Running head: Shared Vision and Rational

Shared Vision and Rational

Sharon Ferguson

ITEC 7410

Fall 2017

Dr. Julia Fuller

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Vision Statement

This vision statement addresses education stakeholders, including teachers and support staff,

school administrators, teacher educators, students, parents, and the community.

At Findley Oaks Elementary we strive to educate and inspire all students to achieve to the best of his

or her ability, help students learn to make good decisions, and prepare them to be college and career

ready. Presently, in today’s global society, Findley Oaks inspires to provide their students with the best

practices of education available to meet the needs of their 21st Century learners. Findley Oaks strives

to create authentic learning experiences for their students that provide excitement and spark curiosity

through personalized and project based learning. Findley Oaks is committed to providing their

educators with continuous ongoing professional development, guidance, and support to move toward

successful tech integration.

After reviewing the International Society for Technology Standards for Administrators, I have

selected three elements that match Findley Oaks three to five-year vision plan.

 Inspire and lead development and implementation for comprehensive integration of technology
to promote excellence and support transformation throughout the organization.
 Provide learner-centered environments equipped with technology and learning resources to
meet the individual, diverse needs of all learners.
 Ensure effective practice in the study of technology and its infusion across the curriculum.

Rationale

Observation, interviews, and surveys were used to collect the data used to develop this shared

vision. Contributing stakeholders included school administrators, teacher and support staff.

Surveys were sent out to the classroom teachers, then reviewed by the school’s KSU ITeach Coach

and Vanguard Team (School Technology Team). We discussed with each other the aspects of the

school’s vision and effectiveness, and then took a look at the data we collected. It was concluded

that, only some of the teachers felt comfortable using technology in their classroom and that more
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professional development was needed. Successful technology integrated schools have technology

coaches that are dedicated to the shared vision of the school and inspire and participate in the

development and implementation of that shared vision. (Crompton, 2015). At Findley Oaks, our

technology team works with the county professional development team, the School Vanguard

Team, and the school’s KSU ITeach coach to address the needs of our teachers and create, develop,

and implement teacher and support staff trainings accordingly. When following these guidelines

there is a comprehensive integration of technology provided to promote excellence and support

transformational change throughout the instructional environment (Crompton, 2015).

It was agreed by all that by giving students the opportunity to collaborate and conduct research

online, complete and store their work in their online Office 365 accounts, and be given the chance to

share and reflect online to an outside audience created a higher level of student engagement and

achievement. By offering these choices to our students it will help students develop tenacity,

curiosity, passion and independence as evidenced by both teacher, student and parent feedback

(Allen, S., Bryant, K., & McManus, M., 2017).

Teacher interview questions revealed some other ways that teachers would like to see technology

used in the classroom. Some of those other ways are as follows: Learning to use technology to

differentiate/vary instruction, create independent learning stations that offer choice and voice, and

learning through discovery in the way of Project Based Learning. Edutopia, published an article titled

Why Teach with Project-Based Learning?: Providing Students with a Well-Rounded Classroom

Experience. The article stated that project based learning gives students a chance to explore real

world problems integrating cross curriculum standards while working in collaborative groups.

Because of the interest and engagement level of the students, their learning takes on a deeper

understanding and the retention rate of what they have learned is greater (Why Teach with Project-
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Based Learning? 2017). Students learn through self-direction, group and independent work.

Organizational, research, and communication skills are also improved. Technology is integrated

when the students demonstrate their understanding and findings in a final presentation/project.

Some of the ways that we are going to address the professional development/technology training at our

school are as follows:

The introduction of Technology Integration Ideas for the first Professional Development.

The Tech Tools Integration Ideas was divided into four categories: Communication, Lesson Building

Platforms, Student Project Presentations, and Formative Assessment Tools. By using Blendspace,

and/or others lesson planning tools, they were able to create personalized learning lessons for their

students that adapt to student’s abilities, needs, and learning styles.

Student, show me what you know presentation choices will be another ongoing professional

development that helps teachers and students learn different ways to create presentations.

Student Presentation Link

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Findley Oaks created/set up a Teacher Tech Challenge to help motivate teachers and offer more support

with the implementation of technology into their classrooms. We divided the teachers into four teams;

the teams will work together with the support of the school’s Vanguard Team to accomplish the items

on the challenge grid. At the end of the year the team with the most points will win a price. Here is

the link to the challenge.

Diversity Considerations

Findley Oaks elementary is inserted inside a moderately large subdivision in Johns Creek,

GA. It is a Pre-kindergarten through 5th grade public elementary school within Fulton County

Schools District. Our stakeholders work hard in our schools Professional Learning Community to

ensure that our staff is trained and implementing technology into the classroom to its fullest potential.

Findley Oaks provides many supportive services on a daily basis such as an Early Intervention

Program, RTI services, as well as integrating a STEM lab for the students that attend. Fortunately, a

majority of the learners that attend Findley Oaks come from well-established, supportive homes. The

school also has a well-established PTA. Parents are involved and are present in the school on a daily

basis. Findley Oaks was awarded the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement Platinum Award in

2016.
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Three years ago, each of our classrooms had 3 to 5 desktop computers, one laptop cart that

held 16 laptops and 30 IPads for the 700 students in the entire building to share. Last year, our school

received one Latitude Laptop for every 10 students and 3-6 iPads per classroom depending on the

grade level and the number of students in the class. Last year, not only did our school deploy new

devices, it also launched personalized learning, and project based learning. You can imagine the

amount of professional development we needed to create and deliver not only to our staff, but to our

students as well. After developing a comfortable level of technology usage with the staff, this level of

knowledge and usage was transformed to the families through our school website. Findley Oaks has

a very high Asian population that speak a variety of different languages, we added google translate to

our website to translate information to them. Our ESOL department assists with our students that are

not native English Language Learners.

Our school offers a variety of opportunities for all students. Our STEM program introduces

our students to a variety of career choices. Our school offers a variety of after school opportunities to

support the interest of all learners. As the STEM teacher at our school, I also coach our competitive

Math Team, FLL Robotics Team, and school Science Olympiad Team.

At Findley Oaks, we are aware that we have a student technology usage diversity in our classrooms

throughout the school. Our teachers are not consistent with what and how they apply and use

technology in their classrooms. There is a gap between what one teacher does compared to another.

Though the implementation of professional development. teacher collaboration, and peer coaching

from our Vanguard team over the next three to five years we plan on bridging this gap. Our school’s

Vanguard Team (which I am a member of) coaches 2 teachers personally each per year, offers “Visit

a Vanquardian” on Thursdays, and bi-monthly professional developments. The county sends all

Vanguard members to the GaETC conference each year as well as offers various trainings throughout
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the school year. Attending this conference gives us the opportunity to bring back new tools and

trainings. give the participants the opportunity to learn new things. and bring back strategies to share

with our colleagues.

Surveys are sent out quarterly to assess the technology needs of our teachers and staff. From

the results of those surveys our professional development sessions are designed.

Stakeholder Roles

One must reconsider what students really need to learn and the environment in which they learn.
Much of the enthusiasm for the problem-based approach to learning comes from instructors who feel
revitalized by the creative energy it releases.
Hal White, "'Creating Problems' for PBL"

Mr. White from Stanford University went on to write in his article about problem based

learning that every year teachers are faced with finding ways to present the curriculum in a way that

students gain knowledge of the discipline (White, 1995). Today’s students need to be self-directed

learners who develop problem solving skills that they can someday apply in their future courses and

careers. The faculty at Stanford University understood these challenges and began to use problem

based learning techniques in their courses. Within a (PBL) lesson, students work with classmates to

solve complex authentic problems that help develop content knowledge, reasoning, communication,

and self-assessment skills. At Findey Oaks Elementary we have also found that the student’s self-

interest and motivation increases because they are taking ownership of their learning. When students

are given the chance to study topics of interest, identify their learning needs, help plan classes, lead

class discussions, and assess their own work, then the classroom is student centered and driven

(Gallagher, 1997; Reynolds, 1997). Stakeholders at Findley Oaks agree that if these ideas are

addressed and implemented our schools vision will be met and our students will be successful.
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Offering a variety of professional development opportunities to our staff is one way of

insuring Findley’s school vision goals are met. Dylan William suggests using these five elements

when you plan teacher professional development (Vislocky, 2013).

1. Choice – Teachers are like students; they need and appreciate choice. Choice within a given

framework or focus allows teachers to determine their personal priorities.

2. Flexibility – In addition to choice, teachers need to be allowed to make modifications to make the

new learning work best in their own classroom environments.

3. Small Steps – Learning is incremental. It takes time to change practice and to be lasting it must

become a part of the teacher’s routine. Professional development for teachers that allows them to

practice, in small steps, supports this idea.

4. Support and 5. Accountability – Change in teaching practice is challenging and requires both

support and accountability. Teacher Learning Communities provide teachers the opportunity to

develop personal action plans, report back to the group what happened as a result of implementing

those plans, and reflect and receive feedback (support) from colleagues who are working on the same

changes in practice.

A good professional development takes time to implement, that is why we have a three to five-

year plan in place. This on-going professional development allows teachers to have access to

technology-related professional learning plans and time dedicated to practice and share these ideas.

When a partnership is created between the school administration, parents, teachers, and students

for the success of the students everyone benefits. The stakeholders at Findley Oaks Elementary will

continue to assess and make the necessary adjustments needed to hold everyone accountable.
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References

Allen, S., Bryant, K., McManus, M. (2017). Blended learning transformed our school. ITSE.

Retrieved from, https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=896&category=Lead-

theway&article=Blended+learning+transformed+our+school

Crompton, H., (2015). Know the ISTE Standards for Coaches: Visionary Leadership. Retrieved from

https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=375

Gallagher, S. A. (1997). “Problem-based learning: Where did it come from, what does it do, and

where is it going?” Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 20 (4), 332-362.

Vislocky, E., (2013), Five Key Elements to Successful Embedded Teacher Professional Development.

Retrieved from https://www.nwea.org/blog/2013/five-key-elements-to-successful-embedded-

teacher-professional-development/

White, H. (1995). “‘Creating problems’ for PBL.” Available on-line at: http://www.udel.edu/pbl/cte/

jan95-chem.html.

Why Teach with Project-Based Learning? Providing Students with a Well-Rounded Classroom Experience.

Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/project-learning-introduction

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Appendix

1. When I am in need of technology assistance, I know who to ask.

2. Integrating technology into my lessons is easy for me to do.

3. My school/county provides and trains me on how to use universal digital resources that

potentially will benefit my students’ learning.

4. The professional development opportunities available at Findley Oaks offer a variety of

technology implementation suggested best practice choices to use in my classroom.

5. Do you feel your voice is heard with the issues and concerns that arise with technology teacher

development needs at Findley Oaks Elementary?

6. I am familiar with the ISTE student standards and feel confident implementing them into my

lesson plans.

7. Thinking of your own professional development needs, to what extent to do agree that these

needs have been met?

8. My lessons that implement technology are centered on the abilities and learning styles of my

students. I agree that personalized learning is an important aspect of my lesson

planning/teaching style.

9. Findley’s KSUITeach Coach and Vanguard Team are easily approachable and a valuable

technology integration resource.

10. How could findley Oaks Elementary better assist your technology Integration Needs?

Link to questionnaire.