on staff now has a web page that will be updated weekly next year with current information and expectation of each classroom. Students are being impacted greatly at Painted Sky!
 * Evaluating Effectiveness**