Cycle 2
ACTION TAKEN: The action of this second cycle was to create a committee that would help me support the teachers in their implementation of technology in the classroom. The committee would meet once a month to discuss technology needs they see campus wide, ways to support the staff after professional development classes were offered, and to give the committee members a first glance at the upcoming professional development sessions. This would allow committee members to further support the staff on the day of the professional development training and after as they would be better prepared.
RESEARCH QUESTION: How will the creation of a technology committee affect the level of implementation of technology in the classroom?
PREDICTED OUTCOME: Due to the overwhelming response on the needs assessment, I expected to have a group of 10-15 teachers who would be interested in giving their own professional development classes and who would be eager to support their colleagues with technology implementation.
EVIDENCE USED TO EVALUATE THE ACTION: The evidence used to evaluate the action taken in this cycle was a sign in sheet to indicate the level of participation, the agenda of topics for the meeting to indicate the content of the meetings, and the notes taken during the meeting to help determine the quality of the interactions.
EVALUATION:
Frequency and level of participation:
The technology committee has met four times. The initial meeting was November 26th, 2012, followed by two meetings in December (5th and 18th) and the fourth meeting was held on February 11th, 2013. The meetings were held after school and snacks were provided at the first meeting. Initially I started off with 19 people who indicated on the needs assessment that they wanted to be a part of this technology committee. Once I sent out a follow up email it turned out that only 12 people were really interested. At the first technology meeting, held on November 26th there were eight people who attended. At our second meeting, held on December 5, there were only five out of the twelve who attended. At our third meeting on December 18th, six people attended, and at our most recent meeting on February 11th, only three attended.
At our initial meeting I explained to the attendees the purpose of the committee. I wanted our group to be a community that would help support other teachers in the integration of technology at Sycamore Canyon. It was my hope that they would want to give professional development classes to the staff to generate more sharing of knowledge among the staff. As our first meeting went along, it became fairly clear that the members of the group did not feel comfortable giving their own professional development, but that they would support me and serve as backups to assist during professional development classes.
A big topic at the first two committee meetings was the lack of technology and the lack of a school wide document that could be sent home to parents allowing their child to use technology and agreeing to the use of bring your own device (BYOD). It was a concern that each time a teacher wanted to use new technology in the classroom a new permission slip would need to be sent home, a process which can be extremely tedious. Another big issue that was brought up was the possibility of having school wide email accounts for the students. After checking into this with the district, I found out that next year each student will have his/her own secured email account through the district.
At the third meeting I pre-trained the committee members on Story Kit, an iPad app, which would serve as my first professional development class for the rest of the staff. The technology committee members were learning about this app ahead of time so that they would be there on the day of the professional development session to assist teachers and ultimately follow up later to assist with the actual implementation in the classroom.
At the most recent meeting we met to discuss the evaluation of the Story Kit professional development which was recently offered to the whole staff, analyze the feedback from the teachers who attended the Story Kit professional development session, brainstorm ways to help teachers implement Story Kit in the classroom, and brainstorm ways to get more teachers involved, as attendance for the professional development session was low.
REFLECTION: This cycle was more challenging than the first cycle. Getting people to respond to emails and attend meetings proved to be very challenging. In trying to understand why the attendance keeps declining, I’ve identified several possibilities. The most likely reason is that people are over committed. The majority of the people on this committee are also a part of leadership, school site council, ASB, UACT, or another committee that requires monthly meetings. While the meetings are not necessarily on the same day as my meetings (there was some overlap, however) the members of the committee are teachers who are dedicated to education and don’t have enough time for all commitments. Because my committee is completely voluntary, when other commitments conflict they are more likely to have to drop their participation.
The second reason people are not attending these meetings is simply because they forget. Despite my constant reminders, I have had several committee members come up to me the day after the meeting and apologize they didn’t come, they simply forgot. It seems that my method of communication is not as effective as I thought. Therefore, I may need to personally seek out each committee member and touch base with him or her the day before the meeting to verify that they are coming. I could also leave a physical note in the mailbox the day before to meeting as a reminder. I made an assumption that teachers checked their emails daily, and after realization, I now realize this may not be the case. Another possibility would be to include a reminder of my meeting in the morning announcements. This is something that is heard in every classroom every morning.
Lastly, a final possible reason for lack of attendance and effort is because the staff does not see the value in the committee. The teachers at Sycamore Canyon are extremely hard working and already put in a huge number of hours outside of their normal contractual hours. It is possible that because this committee is not coming from administration, or backed by the administration, that the teachers don’t take technology integration as a serious goal. The teachers need to be made aware of the commitment of the school to this goal of technology integration. If administration told them they were going to be required to use technology in their classes next year, this school wide goal might inspire more dedicated and regular participation. If the administration publically recognized and thanked them for this participation, perhaps they would be more interested and feel that their work was validated. I need some way for this committee to be more officially sanctioned.
It is also interesting to point out that at my first meeting I provided snacks for the staff, but did not do so at the following 3 meetings. I do not know if this had any effect on attendance or not. The reason I stopped providing snacks is simply because of cost. One of the committee members suggested that we should set up a “snack list” and have one member a month bring snacks for the session. I asked if she would take responsibility for this, but unfortunately we were never able to implement this practice. The most recent email I sent out reminding staff of the upcoming meeting asked if anyone wanted to bring snacks, but I received no responses.
Although this committee was not as successful as I wanted it to be, I do feel that it provided a strong basis for positive change next year. I recently met with my principal to discuss developing this committee further next year and he agreed with me that it would be positive in creating change at Sycamore. I also gave an end of the year survey to teachers asking their opinions on having a technology committee next year and 15 of the 17 people who responded said yes. It is possible that if the committee is seemingly formed by the principal, and not someone pursuing their masters, members might take it more seriously and those joining would have a true vested interest in technology.
ACTION TAKEN: The action of this second cycle was to create a committee that would help me support the teachers in their implementation of technology in the classroom. The committee would meet once a month to discuss technology needs they see campus wide, ways to support the staff after professional development classes were offered, and to give the committee members a first glance at the upcoming professional development sessions. This would allow committee members to further support the staff on the day of the professional development training and after as they would be better prepared.
RESEARCH QUESTION: How will the creation of a technology committee affect the level of implementation of technology in the classroom?
PREDICTED OUTCOME: Due to the overwhelming response on the needs assessment, I expected to have a group of 10-15 teachers who would be interested in giving their own professional development classes and who would be eager to support their colleagues with technology implementation.
EVIDENCE USED TO EVALUATE THE ACTION: The evidence used to evaluate the action taken in this cycle was a sign in sheet to indicate the level of participation, the agenda of topics for the meeting to indicate the content of the meetings, and the notes taken during the meeting to help determine the quality of the interactions.
EVALUATION:
Frequency and level of participation:
The technology committee has met four times. The initial meeting was November 26th, 2012, followed by two meetings in December (5th and 18th) and the fourth meeting was held on February 11th, 2013. The meetings were held after school and snacks were provided at the first meeting. Initially I started off with 19 people who indicated on the needs assessment that they wanted to be a part of this technology committee. Once I sent out a follow up email it turned out that only 12 people were really interested. At the first technology meeting, held on November 26th there were eight people who attended. At our second meeting, held on December 5, there were only five out of the twelve who attended. At our third meeting on December 18th, six people attended, and at our most recent meeting on February 11th, only three attended.
At our initial meeting I explained to the attendees the purpose of the committee. I wanted our group to be a community that would help support other teachers in the integration of technology at Sycamore Canyon. It was my hope that they would want to give professional development classes to the staff to generate more sharing of knowledge among the staff. As our first meeting went along, it became fairly clear that the members of the group did not feel comfortable giving their own professional development, but that they would support me and serve as backups to assist during professional development classes.
A big topic at the first two committee meetings was the lack of technology and the lack of a school wide document that could be sent home to parents allowing their child to use technology and agreeing to the use of bring your own device (BYOD). It was a concern that each time a teacher wanted to use new technology in the classroom a new permission slip would need to be sent home, a process which can be extremely tedious. Another big issue that was brought up was the possibility of having school wide email accounts for the students. After checking into this with the district, I found out that next year each student will have his/her own secured email account through the district.
At the third meeting I pre-trained the committee members on Story Kit, an iPad app, which would serve as my first professional development class for the rest of the staff. The technology committee members were learning about this app ahead of time so that they would be there on the day of the professional development session to assist teachers and ultimately follow up later to assist with the actual implementation in the classroom.
At the most recent meeting we met to discuss the evaluation of the Story Kit professional development which was recently offered to the whole staff, analyze the feedback from the teachers who attended the Story Kit professional development session, brainstorm ways to help teachers implement Story Kit in the classroom, and brainstorm ways to get more teachers involved, as attendance for the professional development session was low.
REFLECTION: This cycle was more challenging than the first cycle. Getting people to respond to emails and attend meetings proved to be very challenging. In trying to understand why the attendance keeps declining, I’ve identified several possibilities. The most likely reason is that people are over committed. The majority of the people on this committee are also a part of leadership, school site council, ASB, UACT, or another committee that requires monthly meetings. While the meetings are not necessarily on the same day as my meetings (there was some overlap, however) the members of the committee are teachers who are dedicated to education and don’t have enough time for all commitments. Because my committee is completely voluntary, when other commitments conflict they are more likely to have to drop their participation.
The second reason people are not attending these meetings is simply because they forget. Despite my constant reminders, I have had several committee members come up to me the day after the meeting and apologize they didn’t come, they simply forgot. It seems that my method of communication is not as effective as I thought. Therefore, I may need to personally seek out each committee member and touch base with him or her the day before the meeting to verify that they are coming. I could also leave a physical note in the mailbox the day before to meeting as a reminder. I made an assumption that teachers checked their emails daily, and after realization, I now realize this may not be the case. Another possibility would be to include a reminder of my meeting in the morning announcements. This is something that is heard in every classroom every morning.
Lastly, a final possible reason for lack of attendance and effort is because the staff does not see the value in the committee. The teachers at Sycamore Canyon are extremely hard working and already put in a huge number of hours outside of their normal contractual hours. It is possible that because this committee is not coming from administration, or backed by the administration, that the teachers don’t take technology integration as a serious goal. The teachers need to be made aware of the commitment of the school to this goal of technology integration. If administration told them they were going to be required to use technology in their classes next year, this school wide goal might inspire more dedicated and regular participation. If the administration publically recognized and thanked them for this participation, perhaps they would be more interested and feel that their work was validated. I need some way for this committee to be more officially sanctioned.
It is also interesting to point out that at my first meeting I provided snacks for the staff, but did not do so at the following 3 meetings. I do not know if this had any effect on attendance or not. The reason I stopped providing snacks is simply because of cost. One of the committee members suggested that we should set up a “snack list” and have one member a month bring snacks for the session. I asked if she would take responsibility for this, but unfortunately we were never able to implement this practice. The most recent email I sent out reminding staff of the upcoming meeting asked if anyone wanted to bring snacks, but I received no responses.
Although this committee was not as successful as I wanted it to be, I do feel that it provided a strong basis for positive change next year. I recently met with my principal to discuss developing this committee further next year and he agreed with me that it would be positive in creating change at Sycamore. I also gave an end of the year survey to teachers asking their opinions on having a technology committee next year and 15 of the 17 people who responded said yes. It is possible that if the committee is seemingly formed by the principal, and not someone pursuing their masters, members might take it more seriously and those joining would have a true vested interest in technology.