Ashley Fleming

Minors Lane Elementary

TECHNOLOGY PLAN TEMPLATE Description of district/schools technology policies:

The policy is directly adopted by Minors Lane. Privileges to use technology can be revoked at any time. We emphasize that use is a privilege, not a right. It also is clear that there is no private use - everything is subject to be monitored. It even reiterates that certain uses are felonies.

Ashley Fleming

Minors Lane Elementary

Analysis of Classroom:
o Student Populations and socio-economic status/factors
Minors Lane Elementary is a very unique school. It is small with only 405 students. We have 25 teachers. There are students ranging from Early Childhood (PreK) to 5th grade. There are two low-incidence self-contained special education units. One is comprised of students with autism, the other focuses on students with functional mental disabilities or multiple disabilities. Many of these students use alternative means of communication. Some are wheelchair-bound. Many use several pieces of adapted technology. Our school is 91.5% free/reduced lunch. Poverty causes many problems including trouble with the digital divide. Our school is also very diverse. Our largest population is our Hispanic population with 41% of our students. 31% of our students are white, while 26% of our students are African American. We have the second largest elementary ESL population in the district. Most speak Spanish, Arabic, or Somali. We also have the highest mobility index of any K12 school in the district. This is a difficult issue in that many of our students come and go during the school year. Parent support is also very low. We have no real community around us UPS and the airport bought all homes and tore them down. They also sold the lumber from the trees. We pull mainly from two mobile home parks and several satellites across the district. We have a principal, an assistant principal and a school counselor.

o Pros and cons of technology resources

o Building up or technology is one of our focuses as a school. As of this year, we have installed a Smart Board in most of our homeroom classrooms. This comes with a projector and speaker system. Each of our teachers has been provided a tablet laptop. Each classroom also has at least 3 desktop computers. These do access the internet. The lack of a Smart Board for every classroom has caused issues in our school. From year to year, teachers are sometimes moved. Some teachers end up in classrooms that have a Smart Board and they do not use it, while at other times teachers end up in rooms without them and they really wish they had one. The special area teachers have also not received them and this has caused somewhat hard feelings. Not all classroom speakers work teachers have remedied this by buying their own sets of speakers. Many of the teacher tablets are getting old and not functioning properly. Having a projector/Smart Board allows teachers to implement amazing media and technology lessons with their students. It also allows

Ashley Fleming

Minors Lane Elementary

students to have the technology in their hands. Our school also has consistently been updating its wireless capabilities, but it is still sketchy. There are many dead spots (including my office). The internet will also occasionally go out which can be very frustrating when teaching. Printing is also in need of an update in our building. There is a library printer and five other LaserJet printers in the building. All other printers are inkjet and are purchased by teachers themselves.

o Computer Lab Our school also has one computer lab with 30 computers in it. The teacher teaches mainly typing and Microsoft Office. These are great skills to have, but really limits the scope of what students could be learning and doing with technology. In addition to typing they learn how to use Word and Excel. The class also discusses internet safety. Our computer class could use an update.

o I-pads Through a partnership with GE, each of our teachers was given an iPad for personal use. Sadly most are not used for instructional purposes. Most teachers simply use them to surf the net, take notes, or as their own personal iPad. The school also purchased a set of six iPads that can be checked out from the library for projects. To my knowledge, these have never been checked out. This is an opportunity to create a great technology center in a classroom and to have students use more technology. The sad thing is that the principal was considering buying classroom sets if they were used.

Ashley Fleming

Minors Lane Elementary

o Adaptive/assistive hardware and software that assist students with special needs
o As the Admissions and Release Committee Chairperson for our school, this is an area I would really love to see us improve in. We have students with special needs that could greatly benefit from more use of technology. There is so much out there! Our ECE teachers at Minors Lane are not used to working with much technology, so it isnt incorporated nearly as much as it should be. I have invited the district special needs technology liaison to come and work with us. He is attempting to come before the year is out. In addition to the technology listed above, provided by the school, our special needs teachers can go to the ECE Technology Resource Center at Churchill Park to check out additional pieces of adapted technology. The only pieces checked out by our teachers at this time are a few Alpha smarts for word processing. Each ECE teacher was also provided two mini laptops. Most use these to have their students work on Successmaker or Study Island. Our two low-incidence classrooms use a little more technology, but still not nearly enough. Our autism and FMD/MD classroom use touchscreen computers that are on arms that lower to students levels. They also use iPads with communication applications and learning games. They use big switches, a rollerball mouse, and enlarged keyboards. One of our students uses a TechSpeak to communicate. I am currently encouraging teachers to use Read Write Gold, a text reader and predictive writing software that the district provides to all district computers. Our low incidence teachers use Edmark for literacy and News 2 You for Social Studies lessons. This may sound like a lot, but for our most needy students, there are so many more options. This is an area I really plan on pushing with the advent of my technology license.

Ashley Fleming

Minors Lane Elementary

o Technology resources that affirm diversity and address cultural and language differences
o This is another area that my school could really grow in. This is the third year that my school has been an ESL school servicing students with a limited English proficiency. This means that we house two ESL teachers. They work collaboratively with our teachers and pull small groups. Both were new last year. We also have two bilinguals that work with our students. One speaks Spanish and the other speaks Arabic. These two bilinguals do most of the translating in our building. You simply forward them a Word document and they translate it. However, this takes a lot of time. I have currently been working to implement changes in translation. Our district pays for TransAct (http://www.transact.com). This company provides many translated forms directly to us. For example we can get parent conference forms, field trip permission slips, guidance permission slips, and behavioral referrals from them in dozens of languages. I have also been working with teachers to use Google Translate. I will share a word of caution. Our bilingual says that the translations are not always correct (one was even a little offensive!). Our ESL teachers are very new, but a trying to learn more technology to use to support our students. They have a SmartBoard and projector in their room and use a lot of multimedia. They also have computers that they use mainly for Successmaker Discover English. Here is a list of resources that we currently use. Successmaker Discover English http://www.transact.com - for translation http://www.translate.google.com for translation http://www.colorincolorado.org Great activity bank and resources. http://www.eslcafe.com Another great activity bank and resources.

Ashley Fleming

Minors Lane Elementary http://www.eslpartyland.com - Fun site with activities and resources. http://www.usingenglish.com Great for parts of speech, grammar, and usage.

Discover English

Google Translate

www.Colorincolorado.org

www.transact.com

www.eslcafe.com

o School or classroom management strategies

o The computer lab is taught as a special area class for the majority of the day. Students are brought to the lab at the designated time by their homeroom teacher. If the class has an assistant the classroom assistant stays for the computer class. The students are lined up outside the door and when the computer teacher is ready he allows them to come in and sit at their assigned computer and seat. Our district provides AB tutor for monitoring students on the computer and to use as a teaching tool, but our computer teacher does not use it. Once the students are seated the lesson begins. The computer teacher has them log in to the computer. There are headphones if sound is needed. At this time, laptops, iPad sets, and clickers are not being used by our classes. If a computer is vandalized. The staff conducts an investigation. Parents are charged for the equipment and students rights are revoked.

Ashley Fleming o

Minors Lane Elementary

There are two hours during the day that the computer lab is not scheduled to have a class in it for special areas. During this time the computer teacher serves as the STC for our building and works on technology issues. This would be a perfect time for classes to schedule to come and use the lab for research, lessons that require a computer for each student, and for access to software. This was the idea, but at this time no teacher has utilized it. The computer teacher is very guarded about this time and who can be in the lab without his presence. This is something I am going to work on for the upcoming year. A simple sign-up sheet or schedule rotation for this time would provide access and equitability. Teaching teachers to use AB tutor would allow lessons to be taught and for security to be kept. The rules are for the most part similar to any other classrooms: 1. Show respect. 2. Follow directions 3. Stay in your area. 4. Raise your hand. Some additional rules are as follows, students are to always sit in their assigned computer seat. This is for security purposes and to help with which student does what on the computer. Students cannot log on until they are told to. Students must also memorize their passwords and log in. Students can only navigate to the program or site being addressed. Students can only print after their work has been checked. The computer teacher demonstrates an activity on the projector and the students then repeat it. Typing drills are also used. I really believe that a program such as AB Tutor would greatly help in teaching students to use the computer more efficiently.

o Wide area networks (WAN) for school districts

o It is a real hassle. Luckily, our district is large enough that it is mostly setup and maintained by outside staff. We just had a recent wireless upgrade and outside staff completed it. Our school technology coordinator (computer teacher) troubleshoots the network and puts work orders in for when things are not working. He also keeps inventory and orders more equipment as needed. As stated before, our wireless is still sketchy in places (including my office). Our STC is currently working with the district to remedy these issues. Our technology is maintained by several different entities and people. Our district pushes down large updates and program installs for things like updating windows, installing district wide initiatives, etc. We then have a technology department (MIS/CES) that maintains large problems that our local school technology coordinator (STC) cannot fix or needs help with. They also handle installing and maintaining the network. Our computer teacher handles setting up building level more simple tasks such as setting up a new computer, setting up a printer, or working on a frozen computer. The teacher themselves are the administrator for their computers and can download software accordingly. The STC/computer teacher also works to keep an inventory on all technology in the building. He also places orders for new technology.

Ashley Fleming

Minors Lane Elementary

o Analysis of Needs
o There are several needs that we desperately need to address. First and foremost, we need to get additional training for our staff to get them to make use of the technology that we already have. Our STC has not done an in-service or training since I have been at the school. The only technology trainings are the screencasts that I myself send out to the staff that I have sent since I began this technology licensure program. It has been well received, but is not enough. There is so much technology out there that our students could be learning from and with. I firmly believe our teachers would use it, if someone would just teach them how to implement it. This spans form learning new Web tools, sites, and tech, but also just simply using what is sitting in closets and desks. It is sad that we have iPads not being used, a lab that sits empty at times, and software that students have not been taught to use. I would like to see an in-service on using iPads in the classroom. I would like to see an in-service on great ways to incorporate a Smart Board; I would even like to see trainings on up-to-date Web 2.0 tools. I would particularly like to see this implemented with our ECE and ESL teachers. There is technology that can truly give our special needs learners and ESL learners a better life we have to get this happening! We should contact district support staff to help build these skills. We also need to get our principal to lean on the district special needs technology liaison to get them in our building assessing students. Second, I would like our school to invest more funds into building technology. I would like to see us complete every room with a Smartboard and projector. We need to complete the wireless upgrade to cover the whole building. Even the cafeteria is used for assemblies and as a work area when not being used. We also need more Laserjet printers that the students also have access to. After all, the point of all of this is to get the technology into their hands and show them how it can make their lives better. I would also like to see us purchase some more resources. I came from a school that had invested a lot into technology. I am missing several bits of key tools. I would love us to purchase several document cameras. They are a critical teaching tool. I would like us to purchase sets of classroom clickers. They work great for data collection and as a fun, engaging tool. I would also love to purchase a laptop class set and laptop cart. At my previous school, you could check out a cart and have computers for your whole class. It was phenomenal. Thirdly, I would like to see the way the computer lab is run be updated. I believe a schedule or signup sheet for lab time would be highly beneficial to our students. I would also like to see AB tutors use taught to the teachers for safety reasons.

Ashley Fleming o

Minors Lane Elementary

With these updates, I believe we could successfully further our students learning and digital citizenship.