Action+Plan

​This page is designed to inform others of my intent to grow professionally in the realm of technology. Included on this page are summaries of each subpage, a list of actions I intend to take, and a timeline for those actions. Through these actions, I hope to be more reflective when planning and to challenge my students to incorporate higher level thinking skills while utilizing technology.

**​** ​ **Summary Statement:** My proposed improvement includes utilizing the Pennsylvania Standards Aligned System to locate technology resources and lessons that will help me to expand my content and delivery. Secondly I will begin to include the NET-S in my planning to help me to determine if I am appropriately instructing my students in and on available technologies. Finally, I will subscribe to a professional journal and share those ideas and thoughts with my parents in the hopes that they will incorporate any ideas into the home.

The activities that I have chosen to implement in order to address Standard I seem simple in nature but would take a degree of coordination and perserverance. The Standards Aligned System is still up and coming so it may take a while until good information is available for my specific grade level and it will take extra planning time in order to incorporate all of the resources found. Hopefully my grade level team will follow suit and help support my efforts with NET-S incorporation. Also my class website already has a listing of resources so it will not be difficult to create a parent technology corner, my only concern would be whether it is utilized by the families.

Due to the nature of my district's assessment procedure, in which most assessment is handled at the overall district level, it seems difficult to change assessment practices in order to incorporate more technology. However there are individual choices that I can make within my own classroom to incorporate more technology into my assessment practices and better utilize student time during our daily computer work station. I was especially excited to locate a parent component during my thoughts. I have always felt like a report card every nine weeks was not enough of a picture for the parents, so by adding rubrics from Rubistar I can keep in closer contact with my parents. Also, I feel as if we complete so many interventions but never have an accurate record of what is successful (or not) for our students. By adding comment sections to our spreadsheet that is already in use, teachers can get an overall picture of what interventions and supports students have received. Finally, I have addressed the lack of differentiation in our assessment practices. It seems that all we hear as educators is to differentiate instruction, but the assessments never match the level of differentiation that our students are receiving. To me there is a disconnect in practice, so my hope is to better fill this gap utilizing technology and resources that are already available to us.

For Standard III, most of my work can be accomplished during our upcoming summer break. Many of the improvement activities require little of my time, just a "rethinking" of routines on my part. For instance, a newsletter is something that I already do, posting it on my class website is a very simple step that I could add to my routine. And, I already give my parents a "Back To School" survey, so I would not have to start this from "scratch", but just add an additional format or medium of presentation. In the end, my choices will make a huge difference in opening the lines of communication between myself and the families of my students. I also feel that I need to improve in the amount of technology based professional development that I participate in. While I enroll in a large number of courses and inservices during the course of a school year, I have come to realize that the subject matter is quite lopsided. I am going to make a concentrated effort to include more technological focused courses into my training.

I have taken the beginning steps of incorporating an Internet Safety curriculum into my classroom by writing the base lesson plans to be used for the unit. I have also decided that I would like to add the Fair(ly) Use Tale video to the unit in order to teach my students the basics of copyrighting. It is important that the students learn early on that your work is special and belongs to you. Eventually, it would be great if Internet Safety and Copyright Rules could be tied into our "Character Counts!" Program. I believe that both subjects tie directly to our Trustworthiness and Respect pillars of character. Also during this current course, I created a track utilizing the Trackstar website. The track was created for my Community Helpers unit. I used the track to teach the unit to my Kindergarten class. The students loved the resources that were included in the track and were very well engaged throughout the entire unit. I love the resource and think it would be the perfect way to "get organized". As a teacher, I find it hard to juggle the paper files, teacher masters, websites, etc that are all needed to teach a complete unit. Tracks allow all of the resources to remain in one single spot. I feel as if I could create hundreds of tracks, but realize that I need to narrow my focus. My first focus would be to create tracks reflective to the ten language arts themes in our curriculum. I intend to organize my current resources and then locate additional resources from my Delicious and Diigo accounts. I am sure that the Trackstar project will be ongoing for years.

I feel that as a team player, I am very "open" to sharing resources and trying new ideas, especially with technology and this is a good trait to have as an educator. I believe that I need to step out and become more of a leader, because I do have a decent technological understanding. I believe that I need to branch out more among my colleagues so that they see what I have to offer and begin to regard me as knowledgeable. Sometimes, the best way to do that is to put yourself into the classroom of others who are deemed as a leader. So part of my growth plan is to take observation time and view how other teachers are utilizing technology in their classroom. I get complimented often on my organizational skills and if I focus on using technology to organize others, I believe that I could quickly step out as a leader. On that note, the collaborative wiki would be one way to organize ideas of both the grade level team and as a building community. I think often in education we focus so much on "oh, we'll do that next year", that we forget what we have in front of us now... or on the flipside, we say, "That's a great idea!" and then next year comes and nothing happens. By starting a wiki, we could log our ideas and any progress we make toward the end goal.

​ ** Summary Statement Outline **: Aligned System for online and technology resources. By using this resource I am assured that the items chosen have already been reviewed and deemed appropriate to meet my standards.
 * ||= ** Area of Improvement ** ||< ** Resources Needed ** || ** Timeline for Implementation ** ||
 * **Standard I** || **Example 1:** Utilize the Pennsylvania Standards

planning to be sure I am giving my students the exposure they deserve and require.
 * Example 2:** Incorporate the NET-S when lesson

as [|www.eschoolnews.com] and share interesting information on a corner of my class website. ||< - Internet/email Access - [|www.pdesas.org] - A log-in with the SAS site - A copy of the NET-S (for teachers and students) -Revamped lesson plan form that includes an area for technology standards - Cooperation of team members || **Activity 1** could be implemented immediately: with a goal of incorporating at least three new resources per marking period in the 2010-11 school year.
 * Example 3:** Subscribe to a professional journal such

immediately (by myself) however it would be more beneficial for all involved if my entire team could adopt this goal. So if possible, implemented by the middle of the 10-11 school year?
 * Activity 2** could be implemented

happen immediately. I would like to have the "info corner" opened on my class website by the beginning of the 2010-11 school year. After this occurs I would like to share at least one new resource for parents per month. || very traditional (teacher poses questions to students and the student answers verbally or performs the instructed action). My goal would be to provide my district with ideas for alternate forms of assessment (whether formal or informal).
 * Activity 3's** subscription could
 * **Standard II** || **Example 1:** All of our district assessments seem

types of technology based assessment into small group and work station situations.
 * Example 2:** I would like to better incorporate various

create performance rubrics based on assessment benchmarks. The rubrics could be quickly filled out and sent home as midterms. For instance I could have a rubric designed for KidWriting or Alphabet Recognition/Writing.
 * Example 3:** To help initiate parent contact, I could

adding a comment column to our ILAs (Individualized Language Arts) spreadsheet would be incredibly beneficial. This may be helpful to other teachers when planning for interventions and strategies because the spreadsheets follow students across grade levels. This could prevent "wasted time" that occurs when teachers attempt to use interventions that were not successful in the past. ||< - Time needed to research alternate forms of assessment for our district (to be sure that the new assessment resource aligns with current practice). - Palm Pilots for Dibels? - Administration Cooperation - Poll Daddy for pre and post assessments -Discovery Education for previewing and pre-assessment clips - Trackstar to either preview or review specific units. - [|www.rubistar.com] - GASD Assessment Binder -Microsoft Excel -Existing ILA template || **Activity 1** The time line for this idea is unknown. I would need to propose changes to my grade head and take it from there. Changes or several ideas could be proposed by the middle of the 2010-11 school year.
 * Example 4:** To help track interventions I feel that

at least ten technology based assessments into my personal curriculum during the 2010-11 school year.
 * Activity 2** I would like to incorporate

assessment rubrics would be completed this Summer with the end goal being distribution at our "Back to School Night" in August.
 * Activity 3** Beginning Kindergarten

reformatted for the beginning of the 2010-11 school year. Data entry for current students may be up to our extension teacher or individual classroom teachers. || technology inservice (per school year) to help increase my understanding of our school licenses and promethean board software.
 * Activity 4** ILAs could easily be
 * **Standard III** || **Example 1:** I plan on attending at least one additional

organization thats main focus is technology integration in the classroom.
 * Example 2:** Research and join on professional

onto our class website so that parents, community organizations, extended family, and school support staff can see what is happening in our room at all times.
 * Example 3:** Post my weekly class newsletter

Google Docs for parents to take at our "Back To School Night" in August. It could be as simple as a gauge of parent feeling about their child entering school or even a quick "getting to know you". We could take time during the activity to look at compiled results. For example: 65% of parents are anxious about their child beginning school, etc.
 * Example 4:** I plan to create an online survey using

grade level colleagues and encourage each one to create delicious accounts so that we may quickly and easily share links to helpful sites, lesson plans, interactives, and resources that we find. ||< - Any membership or attendance fees to cover the costs of Activities 1 and 2. - Access to www.altavista.com to help research professional organizations and their mission. - Continued access to a free class website through the district - A copy of my current Parent survey - A Google Doc's log-in - Internet access during "Back To School Night". - Several student laptops in my classroom during "Back To School Night" so that families without Internet access can have the opportunity to take any surveys that are online. - Continued access to my [|www.delicious.com] account - Colleague cooperation and collaboration || **Activity 1:** I am planning on attending the inservices offered by my district during the 2010 Summer. The topic of the inservice is utilizing our new ActivInspire Software that will be installed on our computers during the upcoming Summer. The inservices that I will be attending in the future are unknown.
 * Example 5:** I will present [|www.delicious.com] to my

this Summer and choose one organization that seems the most fitting for my needs and level of learners. I could check to see if my principal or PTO have funds budgeted to help offset the cost of membership.
 * Activity 2:** I will research organizations

2010-11 school year will be posted on our class website. I will also encourage separated families to go there for up-to-date information.
 * Activity 3:** The first newsletter of the

created during Summer break and used at the 2010 "Kindergarten Orientation".
 * Activity 4:** The online survey will be

idea will be presented at the first grade level meeting of the 2010-11 school year. || unit each school year. The unit will focus on "Stranger Danger" including not giving out personal information or meeting people in real life. I will continue this theme by writing additional lessons based upon fair use and internet etiquette.
 * Activity 5:** The www.delicious.com
 * ** Standard IV ** || **Example 1:** I will incorporate an Internet Safety

Trackstar account and built a track focused on Community Helpers. The tracks are quick and easy to create, very simple to teach from, and are great organizing tools.I would like to utilize and create more tracks on the TrackStar site in order to incorporate more hands on/visual learning. ||< - A Fair(ly) Use Tale - [|www.NetSmartz.org] - Trackstar account - Links from my Delicious.com account - Resources from our class Diigo account || **Activity 1:** This semester I wrote an Internet Safety Lesson plan utilizing the NetSmartz.org resource. The lesson was appropriate for my Kindergarten students. The goal would be to implement this lesson during the 2010-11 school year and write at least one additional lesson that incorporates the Fair(ly) Use Tale video and the concept of copyright.
 * Example 2:** For my current course, I created a

create ten additional tracks during the 2010-11 school year. Each track would be focused on one of the ten language arts themes in our curriculum. || Wiki project to house lesson plans and ideas for "next year". The wiki could be used as a discussion point for grade level meetings and a place to store notes and ideas.
 * Activity 2:** My goal would be to
 * ** Standard V ** || **Example 1:** I would like to create a collaborative

colleagues are that known for their technological capabilities and ideas. || - An educator's wikispace - Log-ins for my colleagues - Colleague cooperation - Approval by my administrator for an observation day || **Activity 1:** The wiki could be implemented by the end of the 2009-10 school year, so that my colleagues can begin writing their thoughts during Summer break and have the time to become comfortable with the resource. It would be great if one grade level meeting per month could be set aside to look over and discuss our progress on the wiki.
 * Example 2:** It is my intent to observe two other

the teachers in the beginning portions of the 2010-11 school year so that I have time to collaborate with and use them as resources. ||
 * Activity 2:** I would like to observe