| Action Research Index |
The employees of this school district are very pleased and grateful that citizens voted to pass the entire school bond package proposed last November. Our motto, “Where children come first” is not just a motto, but is truly our focus. I know that for my part, the passing of school bonds meant that we can continue to serve staff and students with current technologies that make the workplace more efficient and help to provide students with the 21st Century skills they will need as they graduate.
This year I have focused on ensuring that teachers are aware of the technologies that are available to them on the campuses that I serve, how to use them, and how to bring them to students so that their learning opportunities can be deepened and enriched.
For my work to this point, there has been a three cycle process. First, I researched and created an online survey for teachers which would help me to understand the following:
- Their usage of software and hardware available on campus
- Their self-assessment of skill levels using technology.
- Their perception of obstacles preventing best practices in technology.
- The greatest impact of technology on their professional responsibilities.
- Their perception of level of district and campus support for technology.
- Their current best practices in technology.
While the campus data was interesting as a whole, it was in the breakdown of the data by grade level teams or special teaching assignments that it became more useful for my purposes. I took the data disaggregation to the teaching teams to discuss with them what it said about their current teaching practices, where they would like to move forward professionally, and how we could plan together professional development in technology that would be of the most use. Each of the teams crafted with my help a plan for a half day of training customized to their particular needs.
After that, the teams met with me for one-half day of training time while district technology funds covered the cost of their substitutes. We met in one of the computer labs or in the library in a relaxed, hands-on session guided by their own agenda. I provided for each participant a binder with an agenda along with hard copies of instructions for each of the hardwares or softwares covered during our time together. In addition to the binders, I also created a repository of all of the handouts and user guides from all of the sessions on the shared drive of our school network. At the end of each session, teachers reflected in writing on their learning and how they would apply it to their professional responsibilities so that I could better prepare for future training and to validate for our stakeholders our time spent together.
At this time, I am collecting artifacts from teachers demonstrating their applications of the new technologies in the form of photos, testimonials, lesson plans, and student products. Teachers have seemed open to using the technologies more now than ever and are asking for help and advice to use them in their classes. I believe that by giving teachers a voice in their own professional development and by crafting training specifically to meet their needs, the community can be assured that the money from bond issues they have passed and may pass in the future will indeed be used to promote a positive learning environment in which teachers will be able to guide them toward the acquisition of 21st Century skills. |