how school administrators can support technology integration
TRANSCRIPT
Leading The Way
How School Administrators Can Support Technology Integration
Who am I?
Susan Horowitz› Principal, Ford Middle School› [email protected]› @swhorowitz› @fmsmustangs
W E Pete Ford Middle School
Allen, Texas ~873 students 7th and 8th grades ~30% economically
disadvantagedhttp://allenisd.org/fordms
Today’s Goals
We will share our experience of moving a very traditional campus to a campus with a digital campus culture.
You will leave this session recognizing that your school is “ok” where it is as long as it does not stay there because you have received at least one idea to add to your plan of action for moving your own campus to one with a digital culture.
Where we were 2009-2010• Remediation was the order of business.• Before, after, during, Prime Time,• Recognized school for seven years • Very low commended rates• Passing was the order of business• Teachers stood in the hall and yelled at kids to go to class• Lunches were assigned seats and whistles were blown for attention• Planning periods were seen as relief time for teachers- no common
planning• Lap top carts that were locked up in the computer tech’s office.• Two week requirement for check out or use of labs.• Students were not allowed to use cell phones for any reason. We
took them up and charged a fine.• WIFI Access was poor. • Students were only allowed to use desktops for programs for
remediation.• Teachers were reluctant to use technology devices.• And it goes on…
A Revolution or a Revolt?
“….new learning standards for students so that they will have the values and the capabilities to live, learn, and earn in a free society surrounded by a world that is truly global, connected, and increasingly competitive in scope and character.”
“Learning should be specified to the “profound level,” that is, students are able to apply their learning to new situations, to synthesize, solve problems, create knowledge, and cultivate and utilize the full range of their capabilities.”
“When competent, caring teachers provide properly designed learning experiences in inspiring social environments, all students will engage and can meet or exceed a reasonable variance to the standards.”
“Guidance should be given to teachers’ daily work so they can make the content standards clear and compelling to their students for each unit of focus.”
-Creating a New Vision for Public Education in Texas
Careful what you fuel!
Know what stokes your engine!
The African Queen
Pillars and AssumptionsWithin an environment dedicated to community and collaboration, Ford faculty and staff use rigorous and engaging instructional strategies along with frequent, common assessments to guarantee student learning and mastery across all core and elective objectives.
Collaboration Definitions and Common Understandings: Teachers work together as members of collaborative teams. The members of each team work interdependently
to achieve common goals. Each team is provided with time to meet and uses that time to engage in collective inquiry on questions
specifically linked to gains in student achievement. Each team adopts and observes protocols that clarify how members will fulfill their responsibilities to the team. Each team is asked to generate and submit products, which result from their discussion of critical questions.
Assumptions: If the adults who are responsible for student learning truly create time for collaboration, then they will become
more reflective about their daily instruction. If teachers set regular time aside for discussing/planning their craft, then they will become accountable to one
another for the instruction done in their classrooms.
High Quality Instruction
Definitions and common Understandings: The First Teach- Tier 1- The instruction that occurs in the general education class. Robust and Rigorous- Rigorous does not mean more and harder Rather it means engaging and based upon conceptual understandings rather than minute pieces of data. Includes strategies that are highly effective and proven- eg Best Practices, Marzano’s 9, GLAD, SIOP,
Problem Based.
Assumptions: If Collaborative dialogues focus on data from common assessments of critical objectives, then classroom
teachers must be the most effective in their selections of instructional strategies for the first teach. If teachers utilize the most effective instructional strategies for the first teach then, the need for
intervention will be minimal and should be focused upon the critical objectives. If the need for intervention is minimal and focused upon the critical objectives, then students should flow in
and out of the intervention setting as critical objectives are mastered.
Assessment
Definitions and common understandings: The manner in which an educator determines if learning has occurred. Can be formal or informal; summative or formative; multiple choice, performance based or
written. The educator collects data on all types of assessment in order to improve the instruction in the
classroom. Instructional decisions are most often made in a collaborative setting with other educators.
Intervention occurs when the student is unable to show mastery of the objective 80% of the time. Assessments match the rigor of the curriculum and encourages students to challenge
their own understandings through the use of Bloom’s taxonomy.
Assumptions:
If teachers want to know if students are learning in their classrooms then, they must be doing continual assessment.
If student learning is our goal, then we must assure that our assessments truly match the stated objectives. If teachers are accountable to one another for the instruction in all classrooms, then the collaborative dialogues
must focus on the results of common assessments based upon critical objectives.
Community
Definitions and common understandings: A school exists within a ready made community. Members of the Ford community include teachers, students, parents, administrators, community leaders,
community members.
Each member of the community has a personal stake in the effectiveness of the learning at the school.
Assumptions: Parents and families believe they are doing what is best for their children. Communication within and without the school community is essential for the school’s
success. The front office of the school is the hub of the school community. This is the snapshot of the
school that most members of the community use to make generalizations and assumptions about the school.
Every interaction a community member has with a school employee must be congenial and productive.
Teachers must make the first communiqué to parents. Teachers are the case manager for students learning.
Leadership and Change
Creating Cognitive Dissonance Establishing the “Call of Duty” Be a Futurist Lead by Example
What does your staff need to know you believe?
My Private List Serve
ZITE 3 Tech Ninjas Twitter ISTE ASCD Anything and everything
Personnel and Personalities
Know the lynch pins Be a Proton- Stay Positive Temper your time with the
naysayers- › We tend to focus on the most
difficult 5-10%.› Change our focus to those who are
positive.
Reward those who move. Reward those who fail. They
tried.
Tradition does not create legal entitlement!
Access and Availability
Devices are instructional materials Ask the learners- both adult and
student Technology and Devices
› One to one or BYOD Build in Contingencies $$
Avoid the “Grandmother’s China Syndrome”
What students have to say about education?
“Embracement*” vs. Buy In
Ubiquitous, invisible, essential
Teach them to use it for good and not for evil! › Direct teach› Don’t ban it
*Eric Sheninger, Digital Leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times.
Good Instruction Trumps All
Be careful of inertia- Don’t fuel the wrong fire
95% rule Intervention rather than
Remediation Learning focused- Not a
teacher centered event Depth of Knowledge High quality assessment-
Avoid Googleness
Instructional strategies
Flipped learning Flipped
mastery- The Real Work
Learning management system
Use of BYOD
Opportunities for true learning
PLCs Technology Club Faculty meetings
› Focus on ingenuity› QR Code faculty
meetings› Flipped Faculty
meetings
Middle School: 2013 and beyond
A new urgency Parental
embracement Student
empowerment Teacher
success
Learning Spaces
The final frontier
The Conversation has Changed!
Every core classroom has 20+devices Teachers are looking for ways for students to
use BYOD Flipped mastery in Science Teachers are sharing in faculty meetings STEM activities between a science and a math
teacher Intervention and accelerated learning is the
topic of PLCs. Core teachers are looking to other departments
for instructional leadership.
Thank You!