Preparation and Staff Development

To this end we have chose to use the "New iPad" and have just placed our order for staff devices.  I am working with our tech integrationist/media specialist, LeAnne Wagner, and a science teacher, Chris Like to put together a professional development plan for the staff.  The name of our plan is Mission Possible.  Chris is the owner of this idea and it is centered off of the idea of gamification.  Our goal is to provide staff enough technology training to feel comfortable finding resources on their own and implementing them into classroom practice. We are also going to primarily spend our meeting time focused on teaching practice.  We have centered our model around the characteristics of effective instruction in the Iowa Core Curriculum which will soon be the Common Core. The characteristics are student centered classrooms, teaching for understanding, assessment for learning, rigorous and relevant curriculum, and teaching for learner differences.  Before the end of the school year we will establish a second group of lead teachers that are willing to extend their learning and acquire some new tools.  We also plan to establish a student tech team to help support this on the IT end.

The Movement - Summer 2011

When I was hired in the spring of 2011 Jimmy Casas, the principal of Bettendorf High School, said to me "I want to see our kids have the opportunities to be successful in a 21st century classroom.  To me this means we need to seriously consider a 1:1 initiative."  Throughout the summer and school year we made several visits to current 1:1 schools and attended conferences to challenge our thinking.  This school year we conducted two different pilots of devices, began training a team of teachers to use web 2.0 tools including Google, held some staff wide training, and developed the infrastructure to be ready to support such an initiative.  Finally, we made presentations to central office administration and the board of education, and were approved to move forward with our concept on February 21, 2012.  Next October all freshman and sophomores will receive a device.  Let the fun begin!