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JC - Needs and Assessment and Action Plan

Located in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, you will find the town of Arlington Heights. Arlington Heights is the home of over 73,000 residents. The median household income is $81,527, compared to the state’s average of $46,590 (www.city-data.com). Arlington Heights has a “city feeling” in the suburbs. The town offers a variety of community events, shopping and restaurants, and several playgrounds and recreational activities. The mission of Arlington Heights School District 25 is to provide a superior education for a lifetime of learning. District 25 offers comprehensive instruction in literacy, mathematics, science, social science, health, physical education, visual arts, drama, music, and creative arts, as well as gifted education and special services. Arlington Heights School District 25 serves the central portion of Arlington Heights with seven elementary (K-5) schools and two middle schools (grades 6-8), with a total of more than 5,000 students. According to the Illinois State School Report Card, 85.1 percent of the district’s student population is White, 4.4 percent is Hispanic, 1.1 percent is Black, 5.7 percent is Asian, and 3.6 percent is multiracial. Seven percent of the student population is in the low-income bracket (www.sd25.org). Dryden School is one of the elementary schools, and is located in the southern part of town. 84 percent of the schools student population is White, 3.2 percent is Hispanic, 0.6 percent is Black, 7.8 percent is Asian, and 4.4 is multiracial. Dryden School is home to approximately 510 K-5 students. The mission of the staff at Dryden School is to create a school climate in which children and parents find a sense of personal worth, experience the warmth of community, and inspire learning as a life-long process. The staff at Dryden is one of dedicated, caring professionals, who show devotion to children and the educational process. The staff believes in teamwork, drawing on each others’ individual strengths and talents to benefit each and every child. Dryden School thrives on learning the latest technology, and how we can make it accessible for student learning. Each Wednesday morning before school, all staff members are encouraged to come to “Wired Wednesday,” which is a thirty- minute technology support group. This group is managed by our Library Media Center staff, and features a variety of technology tips we can use in our classrooms and with our students. Teachers are encouraged to share how they are using technology in their classrooms, as well as questions they may have about certain programs. __My Classroom__ My assignment at Dryden School is to teach second grade. I work closely with several of the support education staff, such as the speech pathologist, social worker, physical and occupational therapists, literacy coach, gifted teacher, and the resource teacher. In my class of twenty-five students, thirteen girls and twelve boys, twenty-two are pulled out for a variety of services throughout the day. One of the twenty-five students has cerebral palsy and is accompanied by a one-on-one teacher’s aide. Seven students have IEP’s, two of which are in alternative reading and math curriculums. Based on the diverse needs of my students, it is important to embrace the use of technology to help meet and exceed all my students’ needs. Inside my classroom, I want to influence my students in such a way they will interpret learning to be an endless opportunity. By using a variety of technology resources in my classroom, all children are given the opportunity to discover and explore their creativity and to stretch their imaginations, as they reach their own personal goals. When you walk into our colorful, warm, second grade classroom, you will see two IMac desktop computers in the front corner of the classroom, and two laptops in the back corner of our classroom. Mounted on the ceiling is a projector, which is connected to one of the IMacs in the front of the room. Every morning, the children are greeted with a “morning message” projected onto our interactive white board. Each week, several students are responsible for one of our classroom jobs. The children take turns through our job rotation, and every child has the opportunity to do each job twice throughout the school year. Each student has the responsibility to be our weather forecaster, and log onto one of our computers to give us an update of the daily forecast. Another child is in charge of turning on our Mimio, and using the graphing icon to graph the students’ responses from our “question of the day.” An all-time favorite job of the students in room 151 is our weekly student photographer. Our student photographer is in charge of using our digital camera to snap Kodak moments of the daily occurrences inside our classroom. Every child has been trained on how to turn on the camera, take a picture, turn off the camera, and most importantly, how to charge the battery. At the end of the student photographer’s week, the photographer meets with me and uploads their pictures into iPhoto. Together we upload their pictures onto our class webpage, and then the student types the captions of what is happening in each picture. Throughout our daily lessons in reading, math, social studies, and science, the children interact with the lessons on our interactive white board, and have also completed a variety of projects on Garageband, Keynote, and use of the Internet, as well as the “clickers” to enhance their learning. Every Thursday, the children experience forty-five minutes of technology in the Library Media Center. The LMC staff and myself meet on a regular basis to plan integrated lessons, which encompass the use of technology into the curriculum. We use the state standards, and district technology standards when planning our lessons’ objectives. Some of the programs that are team taught by the LMC staff and myself include researching on the Internet, Kidspiration, Google Earth, Google Docs, iPhoto, and Skype. When using these programs, the skills the students are focusing on is maneuvering around the computer, using the mouse, learning basic computer techniques such as “apple q” for logging out of a program, and becoming comfortable with the keyboard. It is also important for the children to learn about Internet safety and how to access websites appropriately. __Action Plan__ Over the past two and a half years as a teacher, I have developed incorporating technology into my daily lessons. I have tried each technology tool once, and took small steps to get to the point where I am currently. A personal goal I have for my future in technology is to create a class blog or wiki, where I can communicate with parents or other community members instead of just via email. I would also like to set up E-Portfolios for each of my students, where I can showcase their successes at a parent/teacher conference, or a RtI/IEP meeting. This would be a great tool to use, especially if a family cannot make it to a conference, or if a team of teachers needs to look at a child’s in-class work during a meeting. I would like to increase the use of technology in my classroom, and give my students more opportunities to take ownership in this process. One idea I would like to execute in the near future is creating a new job for my classroom, called the room 151 “classroom reporter.” I would teach several mini-lessons on the role of a reporter, and how to use a flip camera. After several examples and student practice, the students would be able to perform this job. This job would require two children (one crewman and one reporter), the flip camera, the computer, and our class website. The way the job would work is; the child (whose week it was to be the reporter) would use the class “reporter pad” to document anything they felt was exciting and/or important we did that week. At the end of the week, the reporter would team up with the crewman, who is responsible for recording the child giving the weekly report of the events and happenings inside our classroom. When the recording is complete, the children will upload this to our class webpage! When families view our webpage from home, they will be able to see my weekly newsletter, //Miss Chiappe’s News You Can Use//, along with a child’s perspective of the events taking place inside our classroom. This is a great way for students to reflect on the learning taking place during the week, as well as public speaking, the use of technology, and working cooperatively with a peer. Dryden School offers several events, in which our technology facilitators are documenting events using a camera and/or videotaping. The more children are trained on how to use these pieces of equipment, the more documentation (especially from a student perspective) can be done at these events. Part of our school’s vision is to provide a child- centered environment, and giving our students the tools to do so will make them life- long independent learners.