School+Staff+Development+Plans

Kevin Shanahan

This plan is based around achievement of students in many aspects. This school is implementing technology education and then evaluating the students achievement scores at the end of the year. At the end of the day, technology will only have a place in education, if student achievement increases. Otherwise, many may not see the value of technology. The value of technology goes way beyond test scores. I am so sick of testing for test scores. Test scores do not validate or encompass all aspects of education.

www.iowa-city.k12.ia.us/district/csip_reports/Prof_Dev_**Plan**.doc  Professional Development Staff Plan

Josh Funke My technology plan hails from southern Kings Consolidated Schools. I was not impressed reviewing this technology/professional plan. First and foremost, their vision statement is way too large. It reads more like a mission statement and automatically pushes me away from believing in their knowledge of education. Secondly, their tech professional development plan includes an odd set of leveled criteria for the teachers to become proficient in. They have created three levels of proficiency however the plan never tells you when/how the teachers will reach these levels of proficiency and to be quite frank, these are things my teachers knew how to do back when I was in high school 12 years ago. I did however enjoy their ICT plan and I felt that the learner outcomes were acceptable. Another major problem I had with this plan was that there was no mention of internet safety... http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/techplan.htm

Trevor Kahn This is the Many High School technology development plan. Many High School is located in Many Louisiana, I chose this to see a plan from a school with a different and more divers background from the schools that I am used to seeing. Many High School's vision is "to aid its students in becoming skilled, knowledgeable, independent, and self-directed learners who are comfortable with and proficient in using technology in all its forms as information resources. Through the use of technology, with its varied aspects and applications, each student at Many High School will be afforded opportunities and challenges that will allow them to successfully engage the future." While reading through all of the goals and the objectives, it is important to note that they have yet to update many of their objectives, as most of them are still from the 1997-98 school year or later. This may be so for a number of reasons, and I don't want to say anything that may not be 100% accurate, but it could just be funding, or lack of technology equipment. If you look towards the bottom I find it interesting that they want to make sure that they use an assessment tool to see if they're needs have been met. [] Jennifer Sanks  __ @http://www.slideshare.net/tomecker/professional-development-plan-for-technology __ The staff development plan included is for training on the schools personal software application, which aids in the running of this school. This particular aspect of training is wonderful for new and veteran teachers who have never used or are not familiar with all aspects of the applications. I was also pleased to see a section for equipment training, since not all educator know how to correctly set up a workstation with an lcd projector, smart board and printer. One area of focus I felt was missing was training for the integration of technology within the curriculum. Howie Templer @http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:RgKT3VnsZdEJ:spector.hicksvilleschools.org/download/2009-2011%2520Technology%2520plan.pdf+district+technology+staff+development&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiP5I6BZI9i2pY54He83jIYDiWwp8ej6yb27QBDCHlMaVtwrbM68lKpo_9U8xOKZfu7pVxjvqycvWYQ1UgxZbzjDjnMo2frhgOAZMRaTDQLVdnpiHrDSB-PaIJ95hT1U3-8SL-p&sig=AHIEtbTA5-LBdo1i4QJMk2ZX3-eG5JnvfA (I hope the link opens - I was viewing it as HTML instead of the download) What a disappointing professional development plan! I am choosing to write about the technology and professional development plan for Hicksville School District because I believe it represents a common shortcoming of school districts. It sends a message that we will have a professional development plan because we need to have a professional development plan. The tiered plan moving through three years does not go much further than to say "Professional development opportunities will be tiered, focused, and individualized based on the results of the needs assessment." It does not focus on any specific skills that will be taught to teachers, and the systematic approach the district will take to help develop teachers. Essentially there is no accountability. The school district is not taking it responsibility to professionally develop the teachers seriously. Even more upsetting is that they also have a goal for all classrooms to have a SmartBoard. Interactive whiteboards will be as effective as the users - if the teachers aren't effectively trained to use the boards, they will not be successful. The plan needs to be much more specific and take into account the needs of teachers.
 * Staff development in some many cases is left for funds "if available" Using the tco approach to budgeting helps to prevent this. dw**

Kelly Howard http://www.slideshare.net/diannekrause/technology-professional-development-plan-for-the-implementation-and-support-of-wissahickon-school-district-eclassrooms-and-macbook-carts If I were to develop a program for staff development in the area of technology my focus would be ACCOUNTABILITY!! The current district that I work in has some pretty good technology resources and staff development. Unfortunately, many of the teachers are not participating in these services because they don't have too. In order for teachers to support 21st century learners, they need to become 21st century educators!!
 * I would agree that we need to hold teachers more accountable for keeping their skills up to date. We demand a lot of our students, why should we expect less from our teachers?**

Julie Horowitz [] Professional development must reflect the needs of the professionals. One aspect of this plan I like is that it appears to be differentiated: there are three levels of training. They range from personal use (how to work a computer) to mentor use (how to teach others what you know about computers). This is a major problem in my district as many staff do not feel the professional development is of use to them because they either know it or do not see the connections to their classrooms. Districts and administrators need to poll staff members about what they want to learn and which skills they need to develop in order to make professional development of use to its members.
 * This is very important. Just like in our classrooms we need to make sure that we are trying to "hit the middle" using levels like this helps to make sure that the training is hitting the users correctly.**

Aisha Wade-Bey [|http://www.powayusd.com/pusdphs/campus/tech_use_plan_2005-2008.pdf] Professional development will provide many and varied opportunities for teachers to collaborate, learn, and implement new and/or improved strategies for educating our students. Teachers will leave the workshop with tangible information that can be used. In addition, teachers will be trained on all the new technology that will be incorporated in the school year 2010-2011. The goal is for teachers to leave the workshops with websites created, lesson created in each subject area. Professional development will be a work in progress and teachers will be paid during a summer institute that meets twice a week for three weeks. In addition, teachers will be able to come to this institute anytime after the meeting to finish any work they may not have completed. Therefore, their curriculum will be aligned for the following school year. The first 3 months of school, the teachers will have a paid technology coordinator on site dedicated to their specific needs to make the transition into technology simple.
 * this will work as long as they continue it each summer. I worry about paying for the training because many times it is not sustained.**

Ursula Pridgen Ricketts []

My plan will focus on the reciprocal relationship between teaching and learning. All the professional development I have looked through does not show a connection of the techer's development to the student learning. I think that whenever we engage in new learning there should a clear intention to directly correlate to the student.
 * Very good point, I think many times the training is not well thought out and there needs to be more planning and connection to what is going on in the classroom.**

Christopher Hull []

I believe that in order for a professional development plan to work you must understand what the teachers in your district want and also access their strengths and weaknesses. It is important to allow a forum for discussion - there are portions of the staff who maybe able to help or may know where help is. It is important to foster an atmosphere among the staff and students that there is room to improve and room to grow - always.
 * Its a great idea to formalize this peer to peer help. It makes sense to use the resources we have right next to us.**

Stephanie Cardella www.cuesd.tehama.k12.ca.us/techserv/tech**plan**.pdf Plan on pdf page 31 l agree with Chris regarding professional development. It is important to begin any professional development strand with a Needs Assessment survey. This give the district specific information of where professional development is needed and who needs the support. The above link has a professional development plan based on results from a needs assessment.
 * And most times we do not do an assessment, we just charge off and create training sessions. In our district we assess needs each year in the spring. It is part of the annual survey that teachers are given.**