Sanchez
Elementary School |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Grant Proposal for Technology Staff Development Cover
Letter
RE: Professional Development of Teachers Dear Committee Members: In our efforts to achieve the rigorous teaching propositions developed by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the members of the Professional Development Component for Technology Planning at Sanchez Elementary School would like to submit this proposal for your consideration on behalf of the staff, students, parents, and administration of George Sanchez Elementary. George Sanchez Elementary School is a public elementary school in Austin, Texas, serving children in grades pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. One of our primary goals is to encourage the effective integration of technology resources and systems with teacher training and curriculum development to establish research-based instructional methods that can be widely implemented as best practices by State and local education agencies. Our Professional Development Components seek to enhance ongoing professional development of teachers, principals, and administrators, by providing constant access to updated training and updated research in teaching and learning through electronic means which ultimately impacts student academic achievement and ensures timely information on managing and monitoring of student learning. According to 2002 state data analysis of student composition, George Sanchez Elementary has a total enrollment of 588 students representing a large population of minority and economically disadvantaged students. Fifty-three percent of the student population is Hispanic, fifty-one percent are considered economically disadvantaged, and more than 30 percent are limited English proficient. Our teaching staff consists of 40 teachers, sixty-nine percent of whom came through the teacher education program before technology training was part of the teacher certification performance standard. Surveys of teacher use of technology at Sanchez Elementary have indicated that although most teachers on our campus use technology in some form, over eighty percent are not using technology as a teaching tool in the classroom. In order to achieve our goals and accomplish the standards set forth by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards we believe it is imperative that ongoing professional development in technology be pursued and documented to best accomplish teaching using best practices. Our project consists of several training components which help develop and maintain a high level of technology proficiency of all staff members, as well as providing ongoing support once teachers have gone through the training modules. At Sanchez Elementary we want to avoid the common mistake of not providing enough support for our teachers after their initial training during implementation phases of technology integration. Therefore Sanchez Elementary will need to develop such components for training such as Tool Training, Curriculum-Focused Software Training, Help Desk, End Users Support Training, and an Annual Technology Academy. Our proposal requests funds to supplement our state and local funding of professional development. Your institution’s support in professional development of our teachers will empower us to develop a comprehensive and ongoing training system that will enable us to have technologically proficient teachers who develop technology rich lessons with authentic learning tasks and projects where students will utilize their creativity, collaborative, and problem solving skills while raising their academic achievement levels as well as enhancing their own professional growth and working with their peers to improve school performance. Thank you for considering the request of the George Sanchez Elementary Professional Development Component of the Technology Planning Committee. We envision this collaborative project to enrich the lives of our students and empower our teachers to raise the level of their teaching and their students’ learning. Sincerely, Professional
Development Team
Sanchez Elementary School is embarking on an aggressive plan to address the challenging and diverse needs of its students in the twenty-first century. We will provide a comprehensive curriculum that fosters effective communication, creativity, critical thinking, and problems solving. The effective use of technology is an integral component and requires careful preparation. It will serve as a tool that supports quality instruction and improved student achievement. After surveying our teachers and reviewing TAAS scores, Sanchez Elementary would like to give our teachers an intense staff development program to meet these challenges. An annual technology training projects will prepare our teachers to integrate technology into the curriculum, sharpen technology skills, and cultivate new skills. The curriculum focused training project will be designed to integrate software and the Internet into classroom learning activities in the subject areas. "Power users" will take part in the end user support training. The selected teachers will serve as resource guides for the integration of technology and the Internet into the current curriculum. To streamline administrative duties, staff will learn to use current technology effectively through tool software training. This will allow for more time on teaching and developing curriculum. These training components in our professional development projects will serve to enhance the effective use of technology by staff, students, and administration. We expect such involvement
will have four positive aspects: We plan for our project
to have five major components: For the academic year of 2003-2004, Sanchez Elementary School is requesting $12,000 to fund the resources needed to fulfill the professional development projects requirements. We estimate a total cost of $25,700 for the professional development program of which $13,700 is already pledged by our local school district and area businesses.
The learning community of Sanchez Elementary School is committed to aggressively address the challenging and diverse needs of our students in the twenty-first century. Technology use is a catalyst for changing our school in ways that better support the acquisition of higher-order skills by all students. Use of technology can have a particularly significant impact on the schooling of economically disadvantaged students. These student’s educational experiences frequently have stressed repetitious rote drill on lower-order skills, with relatively little attention to areas of comprehension, problem solving, composition, and mathematical reasoning that will support both higher education and effective functioning in the real world. The effective use of technology is an integral component and requires careful preparation. It will serve as a tool that supports quality instruction and improved student achievement. After surveying our teachers and reviewing TAAS scores, Sanchez Elementary will develop an intense professional development program. In the past, technology staff development programs have had a “sink or swim” mentality with courses being taught in a traditional manner, workshops or sessions teaching a skill or technique. The courses were useful in delivering training to teachers on how to use a certain technological tool or application but research has shown that very little of this training is being carried over into the classroom. Teachers forget how to use certain aspects of their new learning and/or do not feel comfortable using their new knowledge. Our approach will incorporate a formal and informal format. This new paradigm will assess individual teaching styles and identify ways in which technology can enrich the teaching process. Our teachers will increase proficiency in their technological skills and develop strategies that will be integrated into all phases of the curriculum. Confidence levels will increase by the collaborative, reflective, and coaching support. With technology-qualified teachers, our students will improve achievement and successfully enter the global community. George Sanchez Elementary
TAAS* data indicates that several areas need attention to improve scores.
TAAS results revealed that our economical disadvantaged population is
lagging behind in the areas of reading and math. The special education
population shows an unsatisfactory performance compared to other populations.
Based on these occurrences, the staff has made the following general recommendations
to raise our TAAS scores. The Sanchez Elementary staff in conjunction with the Technology Planning Committee envisions a technology-enriched curriculum that will help our students develop critical thinking and cooperative skills. These skills will be needed for our students to meet the needs of a global society. Our first step is to educate and train our teaching staff. The professional development programs will give our teachers the support, strategies, and practices to change from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered environment. *Specific data can be obtained by accessing the Sanchez TAAS Scores found in Appendix Two. About Our Organization Chief executive officer. Demographics of the
population served by this program. Names and professional/personal
affiliation of board members. List of Washington
Mutual employees who are involved with our organization. Attachment: IRS letter granting our organization tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Sanchez Elementary School is a public elementary school located in Mustang ISD in Austin, Texas, with an enrollment of 588 students. Our student population reflects the diverse multiethnic community of Austin, comprising a minority population of sixty percent. Technology in the classroom has been shown to have a particularly significant impact on the education of minority, economically disadvantaged, and disabled students. Sanchez Elementary is currently embarking on an aggressive plan to address the challenging and diverse needs of our students through the effective use of technology. Our goal is to increases academic achievement at Sanchez Elementary with technology in ways that provide quality instruction while supporting the acquisition of higher-order skills by all students. We envision our school as a community of learning where students obtain competitive skills, become life-long learners, and prepare to function effectively in a technological society. To use technology effectively in the classroom, educators need to be fluent in and fully understand the uses of current technology that support pedagogical and curricular issues. They must enhance their skills through development programs, collaboration with their colleagues, and partnerships with the community. In order to achieve this, there is a need to provide staff development that enables educators to plan, implement, and revise technology enhanced curriculum. To meet this end, educators in our school need staff development to learn how to use new software, integrate it into the current curriculum, and create new, engaging curriculum. There is also a need for staff development in the area of information sharing and collaborative work with peers. Sink or swim…in the past teachers have had to fend for themselves regarding their professional development. It is time for staff development programs to be designed for more than one size fits all. Sanchez Elementary wants to provide a development program that will sustain our teachers in technology and help them develop curriculum with motivating, integrated technology applications. This will enable them to help our students become problem solvers, critical thinkers, decision makers and proficient users of technology.
Goal: Objective
1: Objective
2: Objective
3: Objective
4: Objective
5:
The technology planning
committee has identified the following two phases to achieve its objectives.
Phase II
- Technology Staff Development Timetable
(milestones) Schedule:
The purposes of this
project are: (1) to provide new and updated training to the staff so that
newly adopted technologies and tools can be utilized fully; and (2) to
provide training for new users to the system. Thus, it is crucial for
the administration and the project team to assess the progress and effectiveness
of the training. For the summative evaluation, specific goals, objectives and criteria established by the administration and the project team are used to indicate the success of the project. Each staff member's training will be recorded and used to provide an ongoing, customized training program. The administration will keep a database to track teacher training, proficiency surveys, training evaluations, training assessment of the impact on teacher competency and classroom practices, and teacher observations.
Criteria 2: The Texas
State Board of Educator Certification Technology Standards for technology
abilities. Criteria 3: TAAS
Future funding will
be provided by the school district, state grants, and partnerships with
area businesses. Aziz
Bin-Taleb Joan
Wilmes Wako
Takahashi-Welch Shametria
Routt Kimberly
Fuller Pamela
Grieve
Attendance
Rate (Percentages)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||