A great set of links for Technology Integration and SMARTboards!

I hope Skip Zalneraitis, who writes the itlc blog, does not mind me reposting his SMARTboard, IWB Resources entry here. These are some great resources for our teachers that are going to be using interactive SMARTboards for the first time this year. All of these links look very useful! THANK YOU Mr. Zalneraitis!

http://www.lynnreedy.com - “This site has been designed to provide technology resources to educators. Its focus is to assist teachers in the integration of technology across the curriculum.”

http://www.community.teqsmart.org/download.php - Tequipment’s Educator Resource Center

http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-us/ - Smart Technologies’ Educators’ Resources and Classroom Solutions

http://exchange.smarttech.com/ - “We’re turning this passion into the SMART Exchange, a community of teachers, administrators and SMART experts sharing ideas, expertise and enthusiasm to create extraordinary moments in the classroom.”
http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Teachers+Hub/default.htm?WT.mc_id=EdHomeHUB
- “Puzzled about what to do next with your SMART education technology products? There’s no need to be. Our Teachers’ Hub will help you put everything together – one piece at a time.”
http://www.interactivewhiteboard.net.au - “Interactivewhiteboard.net.au aims to be the leading authority on interactive whiteboards and their use in education in Australia. This website is not about sales of products. Rather its aim is to encourage and support teachers and other educators who are committed to interactive learning environments in today’s 21st century classrooms.” Here is the lessons page - http://www.interactivewhiteboard.net.au/lesson.asp.
InteractiveWhiteboards in the Classroom. This page was created with support from a U.S. Department of Education PT3 grant (”Join Together”, P342A030098).
Silvia Tolisano is teacher in Florida. She was born in Germany, and raised in Argentina. Her blog, Langwitches, is liberally salted with a great many links for SMARTboard activities. If you follow the right column in her blog down to ‘Categories’, find SmartBoard, and click it, it will aggregate all of the post she has written about SMARTboards or cited links to them.
http://Talking SMARTboards & Much More - Sharing ideas to use the SMARTboard in a Special Ed classroom. Find her ‘Categories’ on the right and click ’smartboard’.
http://smartboardrevolution.ning.com/ - ” All smart board educators, unite! Let’s share ideas, tips, and lesson files to maximize learning for the children. They are our future. Let’s teach them well and let them…something or other. I can’t think of anything right now.”
Teachers Love SMART Boards - James Hollis is SMARTboard sales and supportperson from Illinois, who I came across on Twitter. Jim corrects me below - “I appreciate that you listed my Teachers Love SMART Board blog and I just thought I would mention that I’m not associated with Smart Technologies in any way. I’m just a teacher and technology trainer trying to help teachers use SMART Boards more effectively.”

Keep the comments coming!

The series on our school improvement plan has generated several interesting comments. Although this blog does not publish the annonymous comments, they are certainly read, and the useful feedback that is generated becomes important data for various PHS committees. Several comments have become the basis for titles on the blog and will continue to do so.

THANK YOU AND CONTINUE TO GIVE US FEEDBACK!

PHS Improvement Plan Part V

V. Student Attendance and Hallway Behavior

We want to raise our attendance rate from 90.07% in 2007-08 to 92% in 2008-09. To do this we will monitor daily attendance and admits more closely in the PHS office. We have arranged administrative schedules to dedicate time each morning to checking admit status (students who have been absent) and following up on students absent the morning they are not in school. Use of the Student Resource Officer will be focused on home visits(with an administrator) for those students that are chronically truant.

Our staff would like to see improvement in hallway behavior as evidenced by fewer referrals to the office for between class infractions. Teacher and administrator visibility is the key for this effort. Teachers and administrators will be in the hallways before and after school as well as between classes. We have moved some of the locker assignments to reduce hallway congestion in the basement.

Incentives will be used to reward students with good attendance. Every month a drawing will be held for students with perfect for the previous month. Prizes may include free dance tickets, PHS athletics passes, discounts on yearbooks...etc... Individual teachers will also be allowed to give incentives in class for attendance. These may include dropping a lowest grade or increased size of note cards used on finals.

This quote caught my eye!

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct. - Benjamin Disraeli

The easiest job in the world is that of a critic. Anyone can find a problem, seeking solutions is the real work!

Where do Seniors fit in?

One of the biggest challenges high schools face is making the senior year relevant. Since Paris High School has joined the High Schools That Work network, we have tasked ourselves with trying to make the senior student's experience more challenging and relevant. Last year we added a mentoring program for our entire student body, which included seniors. We have differentiated what we are doing with the program and have developed several "senior only" programs for them. Over the past three years we have added more college co-credit and AP courses and have encouraged our students to take as many of these as they can. This year we have added another with a college freshman level Science course. We have not yet received this year's seniors PSAE scores. (The fact that we do not have these yet illustrates one of the biggest holes in the NCLB process. Data is only good if we have it in time to make changes based on that feedback) We anticipate that this years scores will be higher than they have been in the past several years, but that remains to be seen. We always take those scores and look at what parts of the curriculum needs to be prescriptively emphasized for each individual class. All seniors that do not meet on the English or reading portion of the PSAE will take our English IV course that will work on specific skills identified by deficits on the test. One of our big goals for this year is to study how to implement a senior project that becomes the capstone learning experience for our students before they graduate. We have also put in an online learning lab with Internet curriculum available for students to make up credits when they have failed required courses. A teacher will be available in the lab to help students with concepts and skills as needed. As always, if you have a specific question about something you read here or anything about PHS, I would be happy to sit down with you and discuss your concerns. Simply give me a call and we will set up an appointment to talk.

PHS School Improvement Plan part IV

III. Drop out Prevention
A. Mentoring program will continue and will incorporate the Freshman Focus curriculum for our freshman groups. We will add emphasis to the career day opportunity for students. Staff will meet during July 2008 to finalize more differentiated curriculum for our sophomore, junior and senior groups. The mentoring group will continue to study the final project option for seniors and look to implement that for the 2009-2010 school year. We expect to maintain a 90% graduation rate.
B. Paris High School will use the Novell Stars online curriculum to help students make up credits that have been failed. Novell Stars provides online curriculum in all academic areas and will be available to student in a computer lab staffed by a certified teacher during the regular school day. Students will be identified by guidance, administration and teaching staff to use the Novell Stars program to earn credit. We expect to maintain a 90% graduation rate.
C. We will continue to use lunch bunch to help those student who are struggling in their freshman classes. All freshman students who are failing a class will be referred to the lunch bunch. This year a student mentoring program will be introduced which will allow for student mentors/tutors from the National Honor Society, Key Club, and etc…, to work with struggling students. We want to see that 100% of our freshmen are classified as sophomores following their first year of high school.

School Improvement Plan (part III)

II. Math Achievement
A. Two math teachers have been given a period to work with students in a small groups on a daily basis. Students for this program have been identified by using ISAT, EXPLORE and PLAN test results as well as by teacher recommendation. Students identified have been grouped and scheduled in PE classes and will be pulled out at least once a week for math instruction in small groups. The instruction will be based on the needs of individual student as identified by test deficiencies and classroom performance. The teachers will incorporate the use of WINS for Work Keys where necessary to provide students with real world math problems and to prepare them for the PSAE exam. We expect 65% of the students identified for this program to meet or exceed on the math portion of the PSAE test. B. All juniors will use the WINS for Work Keys program to assess math achievement. Students will take a pre test in September and will work with their Math teacher to set a personal goal for the end of the for achievement during the school year. All students will show progress towards that goal by using the WINS software as tracked by administration, guidance personnel and Math teachers.

Leadership Day

Leadership.....or lack of it? Schools are at best marginally effective. As leaders we must have courage to change what our schools are.....we must challenge ourselves to change! What do we need to do to ensure that our great country continues to educate each coming generation so they can live the "American Dream?" Surely it is more than giving worksheets and showing movies, filling heads with facts and simple manipulations and then drilling them to see if we didn't numb them to death? We have to get beyond seeing ourselves as the repository and perfunctory disseminator of information! We must teach, or better yet, learn alongside with our staff and students, not facts, but functions and skills. We need to stop thinking about a general knowledge education....all that stuff (general knowledge) is available wherever there is a computer and an Internet connection. We need to teach today's student to do specialized things that have use in today's and tomorrow's workplaces. Today's schools are mostly unengaging. Today's students can find what they need(want) to know without ever stepping into our schools(...more than likely they can just look it up on their phone.) Through their eyes, we become more and more irrelevant all the time. As leaders IT IS OUR JOB TO SEE THAT IT CHANGES!

As school leaders we must challenge the status quo at every chance. We must pressure local, state and national political bodies to have the courage to make education our number one priority. We must challenge the teachers staffing our buildings to become lead learners who facilitate engaging learning environments which challenge our students. Most importantly, we must demonstrate our willingness to change in order to bring about change!

PHS improvement plan (rough draft) partII

Part II of this series begins the description of the action plan for each identified area of concentration....

I. Reading Achievement
A. Paris High School will employ a full time Title I reading teacher that will teach supplemental English for both Freshmen and Juniors. These classes will focus on reading comprehension skills and reading strategies aimed at bringing students closer to grade level in reading and prepare them for PSAE and pre college level classes. Students for these classes have been identified by ISAT, EXPLORE, and PLAN scores, as well as by teacher recommendation. The classes will parallel the English I and English III classes that these students will also be enrolled in. The curriculum for these classes will supplement English I and III and will incorporate the use of WINS for Work Keys and ACT online preparation. We expect to see 65% of the students identified for this program meet or exceed on the PSAE exam during their junior year.
B. Teachers will incorporate reading strategies into their curriculum on an ongoing basis. Staff training will focus on reading across the curriculum. One of our five ½ inservice days at the beginning of the school year will be dedicated to reading strategies and reading across the curriculum. Teachers will be required to keep reading strategies in their lesson plans as well share their in class strategies in monthly staff meetings and on the PHS staff development blog. Each teacher will be required to report out monthly on reading strategies used and their effectiveness. The principal will see that all lesson plan requirements are met and that all staff are reporting out using the blog or in staff meetings. The administrative staff will observe lessons using reading strategies on an ongoing basis.
C. Teachers will use ACT like questions that require students to read for information using reading passages, charts, and graphs on regularly scheduled tests. Each department chair will maintain a test bank of ACT like questions that are used on tests within the department. The administration will review test banks and will require teachers to demonstrate how tests reflect this requirement.
D. All juniors will use the WINS for Work Keys program to assess reading achievement. Students will take a pre test in September and will work with their English teacher to set a personal goal for the end of the year for achievement during the school year. All students will show progress towards that goal by using the WINS software as tracked by administration, guidance personnel and English teachers.

Paris High School--School Improvement Plan (in rough draft) Part I

Over the summer the PHS staff meets to look at data and discuss our focus for improvement for the upcoming school year. We are always missing one big piece of the puzzle this time of the year and that is our state test scores. We look at formal and informal surverys, test scores from PLAN, ACT, WINSforWork Keys, and classroom assessments in our summer meetings. When we finish our planning time we usually have at least a rough draft of our new school improvement plan. I am going to post our preliminary plan on this blog in a series (not another one!)

2008-2009 Paris High School Improvement Plan Summary
We have identified six major areas for concentration of improvement efforts. They are:

I. Reading Achievement
II. Math Achievement
III. Drop out prevention
IV. Student behavior and Attendance
V. Technology Integration
VI. School Spirit

Over the next several days I will post the different action plans we are proposing in each of these identified areas.