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 [|Eubank Academy]​ ​​

=Eubank Academy of Literacy and Fine Arts = [|www.eubankelementary.com] 9717 Indian School Rd. NE Albuquerque, NM 87112

 ** Executive Summary ** Eubank Academy is constantly looking out for the instructional needs of its diverse student population in the areas of math and reading. One area that the school in need of improvement is the incorporation of technology assisted instruction. The school currently has a small distribution of equipment dispersed throughout the Kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms and dedicated to key support personnel. Currently the primary focus of the school’s monthly professional development is directed to the subjects of math and reading. A technology team consisting of one teacher from each of the six grade levels and a designated technology teacher assists the teachers with minimal computer issues and conducts occasional trainings that are optional and only draw in very few attendees. The purpose of this proposal is to take the concepts of professional development, the current training rotation, and the available technology personnel to better support and train the teaching staff to use the equipment already in the classrooms; putting the resources to better use and stepping forward with technology assisted instruction.

Technology Integration: Staff Training and Classroom Implementation Eubank Academy Albuquerque, NM [|www.eubankelementary.com] Eubank Academy is a Title I elementary school located in Albuquerque, NM serving K-5 grade level students since 1959. The school holds a unique status in the district as the only elementary school with dedicated music, dance, drama, and art teachers. The school has a distinctive approach to literacy instruction, compared to most K-5 schools, in that all certified staff teach a 3 to 3 ½ hour literacy block in the morning with fluid ability groups for, K, 1st, 2nd-3rd, and 4th-5th. With these varied features and structures in place the school has begun to embrace integrating more technology in all aspects of the educational and learning communities. The staff stands at the cross roads in terms of commitment, with one foot firmly planted in the understanding of non-technological resources and the other just crossing the line waiting for the green light to fully incorporate a variety of technological advancements. For the past three years the school has put forth real effort and a multitude of resources to draw in the parents, families, and community to assist in the school’s educational goals and mission. While the school has a website it often is put to the back burner due to staffing and budgetary constraints. The site could better serve the school as a jumping off point in communicating daily events and long term goals to students’ families and the community. For instructional use in the classroom there are 1 or 2 desktops available for every teacher and student use, along with one computer on wheels (COWS) for each of grade levels 2nd – 5th to share amongst the teachers at each respective grade level. LCD projectors are assigned to each of these COWS, there is one in the library and another in the computer lab which are ceiling mounted, as well as a few more which are dedicated to the instructional coaches (2) and head special education teacher. With a fuller compliment of computers, desktops and laptops, projectors, smart boards, and document cameras the staff and students would have better access to materials, instructional strategies, and reduce supply consumption. It is the desire of the school’s technology team to add to the current compliment of technology resources, expand the training of the staff to proficiently use the technology resources, and complete the integration of technology in order to better serve the learning community. The school's mission is to provide a comprehensive, high quality instructional program emphasizing reading, writing, oral communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and arts exploration for students in grades kindergarten through fifth. In part this goal is achieved through **personal** attention with the formulation of smaller class in literacy to assure a high level of individual attention based on the students’ reading assessments and targeted goals drawn from those tests. All students, including those qualifying for special services, benefit from a variety of inclusive programs. Tutoring and summer programs are provided for students not meeting progress expectations at their particular grade level. The Eubank Academy Community is comprised of a diverse population of ethnic groups, economic backgrounds, and educational experiences. The entire community works together to support students and families through multiple academic events and service projects. A partnership with the Roadrunner Food Bank and the Albuquerque Clothing Bank enhances the school's ability to provide and assist with all of the students’ needs so that they may be healthy, happy, and successful in and outside of school. The influential leaders within the learning community that make decisions regarding obtaining and adopting technological equipment for the school are the school’s Principal, K. Butchart, the Instructional coaches, Y. Colyer (math) and J. Gandert (literacy), and the informal leaders of the school V. Kirkpatrick, and the Technology team - E. Helwitcz (literacy and technology teacher), G. Kinoshita (Kindergarten), M. Sedrel (First grade), N. Juarez (Second grade), M. Lovato (Third grade), B. Brashear (Fourth grade), and C. Taylor (Fifth grade). Currently Eubank Academy is very successful at training and educating its staff in the areas of reading and math. Along with some supplemental training in the area of fine arts which are provided by the full time fine arts teachers, art, drama, dance, and music. Members of the technology team are agreed upon by grade levels and is a voluntary position, with members who‘s only compensation for their time is the use of a school laptop for the school calendar year. While the title Technology Team makes the school sound like it is aligned with the national technology standards and keeping in pace with the new technological advances. This is not entirely the case, while the school administration is open to welcoming technology when the funding is available and in need of spending, there is no extra effort being made to obtain addition resources for the school’s technological needs. Presently there is a performance gap among the certified staff’s ability to fully integrate technology into classroom. Minimal technology tools are being used in lessons and activities that would be beneficial to the students’ learning needs and the teachers’ abilities to meet the needs of the diverse learning population: English as a second language, low performing students, special needs, handicapped, high performing, and gifted. The performance gap has persisted because of the current focus in education in the areas of reading and math. Schools are currently graded on the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders scores on Standard Based Assessments given once per school year. As part of Eubank’s ongoing professional development, the staff meets once per month for trainings in the areas of reading and math. Individual grade level teams also meet with the instructional coaches twice a month, one time for math and one time for reading. Little to no attention has been put towards the fact that the incorporation of technology assisted instruction could be beneficial to the improvement of the students’ reading and math scores. All of the school’s resources for time and money are being spent in a very traditional fashion on training by the instructional coaches and on print material. If the school’s monetary resources were divided to incorporate the inclusion of technology the funding may go further and be more effective for the whole of the school as opposed to only one third of the student population. Based on the staff's needs to better incorporate technological tools into the daily structure of classroom instruction three intervention strategies have been formulated, low, medium, and high, to bring about the equipment and training to accomplish the adoption of technology assisted instruction at Eubank Academy. Training for the staff in using the current equipment on best practices integrating into their lesson plans is on a voluntary basis and is conducted by the Technology team who work on a volunteer basis with the reward of using a school laptop. The low budget intervention would take advantage of the training schedule already in place at the school by using three trainings per year, one per trimester, to not overburden the already tightly compacted and hectic schedule. By including one technology training per trimester the staff could be shown one new strategy for each class of students (reading and math) the staff would be eased into using and incorporating technology assisted instruction. The training would not be rushed and the staff would build a desire to learn and be motivated to incorporate more technology into their teaching. The trainings will be taught be the technology team who would be compensated for their extra efforts with a stipend of $1,000 each ($7,000). A mid level intervention approach would incorporate the three training sessions lead by the technology team, including the stipend for their efforts at $1,000 a piece ($7,000), adding on a technology allocation of $20,000 for new equipment that would ensure that all teachers have access to the necessary tools to make the most out of technology assisted instruction. A high intervention approach would combine the above two intervention strategies as well as provide resources so that the technology teacher position would be a full time post instead of part time. Currently there is a technology teacher on staff who is knowledgeable in how teachers may best use technology in the classroom, how to best maintain the equipment, and order the necessary tools to increase the school’s technology capacity; who’s knowledge and expertise is not utilized to its fullest potential. The technology position is a part time position that does not allow the technology teacher to focus his full endeavors towards using and maintaining computer equipment. His time is split between teaching a first grade literacy class, teaching a computer class one time per week per grade level, maintenance on equipment including ordering, and other responsibilities including lunch/playground duty. This schedule does not allow for any time to train the staff on instructional strategies that incorporate technology into their lessons, training or assisting the technology team to better support their colleagues at the respective grade levels, or attend district meeting to collaborate with fellow technology teachers on acquiring new equipment, teaching strategies, or attending seminars the proposal for the high cost strategy is to alter the school’s technology position to a full time position by hiring a part time reading teacher ($15,000) to instruct the first grade literacy class, freeing up the technology teacher to arrange demonstrations and training to the teachers in their own classrooms. To assist in drawing a more direct focus towards technology assisted instruction an allocation of $30,000 will need to be allotted for the purchase of technology equipment (printers, laptops, desktops, smart boards, projectors, document cameras, mp3 players, speakers, headphones, microphones, digital cameras, video cameras, webcams). For an initial step towards a full inclusion of technology in all of the classrooms at Eubank the first step will have to be the low budget approach. “The school’s resources are already stretched so thin that they are not going to cover what we need in terms of paper and ink for the printers, gestetners, and photo copiers we currently use.” (K. Butchart, personal communication, Aug. 9, 2010) Principal Butchart continued to explain that the previous funding has been obtained through legislative funding that is not available for the current year due to the budget shortfall at the state level. (2010) With the uncertainty of not knowing when that funding will ever resurface the choice of the low end intervention would be advisable according to Y. Colyer the school’s math instructional coach. “We have some equipment available to the staff at the present time, which is not used frequently enough. If we use what we have we can prove to funding agencies and the district that technology assisted educational is beneficial to the students.” (Y. Colyer, personal communication, Aug. 9, 2010) The funding for this approach would have been obtained through a grant which can be written and submitted by the Technology Team. Once the funding is obtained it would only be a matter of some adjustment to the school calendar to get this intervention into full swing, possibly this current school year. This would get the staff moving in the right direction without too much time or cost output by the administration or staff. A small step forward will create a moderate amount momentum, hopefully just enough to motivate the staff and help the students. In the decision process to choose an intervention that would best fit the needs of Eubank Academy the ideal situation would have been to choose the middle ground intervention out of the three options listed above. The reasoning for not choosing the middle ground is that even though the school is continually falling behind in the area of technology integration the negative affect would be overwhelming the already overburdened staff. Choosing the mid level intervention the staff would be asked to take on one more project this school year on top of an already full plate due to the fact the school did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) based on last year’s Standard Based Testing scores for 3rd through 5th grade students. There are only so many obstacles and hurdles that one administration can take on in a year and at the moment our priority as a school will need to be placed on analyzing the SBA data to better understand how we can help our students. (K. Butchart, personal communication, Aug. 9, 2010)  The first reason for not choosing the highest costing intervention is that a large professional development project would far surpass the staff’s capabilities to balance one more item with all the other responsibilities piled on them currently. While the Eubank Academy’s administration and staff back the needs of the students 100% the timing of taking on a project of this magnitude would send even the most veteran teacher into a nervous breakdown. Then there are the costly pitfalls due to the state of the economy, the school district’s budget, and the school’s financial allotment, making impossible to acquire the funding required for the high cost intervention. The role of project manager requires an ability to adjust ones leadership style to meet the ability and willingness of the staff. (Chevalier, 2007) This will involve a change in thought process and interaction among the staff, who are my fellow colleagues, in order to see to their needs in a more managerial role. The project manager will in essence be changing hats, switching from my teaching role as a peer to a person that looks after the needs of the project, the staff’s acquisition of knowledge, and role model for the technology team. The first required task will be to work closely with the Technology Teacher in order to plan the professional development sessions first for the technology team and then cooperatively with the team on the roll out of the trainings for the full staff. Roles and assignments will be designated to each of the Technology Team member ensuring an even dispersal of training and assistance will be given to every staff member. These roles will be based on interest, knowledge, and comfort with the topics being taught. “The key to selecting an appropriate leadership style is found in the follower’s readiness (ability and willingness) to do a specific task.” (1997)   “One of the most important roles that you have as a manager is that of managing change.”(2007) With the integration of technology into the classroom there will be fear: “The students will know more than I do.”, “What if something does not work right or breaks down?”, and “What was wrong with the way I was teaching?” All trainings for both the Technology team and for the entire staff will be conducted on Wednesdays, as this is our early release day every week which allows just this type of training to occur. As these types of meeting will be part of an entire string of professional developments meeting that will be occurring on a consistent basis throughout the year they will blend in nicely and be accepted among the staff. The Technology Teacher and the Project Manager will seek the assistance of the school’s two Instructional Coaches who will be conducting the remainder of the trainings for the staff in the areas of Reading and Math. By having the four informal leaders of the staff training modules collaborating will accomplish an overlap and syncing of ideas and desires so the staff may see how all the subject areas can be incorporated with the assistance of technology integration.

Budget Planning during weekly time set aside in the school calendar || The rate of adoption, incorporation of technology into everyday lessons, and the effectiveness will be evaluated through formative and summative assessments. Classroom teachers will keep a running tally sheet on the number of lessons per week in which they incorporated technology as part of the instruction, delineating whether the equipment was used by the teacher only, collaboratively with the students, or completely student driven. The formative assessment will also include a collection of lesson plans, assessments on student performance to determine growth, and observation sheets completed by the teachers on their students, by teachers observing other teachers (peer observations), and by the initial collaborative team (Instructional Coaches, Technology Teacher, and Project Manager). The summative assessment will be comprised of a pre and post survey to be taken in August and May so that accurate evaluations on the teachers’ feelings and use of technology can be calculated and analyzed for growth. The makeup of the survey will include questions on the teachers desire to use technology in their classroom, their competence in using computers to either plan or instruct with students, and their hope for how computers will aid their ability to meet the students’ learning needs. The objective of both sets of assessments will be to support the need for technology in the classroom and gauge how the team will proceed in planning for the staff’s Professional Development Trainings for the next school year. “To get the most out of the training you offer your employees, you need to control what is being taught in the courses to ensure that they receive the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful on the job.” (2007)
 * Recommended Resources || Description || Cost ||
 * Collaboration || Collaboration with Instructional Coaches, Technology Teacher, and Project Manager to determine the focus, agenda, and framework for the Staff Professional Development || $0
 * Technology Team Training || Collaboration with Technology Team, Technology Teacher, and Project Manager to finalize the Staff Professional Development || $3,500 ||
 * Staff Professional Development || Model, share, and guide the teaching staff with lesson and equipment that can aide their students in performing better in their classroom learning || $3,500 ||

** References **

Albuquerque Public Schools District (2010) []

Chevalier, R. (2007). //A manager’s guide to improving workplace performance//. New York: American Management Association.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). //NETS for teachers//. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from [] s_Final.pdf

New Mexico Department of Education (2010) [] Research, Deployment, and Accountability (2010) []

**Appendix A** **Interview Questions** **Principal** 1. How has the school acquired technology equipment in the past? 2. What are the key elements to teaching instruction in the 21st century? 3. What role does technology play in the school’s instructional approach? 4. How much emphasis do you place on technology being used in the classroom? 5. If you had to estimate the frequency of technology use among the staff members what percentage would you say incorporate technology on a monthly basis? weekly? daily? 6. What has held the school or the staff back from incorporating more technology into lessons and educational goals? 7. If budget were not an issue how open would you be to purchasing more technology equipment and providing the appropriate training for the staff?

1. What are the key elements to teaching instruction in the 21st century? 2. What role does technology play in the school’s instructional approach? 3. How much emphasis do you place on technology being used in the classroom? 4. If you had to estimate the frequency of technology use among the staff members what percentage would you say incorporate technology on a monthly basis? weekly? daily? 5. What has held the school or the staff back from incorporating more technology into lessons and educational goals? 6. In terms of technology equipment what would you like to see the school purchase?
 * Instructional Coach**

**Appendix B** **Interview Syntheses**

=
**Principal K. Butchart** Principal Butchart explained that without the monetary resources provided by the Legislative monies that in recent years the school would not have had the capacity to purchase any technology equipment. While she recognized that technology in the classrooms has improved and is growing by leaps and bounds that an elementary schools responsibility to its students was to fundamentally first and for most to teach them reading. Reading, as she explained, is the cornerstone to a students' educational success. At the time of our interview she could state that she was aware of various staff members use of technology in their classrooms but did not want to speculate the frequency of the use. As far as the future was concerned, the availability of money would help aide the school acquiring more technology equipment but that without a crystal ball she could not say with certainty how computers would play a role at the school and did not want to jump to any conclusions at the present time. **Instructional Coach Y. Colyer** Colyer emphasized the need for all elementary students to have a firm grasp of reading and number sense upon completion of elementary school. While she recognized the ability of technology to aide in this endeavor the fact remained that for Eubank’s student population that manipulatives, hands on materials, would be her first choice in equipment and resources that she would like to see the school acquire. According to Colyer, unfortunately hard choices have to be made and there just aren’t enough resources to go around to purchase everything that the administration or teachers would need or like to have in the classrooms. Her first priority would be to utilize some equipment available to the staff at the present time, which is not used frequently enough. By doing so she thought that the staff could prove to funding agencies and the district that technology assisted educational is beneficial to the students. ====== = **Appendix C**  = ** Teacher Survey **


 * 1) I teach:

Kindergarten 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

2 or less 3-7 8-15 16-25 25+
 * 1) Years of classroom experience:

Not yet Beginner with support Confident on my own Expert
 * 1) As a technology user, I classify myself as:

4. I have the following experience using technology with students: None Word processing Internet searches Games Specific websites

5. I classify my ability to design and assess lesson supported with technology: Not yet Beginner with support Confident on my own Expert 6. I rate my frequency of Professional use of technology: Only when reports are due Monthly Weekly Daily

7. When students use technology in the classroom, they mostly: Work individually Work in pairs Work in small groups Not using computers at this time