Action Plan

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT/ ACTION PLAN
After analyzing the information from three consecutive years of STaR chart data, I have noticed deficits in the area of “Teaching and Learning.” Within that category, there are three focus areas that have remained stagnant over the three year study: Patterns of Classroom Use, Content Area Connections, and Technology Applications (TA) TEKS Implementation. Based on this data, I believe the focus of improvement needs to be on students solving real-world problems through the use of technology in the classroom. Teachers can monitor student progress through programs like Pearson Inform and the use of Compass Learning or Examview. These regular checks of student progress will give a clearer picture of the expected achievement of students as reported in AEIS and AYP data from TAKS results.
The first effort in the action plan will be in establishing a campus technology leadership team that will analyze data to create and support a vision for campus technology improvement. The members of this team should include campus administration (principal, assistant principal, counselor), technology facilitator, and representatives from each grade level and support area in order to establish a vertical team that includes all aspects of our campus. The team should begin a PDSA in order to determine campus needs and create a survey through a service like “Survey Monkey” to be distributed to all campus staff. The results from this survey will expose the awareness level of the need for improvement as well as desires for specific areas of need. After rating the results, the committee should determine the 3 greatest areas of need and make a professional development plan for each area for required staff development sessions throughout the year.
One of the most crucial areas that should be addressed is the knowledge of the actual Technology Applications TEKS. This could be done through capacity matrices of the requirements at each grade level. Teachers should complete these matrices with the help of the technology facilitator to determine the greatest area of need for each grade level. The technology team should then determine the professional development opportunities based on this data. The needs may be different for each grade level, so there should be professional development set up during grade level conference periods as well as general sessions after school for wide spread learning opportunities. This group training offers opportunities for collaboration and mentoring from peers. The use of learning from these trainings can be documented through the collection of lesson plans and collaborative team agendas. Training is also available through our Region 13 Distance Learning resources and PD360, a web-based professional development tool. The technology team should participate in a variety of these trainings in advance in order to support their team members throughout the year. The principal must allocate time and funds needed to allow the technology team to participate in these trainings.
Next, the campus professional development should include specific content area usage that teachers would be able to incorporate into their classes such as the “clicker” system (Classroom Performance System). The training should include hands-on application with the teachers, and might include training with the students with the assistance of the technology facilitator. They could use this CPS system to question the student’s knowledge about Science, Social Studies, Math, or Language Arts in order to observe the content area connections. Also, the technology facilitator and instruction coach should demonstrate how the district’s curriculum documents have technology embedded into the lesson plans and assistance should be continued throughout the year as the units of study change each nine weeks.
The assessment of this professional development could be in the collection of teacher lesson plans or viewing lesson plans through the electronic website “Eduphoria,” a new web-based lesson planning program to our district. The principal’s role is to allot time in the day for this collaboration and planning among teams to ensure that teachers are planning for and using the tools they are learning. Another assessment of patterns of classroom use would be through the campus Snapshot data. Administrators in our building perform two-minute walk throughs in each teacher’s classroom. They are documenting specific areas such as learner engagement, TEKS based teaching, higher level questioning, use of high yield strategies and technology usage. The data is compiled by grade level and campus level and can be used to document efforts made by teachers and analyze the patterns of classroom use of technology.
An important task of the technology team is to uphold the vision of the use of technology. The team must demonstrate its commitment to technology by modeling the use of technology. The administrative team must convey the need for improvement by making requests for the usage of technology and then following through with the expectations for that usage. One way for the administration to do that is to incorporate a technology component to the teacher’s portfolio. By establishing expectations at the beginning of the year, teachers can work on improvement throughout the year. They can document usage and responses to usage and still have time to make changes and try again. The goal for our campus technology improvement is that, improvement.