Needs+Assessment+and+Action+Plan+-+TV

My building is a kindergarten through 5th grade building. The school serves 280 students in 13 general education classrooms. Every classroom is taught by a female teacher, with the exception of one male speech pathologist. The majority of the teachers are White (non-Hispanic). The average class size is approximately 25 students. The student population has changed drastically over the past 10 years. In 1999, the student body was primarily White (non-Hispanic) at 79%. Now in 2009, the student body is predominately Hispanic (55%). The White (non-Hispanic) community makes-up 30% of the population. There is also a small number of African American (5%) and Multiracial (10%) students. Two-thirds of the students that attend our building qualify for the free or reduced lunch program. My 5th grade classroom has 20 students. There are 12 boys and 8 girls in the class. 13 of the students are Hispanic, 6 students are White (non-Hispanic), and 1 student is of Middle Eastern descent. Although only 3 students are labeled as “ELL” in the classroom, Spanish, Arabic, and Serbian are all second languages that are spoken by various students in the class. Three-fourths of the class qualifies for the free or reduced lunch program. Of the 20 students in the class, 10 come from single parent homes. The building I work in, and the rest of the district, has been experiencing many changes in the past 5-10 years. In addition to the drastic changes in the ethnic make-up of our student population, number of students on free-reduced lunch, and district financial struggles, we have experienced many changes in leadership and classroom curriculum. In the past 4 years, we have welcomed a new building principal, superintendent, curriculum director, and technology director. Needless to say, our district has been in a transitional period for quite some time. The needs of our student population have shifted our district’s focus from reducing class sizes and purchasing quality curriculum, to Response to Intervention and ISAT scores. Because of this shift in priorities, our dedication to incorporating technology and creating an interactive classroom has been pushed aside. My goal is to help create a more interactive classroom. Because of district financial struggles, asking for a lot of expensive equipment is not a feasible solution. I think that there is technology out there that can be shared amongst our teachers, and used on a regular basis, in order to help improve student engagement, students and teacher feedback, and even test scores. First and foremost, I believe that every teacher should have a classroom projector and a computer connection to that projector. Displaying demonstrations, primary sources, and video clips is an excellent way to increase student engagement. In place of our ancient overhead projectors, document cameras could be put in place. These cameras would allow teachers to display pages from books, primary sources, and student work without having to make transparencies. Document cameras also allow the ability to project science demonstrations and even shoot short video clips. Teacher can save their demonstrations and presentations as files instead of storing papers in file cabinets. Students can also use these cameras to demonstrate their knowledge, or present on a given topic. Small groups can also shoot a short video and present to the class. In addition to document cameras, I think that student response systems (clickers) would be very beneficial for our data driven school district. Allowing students to instantly give feedback to a lesson would provide valuable information for our teacher in differentiating our lesson plans. This type of data can also be beneficial in preparing for ISAT testing. Also, data from the student response systems can be used at our quarterly Data Collaboration Meetings that are a part of Response to Intervention. In my classroom, I would like to create an interactive classroom website for my students. When it comes to incorporating more technology into my classroom, I want to start small because many of my students lack even the most basic word processing skills. Although not many of my students do not have internet access at home, I want to give them the opportunity to blog and engage in writing online. For next year, I want to create a classroom blog where students can type their reading responses, as opposed to writing them in a notebook. My biggest challenge will be differentiating the technology activities due to the wide range of abilities in my classroom. For those that struggle with word processing and basic internet use, I think that using flip video cameras, skype, or even ipod touches would be other engaging ways to incorporate technology into my lessons. I am very optimistic when it comes to technology and I’m open to trying new things. Although I may not be a technology “expert,” I am willing to experiment with using technology in the classroom to benefit our students and teachers. My ultimate goal is to see the positive effects that technology has on student performance, but I also want to mentor other teachers and show them that “change” isn’t always a bad thing.
 * Needs Assessment **
 * Student Population**
 * My Classroom**
 * What We Have**
 * As of this time my building has the following:**
 * A computer lab with 31 desk top computers, on scanner, and two laser printers. This lab also has a projector connected to the “teacher” computer.
 * Six classrooms have televisions (10 years old) mounted on the walls
 * Two television carts with older televisions (6 years)
 * One media cart with a laptop and a projector
 * The 3rd-5th grade classrooms have projectors mounted in their classrooms. Each projector is connected to the “teacher” computer.
 * Each classroom has at least two student computers in it.
 * Two digital cameras are available for teacher use
 * 10 over head projectors (10+ years old)
 * My classroom has the following:**
 * One “teacher” desktop computer connected to a classroom projector
 * Three student computers (only two are in use, one was never set up by the technology department)
 * DVD / VCR player (doesn’t work consistently)
 * One wireless keyboard
 * One overhead projector ( 10+ years old, and burns out if it is left one for more than 10 minutes)
 * I keep my personal digital camera in my classroom so I can have it available at any time
 * I have two sets of headphones with microphones that I brought from my home.
 * My Improvement Plan:**