Professional Documents
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Megan Endicott Shared Vision and Rationale
Megan Endicott Shared Vision and Rationale
Megan Endicott
ITEC 7410
Fall 2017
Vision Statement
The focus at Dolvin Elementary School is to effectively roll out the Fulton
County Personalized Learning plan that aligns with the school vision and mission set
forth and agreed upon by the staff, students and stakeholders. Technology is a key piece
in creating a solid personalized learning environment. The end goal at Dolvin is that
procedures. Dolvins strategic plan includes three areas of focus, (1) building student
character, leadership, and confidence, (2) critical thinking across all content areas, and (3)
incorporating STEM and Project Based Learning (PBL) opportunities, the 7 Mindsets
program, and the 7 Personalized Learning Principals identified by the district. To ensure
that the staff is properly prepared, a professional learning plan and timeline has been
implemented through a data driven processes to ensure that teachers and students needs
Rationale
survey. Stakeholders from across the building were included in the process, which
included administration, the instructional technology coach, teachers, and parents. I held
a separate meeting with the administration team to discuss the current school vision and
mission and how technology is currently being used in the building and discuss future
SHARED VISION & RATIONALE 3
goals for our school. Based on the survey results, stakeholders believe that technology
demonstrate their knowledge of learning through technology tools, and a belief in the
professional learning opportunities available are enhancing instruction. The areas the
stakeholders would like to focus on include finding ways to differentiate learning and
support the use of technology to better assess students. Two of the personalized learning
principles included in the schools vision are just-in-time direct instruction and mastery
based assessments. These principles promote student growth through tracking student
Included in the definition is ensuring teachers can bridge the gap between the students
mastery of learning objectives with those of progress reports and report cards. One clear
process for identifying student assessment is through continuous formative checks. Barry
Zimmerman and Maria Dibenedetto from the Graduate Center of the City University of
New York warn that large summative tasks with no formative checks or feedback along
the way can cause low test scores and unmotivated students. They agree that these
approach measures individual student growth throughout the school year with a focus on
the mastery of course objectives, rather than a comparison of student achievement with a
SHARED VISION & RATIONALE 4
formative checks, and tracking individual student growth, students will begin to take
Suprayogi points out the difficulty of avoiding the one-size-fits-all approach and
understand that children have different learning style, motivation, ability, need, [and]
studies, some barriers for implementing differentiated groupings were related to lack of
familiarity with tools and resources, lack of time, and lack of people resources. With
proper professional development featuring tracking and assessing students and best
practices for forming flexible grouping, teachers will gain the knowledge on resources
and technology tools that can help with implementing differentiation practices. Under
the umbrella of the personalized learning principle of variety strategies, lies the sub-
Team identifies this category as students learning in many instructional settings as they
Zealand, alongside her colleagues and researchers found that the analysis of the responses
to the research questions led to the conclusion that in order to maximize the potential of
learners (Riley, 2016). While this case study focuses on gifted students, the
environment with students among their zone of proximal development as they co-
construct knowledge (McLoed). However, in contrast to the case study of pairing like-
minded students, incorporating varied strategies through altered flexible groupings can
prove beneficial. Vygotsky also suggests that much important learning by the child
occurs through social interaction with a skillful tutor (McLoed) he likes to refer to as the
knowledgeable other. This could occur through specific flexible grouping opportunities
to offer remediation or support for English Language Learners (ELLs) or Students with
direct instruction.
Diversity Considerations
accessibility at home to technology resources and internet connectivity for SES is a cause
for concern. Fulton County schools has issued a county device to all middle and high
school students creating a 1:1 learning environment, while elementary students are set up
SHARED VISION & RATIONALE 6
with shared devices. In each classroom at Dolvin, each teacher is equipped with a teacher
laptop and iPad. The classrooms contain 8 shared iPads, and 3 desktop or laptop
computers. Our school has access to lap-top and iPad mobile carts to serve as a class set
when needed through a check out process. In addition, mobile maker carts outfitted with
robotics and STEAM resources are available for each grade level. With the abundance of
technology in our building and through the support of the stakeholders, such as the school
Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the Dolvin Foundation, I will propose a checkout
system much like that implemented in the middle and high school, but offered to
Gender Inequalities
Studies (Warnecke, 2017) show that there is a technology gap between genders
forming an inequality. Warnecke (2017) explains that there are three forms of gender
building; and unequal understanding of legal rights and modes for civic participation. To
follow-up, Warneckes research finds that knowledge, access, and effective utilization
of technology can help in bridging the gap. At Dolvin, both girls and boys are
encouraged to learn and experiment with technology-rich learning, coding, and robotics.
A student tech team has been enacted and has equal number of boys and girls on the
team. To help bridge the gap, the student tech team will help ensure students are properly
trained on troubleshooting their devices as well as find new innovative ways to use
technology tools. This will help build student ownership of their learning. I will advocate
SHARED VISION & RATIONALE 7
for a girl only technology innovation squad through Wonder Workshop to establish and
Dolvin have support through pull out and inclusion models based on the special services
put in place for the individual child. Students work with a variety of Fulton County
supported technology. One of which is Co-writer, which helps with writer word
prediction and speech recognition for students who have deficits in written expression.
IDEA. This technology offers students accessibility to text-to-speech and study tools for
needed. The Special Education Instructional Support Teacher (IST) meets with special
education teachers monthly for in-depth student specific meetings and data talks. In
addition, the special education teachers also attend required county meetings to collect
data. One valuable way to support teachers to increase student achievement is to bring in
professionals. Last year, Dolvin brought in the district Exceptional Children Program
environment that focuses on diverse learning needs. One major barrier identified by
Courduff, Szapkiw, and Wendt (2016) documented that special education teachers felt
meeting the students needs and build a professional learning network. One comment
SHARED VISION & RATIONALE 8
notated in the survey was the wish to view more examples of technology being used by
teachers in the building. Offering the opportunity for flexibility in teachers schedules to
At Dolvin, we have 100 out of 852 students who are identified as English
Language Learners. Our English Language Learners (ELLs) are taught by our English
Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). In addition, our school has access to two bilingual
parent liaisons to help with communication needs for students and parents. Our ESOL
teacher assists students with cultural linguistic backgrounds and the faculty that serve
them as well. The ESOL teachers host a school-wide professional development portion
annually as an overview on their students and host a detailed session for new teachers
each year. This year, the ESOL teachers will be gaining access to Imagine Learning
which is an ESOL specific program. The students will be able to hear content in their
native language and record themselves to compare to the model in the program. Teachers
can listen to recordings and track student growth and inform instruction. For students
with very limited English, Starfall is a program that meets their needs. Finding useful
ways to integrate other technology tools such as Osmo and Seesaw are additional options
used for ELL students. A common theme in the survey, teachers again mentioned having
access to training that was specific to their classroom. Offering job embedded
observe other professionals at least twice a year would impact student learning
significantly.
Stakeholder Roles
SHARED VISION & RATIONALE 9
Currently our school has access to several types of technology thanks to the
support of the Fulton County district officials and the tax payers who support the
personalized learning initiative. Dolvin has worked hard to set its vision and mission to
match those of the district. All stakeholders involved devote a lot of time, energy, and
Administration
environment in which teachers can take risks to try new things. Flexibility in scheduling
and creating lesson concepts that are specific to each classroom teacher and their students
is important and another area that is a focus for our administration. Monthly data talk
meetings are held as a grade level to discuss student achievement and find areas of
needed. This continued support will help increase student achievement and ownership of
their learning. Student and teacher achievement is consistently tracked through monthly
Our school has a flexible position titled Administrative Assistant (AA) where the
staff member is used at the discretion of the principal and assistant principal. Our
has created a calendar for teachers to sign up for various types of coaching. This job
feedback for teacher growth conversations. I will propose continuing with peer
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Technology leaders have been identified throughout the building and placed on a
teacher technology team that parallels the district Vanguard technology team as a spin-off
or franchise. A member per grade level, including administration, and special areas are
included on the team and serve as a peer coach for their grade levels. Teachers may
co-plan or co-teach a lesson. The Vanchise also hold monthly afterschool professional
development for teachers that match the school initiatives. These sessions are embedded
with technology tools and resources for integration and are filled with best practices for
Observation on their assigned teammates three times a year and discuss goals with
teachers to move up one indicator on the matrix. Moving forward, the Vanchise team will
ensure they are providing follow-up conversations with their team after their observation
and coaching session. This could happen in the form of independent informal interviews
Teachers
The teachers role is ensuring they share their school technology vision with the
school leaders and Vanchise members to ensure their voices are heard. In the survey, not
all teachers strongly agreed that they understood their role in the technology vision. In
teachers taking risks and trying new innovative ideas in their classroom. I will advocate
network to ensure teacher are moving away from complacency and toward
addition, teachers will work with all students to bridge the digital divide between SES
and ELLs students, as well as the gender gap through differentiated instruction and
or sent home via links. Nearpod sessions are offered through session codes that are
Parents are a vital asset as they raise additional local school funding for our
budget to pay for educational software to support all our students. Parents are expected to
remain in constant contact with their teachers and read all information sent home in
weekly e-mail blasts and communication journals. In addition, the expectation is that
parents read the Dolvin Diary for weekly school news and periodically check the school
website. Parents with students requiring special services or accessibility are expected to
reach out to the administration as needed to obtain resources or support from the school.
manner and maintain an open communication with their teachers and parents to aid in
taking ownership for their learning. A student tech team of fourth and fifth grade student
members are available to help their peers with technological needs in the mornings prior
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to the bell. Based on Vygotskys constructivist theory the social groupings will help
References
Courduff, J. j., Szapkiw, A., & Wendt, J. L. (2016). Grounded in What Works:
10.1177/0162643416633333
http://fultonpl.weebly.com/mastery-based-assessment.html
Suprayogi, M., m., Valcke, M. M., & Godwin, R. r. (2017). Teachers and their
http://fultonpl.weebly.com/teach-in-a-variety-of-groupings.html
Warnecke, T. (2017). Social Innovation, Gender, and Technology: Bridging the Resource
Gap. Journal of Economic Issues (Taylor & Francis Ltd), 51(2), 305-314.
doi:10.1080/00213624.2017.1320508
Zimmerman, B.J., & Dibenedetto, M.K. (2008). Mastery learning and assessment:
Appendix
parents) can identify and understand the technology vision and how it applies to
their roles.
classroom.
3. I am aware of the long and short term technology goals for my school.
instructional needs.
5. I utilize and value the instructional technology support from the Dolvin Vanchise
9. There is a digital citizenship plan and an acceptable use policy in place to protect
students in my building.
Short Answer
13. What are ways you would like to see teachers integrate technology more
effectively.
14. What changes can be made to our current professional learning that will help you
15. What is the role of our stakeholders with the technology integration vision?