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District Technology Training Plan

Name: Sweetmore J. Marufu

Workshop Title: District Technology Training Plan

Subject(s) of the day’s workshop:

5th Grade Math Curriculum Skills

Prerequisite Knowledge: Effectively integrate Smart notebook in

the teaching and learning 5th Math skills.

Introduction:

Smart Notebooks have many advantages towards effectively teaching in the classroom. According to Smart Notebook 21csymposium (2012) Smart notebook technology tools support pedagogy and the curriculum in a variety of ways which include identifying and designing teacher lessons which involve students in groups and independently. Smart technology provides collaborative software with tools and content to help teachers teach dynamic and motivating lessons. The Smart Notebook is best used with the interactive whiteboards. (Promethean board) The paper discusses the five day District Technology Training Plan workshop organized for twenty experienced teachers in the district of Montgomery County Public Schools. The mission of the DTTP is to introduce the different ways the Smart notebook technology can be effectively utilized in the teaching and learning of students. Objectives, workshop details and evaluation strategies will be discussed.

Content (Describe in a paragraph)

It will be a five days’ workshop made up of twenty, “Experienced 5th Grade Elementary teachers” in the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). I will narrow down the District Technology Training Plan topic; to facilitate a workshop of experienced teachers learning the new skills of the Smart notebook software technology in the classroom. They will acquire the skills of using the Smart Notebook on the Promethean board to teach Math curriculum skills for the 5th grade level. The mission of the Department of Instructional Technology in the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is to make sure there is collaborative learning and professional growth

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concerning any new technologies in the county schools and offices. (MCPS, 2011) Many of the technologies in the district have recently been acquired especially in the new renovated schools and need to be fully utilized. The District Technology Training Plan takes into account all the ideas and contributions from teachers, local business people, community members and educators. Their technological expertise will be appreciated to make the workshop successful towards improving the curricula for the students.

Objectives for the lesson:

By the end of the five days the District Technology Training Workshop of the Elementary school teachers should be able to:

1. Enhance instructional applications of the smart notebook.

2. Listen to the smart notebook tutorials.

4. To effectively apply Smart notebook technology in the inclusionary Math curriculum context in the classroom.

5. Suggest ways of getting funds needed to purchase Smart Notebook 11 software for the schools in the District.

6. Download the Smart Notebook 11 software and practice how to use it the classroom.

Source: /www.google.com/search

How will you teach the lesson? Details help.

I would put the list of the workshop procedures in order to make the plan successful considering the inputs of all the members involved.1. Listing the Objectives/goals of Training Workshops.

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The plan for integrating technology into the school is based on the school or district's educational vision made up of short and long term goals and is part of an overall school-improvement plan.2. Defining the problem

This covers the reason for the District Technology Training Plan. What is the problem I need to solve?3. Prioritizing Needs

All the steps of the workshop have to be listed in order of priorities and be followed as the workshop proceeds. It involves planning and implementing the technology.4. Audience Analysis-

The District of Montgomery County Public School will have representations from all segments. In this case, only experienced teachers who have expertise in technology and telecommunications will make up the committee. The committee has to choose a team leader who has the leadership qualities of organization and keep the members on task.

5. Developing training workshops

The planning process of the workshop involves asking appropriate questions concerning technology in education examples could be: How can technology be evenly distributed among students? What new skills should be taught? How can teachers include technology in their lessons? Meetings with the committee will be scheduled to collaborate on ways to go about with the DTTP.6. Communicating progress with the client. I will discuss with the committee on any development in progress.7. Evaluating the overall effectiveness of the training by incorporating recommendations from the members into the technology plan.8. Needs assessment looks at the assessment using the technology to see whether the objectives of the plan were achieved.9. Developing a budget -we will develop a technology plan budget, which includes professional development of school staff to keep the teachers updated with the latest technology. We have to find ways of sourcing funds or getting donations from the county, community or local business people of any electronics we need in order to get everything ready. Teachers who attend the workshop will be paid five hundred dollars each to cover for travelling costs and as an incentive.

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10. Evaluating whether attendees have learned what they were supposed to learn Integrate appropriate technology into curricular areas and make follow ups to see whether the attendees are implementing the technology skills taught.

Once the procedures are in order, then the District Technology Training Plan workshop begins at a selected center for the county. This has to be one of the new renovated schools with all the equipment we need such as computers, laptops, promethean boards, Elmo set up information, multi-function printers, boosting microphones, all the software and hardware in use.The first day of the workshop, I will start with introductions and talk about the advantages of technology use in the classroom then move on to download the Smart notebook tutorial and talk about what the Smart notebook is and what it is capable of. I will elaborate the Smart notebook advantages keeping students focused, help students stay on task, motivation, enabling group collaboration, teacher-student network connection, teacher’s direct monitoring and support. They will listen to tutorials on You Tube: Introduction to Smart boards (YouTube) Good place to start.

Introduction to the Smart Notebook (YouTube) this is the program that comes with the Smart Board.

Smart Notebook Collaborative Learning Software Download   it for your own system as a trial version. You will have use of it for 30 

Then explore whole group, small group and individual learning tutorials on: http://vault.smarttech.com/videos/classroomtour/index.html

Following the tutorials, I will have to make a demonstration to the attendees on how to use the Smart notebook technology to make presentations. The Gallery Essentials is one of the most important sections of the Smart notebook. Click on Gallery Essentials and select the subject you want. In this case Mathematics then proceed to pick the topic for example Shapes, Space and Measure or any topic for your lesson. Under each of those topics there are more subtopics drop down such as Angles, Area, Maps & plans, Shapes, Temperatures, Time and Trigonometry. Your selection will take you to pictures, interactive and multimedia sections, tools are available. So, I will demonstrate step by step to the teachers and asking questions/answering questions as we go. The attendees present will work in four groups of five members each practicing ways of using the tools in the classroom and make reports and collaborate to the whole class. Smart Notebook Math Tools:

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Images from https://www.google.com/searchSmart Notebook 3D Tools:

Images from https://www.google.com/search

Smart Document Camera and Mixed Reality Tools:

Images from https://www.google.com/search

Smart Response assessment software:

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The entire Smart notebook tools such as the Smart Product Drivers, Pen, Smart Ink, Screen Shade, Spotlight, Magnifier and Pointer. (Smart Notebook11, 2012) are connected to the computer and help to enable performing normal computer operations. Any work done can be saved or exported to web pages, pdf or PowerPoint. The digital pen tool can be used for drawing on the board.

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All images from https://www.google.com/search

Additional Materials you will use and how will you use them:

My demostrations to the whole class include navigating on the Interactive whiteboard which consists of the following components:

The Action bar/ Menu panelThe panel consists of commands to follow and these are undo, create new slide, delete, save, tools, go back etc The commands help and guide you as you practice the skills.Lesson Activity Tool kit provides many tools such as pointers, pull tabs, buttons etc to help you make changes.The Gallery Essentials has many tabs with all the subjects across the curriculum. As you follow the dropdowns more options and pictures are available.Online Resources connect you to more training, tutorials on line. These also include support you might need when you get stuck and Smart notebook is connected to Twitter, Facebook, EdCompass blog and You Tube channel. There are so many tutorials within the Smart notebook to guide you as you open any page.

Action bar/panel

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All images from https://www.google.com/search

Evaluation Strategies:

After demonstrations, presentations and group collaborations then it will be time for evaluations. Each group will report different ways of presenting Smart notebook tools to the whole class. After, their reports, the class may ask them questions which they will respond to.

From that, attendees will respond to a survey about the workshop. Here is the survey link I made from: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TXTXLFV

The teachers who attended the workshop will complete a rubric individually on this link.

file:///C:/Users/Aaron's/Downloads/DISTRICT%20TECHNOLOGY%20TRAINING%20PLAN%20rubric.htm

Conclusion:

From the evaluation strategies, I will be able to determine how the District Technology Training Plan went. The surveys and the rubric will show me the parts which were insufficiently done and need attention in future and the parts which had an impact on the teachers as they go back to implement new technology to their schools. I will have to make follow ups to see whether the attendees are implementing the technology skills taught. To conclude, the paper discusses ways of incorporating the Smart Notebook on the Promethean board to teach Math curriculum skills for the 5th grade level at an organized District Technology Training Plan for five days.

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Demonstrations, tutorials, presentations, objectives and strategies have been discussed in the paper. Here is a video to watch: http://www.youtube.com/user/SmartClassrooms

References:

Images from /www.google.com/search

Montgomery County Public Schools (1995–2013) Department of Instructional Technology  MCPS, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850

Introduction to Smart boards (YouTube) Good place to start.Introduction to the Smart Notebook (YouTube) This program comes with the SMART Board. Smart Notebook Collaborative Learning Software Download  

http://vault.smarttech.com/videos/classroomtour/index.html

Smart Notebook (2012) Smart Technologies ULC. Windows operating systems. All rights reserved. http://www.21csymposium.org/

https://www.surveymonkey.com/MyCollector_Detail.aspx?smfile:///C:/Users/Aaron's/Downloads/DISTRICT%20TECHNOLOGY%20TRAINING%20PLAN%20rubric.htm

http://www.youtube.com/user/SMARTClassrooms