A+Place+to+Start+3

Question #2 - part B

===**It’s five years from now… 2014… and we have worked to create the school that we are now only envisioning. (This is not an “every student comes to us knowing how to read” or a “no student ever gets into trouble” or an “every parent helps with homework” type of question. This is about what really can change.) **===

**What changes have we made?**
Intervention options will increase with this technology. Individual instruction plans will become easier to incorporate in all academic areas.(S. Rahm) There will be more differentiated instruction going on and the advances in technology will aid teachers in doing this.(E.Harris) This speaks to my comment above. (Susan Hayes) We will have easy access to **__any__** materials that are needed for the students we teach--whether it be technology resources, labs, or books. (J. Layman) As I stated in the previous question, I believe the new SOLID reading program that we have started will majorly show improvements in our reading scores, especially when the students who come in in kindergarten get the Scott Foresman format and skills build upon that knowledge every year through elementary school. This, I believe has been a change for the better. (Jessica Wimberley) We have made great progress in sharing ideas, working together, teaching each other, and this seems to be increasing. (E. Land) Hopefully the amount of paperwork will decrease so that teachers will have more time to actually teach. (H. Witt) The amount of paper work should change due to the increase use of computers through technology. This should be seen in both student worksheets and teacher data of the many forms that usually need to be filled out.Hopefully much of this pencil and paper work will be replaced with more use of technology.B. Spur More teacher work will be done on the computer. Informations will be shared more quickly with more people. Students will use more technology to help and improve skills. (E Lee) We are WIKI-ing, Elmo-ing,.com-ing, etc. These are definitely changes! (C.Hagemann) I agree with the fact that technology will improve skills because children of today are so much more technology minded. I do feel that we need to have better training and equipment before we can implement the use of technology in our classrooms. It is very frustrating to have 3 different types of technolgy training thrown at you in one day. I want to learn one thing at a time and do it very well before jumping to something else. Sometimes doing less but doing it very well is better.(K.Powell) Technology can be used to create partnerships with colleagues across the district, state and world. Proximity is not a prequisite for an effective collaboration. The fact that there is no teammate across the hall does not eliminate the possibility of powerful collaboration. (C. Riddlehoover) I agree with the statement above, we need to stick with one new concept/program and give it time to show results before we are thrown into something else. It is overwhelming for the classroom teacher to have so many new things at once and be expected to do them all well. Hopefully this will be a change in the future. (C. Bennich) We are all using the same reading series and pacing guides. We are teaching at grade level and making accomadations for remediation and enrichment. In my opinion, this is a positive step in meeting all of the students needs and encouraging faculties to work together. Technology will continue to change, so it is important in these difficult economic times that the right purchases are made. We have leadership in place to guide us in the future, but I do think it is important to consider how much is expected of each teacher. This career is overwhelming at times and there may be a real teacher shortage even in North Alabama if expectations become unreasonable. (I. Fisher) I would hope that each teacher will have the time to reach each student at his/her level and go from there. (Linda Wren) I think the most important change we have made is the change to a uniform reading series. With every school and every teacher using the same program, we should be able to see improvements across the different grade levels.(M. Brown) Technology will allow for more individualized interventions. (Thrasher)