Yesterday, the focus of our session involved planning for successful technology implementation both at the classroom level (creating individualized professional development plans for teachers based on their DETAILS profiles and LoTi data) and school building level (developing a Next Steps Action Plan for ABC Middle School). Some of the points I addressed during our Day 2 Session included:
1. The Next Steps Action Plan for your school building or school district needs to emphasize existing curriculum priority areas and student performance on the PAWS.
2. The Next Steps Action Plan needs to include stringent accountability measures to ensure that tasks are performed on-time.
3. The Next Steps Action Plan needs to become a "living" document subject to change and alterations depending on different environmental variables.
4. The Next Steps Action Plan needs to demonstrate that technology can and should play a pivotal role in improving PAWS scores.
5. The Next Steps Action Plan needs to incorporate a "teacher" focus so that teachers can buy into the process.
6. A need exists to reconceptualize NCLB so that emphasis is placed on the learner rather than on test-prep. To this end, I introduced the New NCLB:
- Non-traditional assessment strategies
- Challenging learning opportunities
- Learning-based curriculum models
- Bloom's taxonomy in-action
7. A website exists that provides a bountiful supply of links to lesson plans, applets, simulations, and interactive "bell-starters" for immediate classroom use. The URL is:
- http://ww2.ikeepbookmarks.com/lotischools
As promised, I will be sending you a completed Next Steps Action Plan for ABC School. Please include this document as satisfactory completion of Task #4.
I look forward to your comments.
Chris
